Plant a Row of Awesome!

SO ... the results are in for Plant a Row for the Hungry. For comparison: last year we raised about 3,000 lbs. of food donations. Our all time high from the previous six years is about 5,000 lbs. (2010 I think. One year it snowed 10" and we still got 800 lbs.)

Our 2012 total is OVER 7,000 POUNDS!!!

Saturday was unbelievable. The nursery was packed with people bearing cans to donate to the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma. A few people declined the free tomatoes because their beds weren't ready but they wanted to bring a donation. One woman had heard on Channel 8's "Good Day Tulsa" that the Food Bank needed peanut butter and brought a case. There were seniors working on a community garden at their retirement community. Young families. New gardeners. People who had contributed every year except the year it snowed. People who had never been to Southwood before.

And my favorite - people who had heard the buzz about our Farm & Market and wanted to know more. Even with the demonstration called off, we had about 45 people at the vegetable and plasticulte class at the Market House.

The most touching arrivals, for me personally, were the people who had known former Jenks 3rd grade teacher Mrs. George, whose home has become the Education Center at the Southwood Market seen in the pictures below. Mrs. George's father, one of Jenks' first mayors and proprietor of its first general store, George's Cash Store, built it in 1920. Mrs. George never married, taught in the Jenks Schools for 60 years, and lived in the house until she passed away at age 100 in 2010.

The residents of Jenks have watched us remodel the house over the past year, without changing the exterior. Several have commented they were sure when she passed away that it would have to be torn down, and were grateful that we had saved it. We even refurbished the original front door and her interior "parlor" doors, the only parts of the interior we could salvage. It was not in good shape.

Dad, Emmie, my daughters Audrey and Catherine, and my husband Joe on the back patio.
Dad is explaining the Farm & Market project to the attendees.
The map on the left is the market, and the right one is the farm.

Emmie Sherry demonstrates how to build a vertical veggie & herb garden with a recycled pallet.

Micah Anderson shares the benefits of Plasticulture gardening, in a surprisingly funny presentation.
I love a good Power Point slideshow when the speaker is knowledgable about the subject and a genuine and genial person.
He had pictures of himself picking cotton on his family's farm when he was 6, and pointed out a crooked row in one of the plasticulture pictures saying, "My daddy would have made me re-do that one."

Tables of tomatoes. In exchange for one donation to the Food Bank, people got to take home one tomato plant.
If you've never been inside Southwood, this is one of about 6 huge greenhouses at the store.
And this is less than half of the room. You should totally go see it.

 KRMG's "OK Foodie" program taped live at the store on Saturday.
Dan and Amanda (aka The Cheese Wench and a longtime friend of my sister's) do a great program on local food and restuarants every Saturday at 2:00. Here they're interviewing Southwood's fruit tree guru, Chase Couch.

That's Audrey and Ozzie (the Osmocat - nursery humor - Osmocote is a fertilizer - yeah.)
Ozzie wants everyone to go away. Especially Audrey.
My kids have been known to carry him away from his cozy spots into other spots that are not cozy.