Harvest yields 80 kilograms of food for Port Cares
Eighty-kilograms of zucchini, lettuce, kale, radishes, onions, carrots, peppers, beans and swiss chard was delivered to Port Cares Reach Out Centre Wednesday, helping fill the food bank’s shelves with fresh produce.
It marked the second delivery of the year from the Lockview Park Community Garden, which has eight, 8x16-foot raised plots split between Port Cares and local families.
“The garden is growing beautifully … we have a lot to harvest today,” said Iron Earth Canada’s Sarah Lacharity during a community harvest.
Vegetables were planted near the end of May and Lacharity picked and donated more than 30 kilograms of food just a couple of weeks back because of how quickly things were growing on the plots.
“Things were growing quicker than expected … it’s already an amazing yield. I’m kind of excited to see how much we get,” she said, adding there will be another harvest in the fall.
The garden, now in its second growing season, came out the management team from the Iron Earth, Raw Materials Company and Marine Recycling Corp. family of companies who wanted to give everyone the opportunity to eat healthily.
“It’s nice to have help to pick everything,” said Lacharity, as she was joined by City of Port Colborne staff and a councillor, Mayor John Maloney and some of his grandchildren, and residents from the community.
One of those who helped harvest Wednesday was Darlene Sherk.
“I read about this in the newspaper and thought it would be a good way to come out and help the community,” Sherk said.
Sherk said she has a very small garden at home, a raised bed with a few tomato plants.
Asked what she thought of the community garden, Sherk said, “It’s awesome … a wonderful idea.”
Also helping was Port Colborne Horticultural Society president Margaret Tanaszi.
Tanaszi was there when the garden was planted this past May and said she’s been working with Lacharity on promoting good soil use through Iron Earth.
Lacharity said the community garden, located off of Lock Street, is a great place for families to gather and learn about gardening, garden together and support each other.
She said the families who have plots in the garden harvested various vegetables and donated the rest of what was in their plots to Port Cares.