We're following Denver gardener McKenna as she grows from seed to donation. McKenna will be donating homegrown produce to Kaizen Food Share through the Fresh Food Connect app, and is excited to share her garden adventures with our community!
"If we all give a little extra, together, we can bring about powerful change for our community."
November Garden Update: Reflecting on the Season
This month marked an official end to the 2024 growing season as I harvested my remaining green tomatoes and other miscellaneous produce items before the first fall frost. It’s a bittersweet time as I am sad to see the long summer days go, but ready to slow down a bit for the winter. I found myself reflecting back on the experience as a first time Fresh Food Connect donator, what worked well as a donation and other varieties I might try to donate next year.
At the beginning of the summer, we planted several pepper varieties in the hopes that we could share unique peppers with our community. Peppers next year will be the main grasshopper defense priority as we never had enough to donate. Most home gardeners plant zucchini as it’s easy to grow and very prolific, which makes it great for sharing. I will definitely plant some to share next year, and keep an eye out daily to ensure I don’t donate anything larger than my forearm. Fresh tomatoes were always exciting to see at the donation site and each week I noticed that there was a wide variety - from tiny yellow cherry tomatoes to beautiful heirloom varieties. Tomatoes are one of the top five requested food donation items, and for good reason. There really is no comparing the taste of a fresh, homegrown tomato to a store bought variety. Tomatoes are also something not seen in donations from grocery stores as they don’t store and travel very well.
Of course it’s impossible to completely control how well your garden produces, I often feel like I am starting from scratch each year. I am making plans now to sow extra seeds in the spring so I can continue donating commonly requested items, and crossing my fingers that mother nature and garden pests don’t sabotage my carefully laid plans. Throughout the course of this growing season I got more comfortable with the donation process, especially donating on weeks when the harvest was smaller. I continue to remind myself that even a few tomatoes or one extra zucchini might make the difference to one person - that might be the only fresh produce a community member tastes that week.
If you are unsure whether your actions can make an impact, or feel that your donation is too small to make a difference, consider this quote from Helen Keller - “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” If we all give a little extra, together, we can bring about powerful change for our community.
More about McKenna
Check out the amazing list of plants McKenna's growing this year
June: Why I'm planting with intention to share my harvest
July: Volunteering at a food distribution event
August: Adding variety with unique homegrown produce
September: How individual donations of homegrown produce come together to make a difference
McKenna is also a Fresh Food Connect "Giving GNOME"! Check out her G.N.O.M.E. chat and Join our Giving G.N.O.M.E. program here.
