grown in five 1-acre (43,560 sq. ft.) gardens. The soil is tilled in the spring before planting. Planting begins the first week of May, weather permitting, with transplants and continues through May. Broccoli, cabbage, eggplant, onion, pepper, and tomatoes are transplanted by hand or with a mechanical transplanter. Other crops are planted with seed, beginning with cold-tolerant crops.
Plots are tilled, hoed, and weeded from June until October. We pride ourselves on clean gardens. Eliminating weed competition enables us to get by without irrigation. In spite of a prolonged drought during August of 2003, we raised approximately 120,000 lbs of vegetables on 5 acres.
Harvest begins around the middle of July and continues until freeze-up in October. All produce is delivered to the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry or to the Community Action Coalition and to Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin for distribution to area food pantries. Volunteers do not receive any of the produce except for that which might not be acceptable for the food pantries (e.g., cracked tomatoes, squash bitten by gophers).
ng before planting. Planting begins the first week of May, weather permitting, with transplants and continues through May. Broccoli, cabbage, eggplant, onion, pepper, and tomatoes are transplanted by hand or with a mechanical transplanter. Other crops are planted with seed, beginning with cold-tolerant crops.