'Grow-a-Row' takes root in Hamilton

Garden enthusiasts at St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church in Hamilton decided to dream away the winter blahs by planning a vegetable garden. The goal was to help supply fresh produce for the growing list of families that rely on the Hamilton Food Cupboard and to share with parishioners and friends.

The garden idea germinated last fall when Michael Pollan, journalism professor at UC Berkeley, suggested the next president of the United States plant a garden on the White House lawn. As we’ve already seen, the Obamas have met that challenge.
A “Reader’s Digest” article helped too by featuring a story about a New Jersey family who started small, yet have seen their idea – “Grow-a-Row” – yield over 250,000 pounds of fresh produce for food banks in 2008. That’s 125 tons of food!

Hamilton Food Cupboard has expanded its food outreach by teaming up with local farms to supply fresh vegetables in season, but also worked with local organizations with greenhouses to start vegetables transplants for clients, Page Seeds in Greene for free seeds, and a firm that provides free garden tools.
At St. Thomas’ Deede and McEwan van der Mandele donated a 30’ x 80’ garden plot – 1/20th of an acre – on their farm. The group then enlisted the help of Heritage Farm and Morrisville State College to start the peppers and tomatoes. Tom Furner, a farmer in the neighborhood, has agreed to do the plowing.

The Shooting Stars 4-H Club recently cleared the corn stalks and donations of compost, money for seeds, and mulch hay have already come in. And thanks to the generosity of the new Tractor Supply Store, the project has plenty of vegetable seeds to plant.

The group has mapped the garden, which includes tomatoes, potatoes, beets, beans, spinach, carrots, summer and winter squash, and peppers. They expect to develop a work schedule once it’s warmer and the spinach, carrots, and beets can go in.