Greetings, the numbers have been crunched...
Zucchini - 1,033 lbs. We were still harvesting in October WOW!
Cucumbers - 336 lbs. Arrived early but did not fare well - disease and bugs got to them.  
Green Peppers - 1,572 lbs. Really nice year for peppers; just kept on producing all the way to frost
Tomatoes - 5,701 lbs. Better than last year, still our most popular veggie
Eggplant - 313 lbs. Nice harvest from 50 plants
Yellow String Beans - 59 lbs. Planted less than other years but they just did not grow as good as I would have liked 
Green String Beans - 567 lbs. Summer plants gave out early, fall plants did well, also a half row did not germinate. 
Potatoes - 1,062 lbs. A new record! Planted 3 different types of potatoes, 2 yellow and 1 red all did well.
Butternut Squash - 25 lbs. Planted just 2 raised beds 
Sweet Potatoes - 202 Lbs. Very nice but the gophers had a feast with several of the bigger potatoes.
Honey Nut Squash - 32 lbs. Seeds did not germinate as well as other years 
Broccoli - 168 lbs. Fall harvest was better than spring harvest
Cabbage 1,756 lbs. Not a record but a nice harvest; the dry weather kept the heads smaller
Red beets - 208 lbs. Not bad but several beds did not produce as well as expected. Planted both red and golden beets
Carrots - 57 lbs. Only planted a spring crop.
Onions - 750 lbs. Our onions were smaller than other years.  
Hot Peppers (Jalapeño) 72 lbs. Very hot this year; used in our salsa
Lima beans - 128 lbs. Planted further apart this year; the plants bushed out and did well.
Cauliflower - 212 lbs. Lost quite a few; they bolted early
Lettuce 240 lbs. Around 60 heads. Lost several to wilting. The heads we harvested were beautiful. 
That is the harvest for 2024. We did harvest some dry corn and a few ground cherries. The total comes to 14,493 lbs. Better than last year and a goal to shoot for in 2025. Thank you to all who supported the garden mission this season. See you in 2025! ​

Greeting fellow gardeners. The cleanup continues. Last Saturday we pulled all the string beans, lima beans, eggplant and half the pepper plants. This week I was able to pull the remaining tomato and pepper plants. The tomato plants will go in the field away from the garden. All the other plants will be chopped up into compost to be used back in the garden. 
We still have a few cabbages left to pick. Two more weeks and then all harvesting will be done. After we finish, I will total up the numbers and send out our final amounts for the season. Always a very anticipated email.
We will be cleaning and stacking all 800 tomato cages. When that is finished, we pull up the plastic mulch and drip tape. Then I will start to chop up leaves from the church grove. I already have 4 piles waiting for me to start. Cleanup is just as big a job if not bigger than setting up the garden in the spring and summer. 
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Thank you to all the volunteers who continue to come out and help each and every week. The jobs don't get done by themselves. It takes a dedicated crew to make this mission run. 

​Greetings fellow gardeners, well all good things must come to an end. Wednesday morning Mother nature teased us with a slight frost. Thursday morning, she hit hard with a killer. All the summer plants were hit by the frost. I was able to glean as many peppers as I could, but the remaining string beans and lima beans are done for the year. Eggplant also was killed back. Cabbage is still good. Cabbage can withstand even a heavy freeze. From here on in until Thanksgiving we clean up the garden and put it to sleep for the winter. Plants need to be pulled, tomato cages stacked and cleaned and last the plastic and drip lines pulled up. When that is all done. I will start my compost chopping. Chopping up all the pulled plants into compost. Then I will chop up the leaves from the church grove to be used all next summer for more composting. Still a lot of work to do until closing. 
Thank you to all of our volunteers who show up each Saturday to help make this mission as successful as it is.

​Greeting fellow gardeners, the fall cleanup has begun. This week I was able to pull 1 row of tomatoes plants. I also went through and gleaned off all the tomatoes from the remaining plants. Red, yellow, GREEN and mush. I have a box at the end of the church parking lot with green tomatoes in. We have been offering free green tomatoes for quite a number of years. Amazing how many people stop and take some. Cauliflower is all harvested, the last 2 weeks was a whirlwind of activity as the cauliflower came in fast and furious. I was harvesting cauliflower and broccoli every day. I never had veggies come in that fast and all at once like this year.  This Saturday cabbage will be on the menu again. We should be harvesting cabbage all the way to the end.  
You may or may not have noticed but our wedding trellis was over grown this year. I planted bird house gourds. They went wild. We will be picking them, setting them in the garage for several months to dry. When they are dry we can paint them or turn them into bird houses. These gourds were grown by the native Americans just for the purpose of attracting purple martins to their villages. Really cool. String beans and lima beans round out our Saturday morning.
I was away last Saturday We had a wedding in Ithaca New York. Beautiful country up there. 
Thank you to all the volunteers who helped out in my absence. The weather is turning cooler with frost just around the corner....maybe... 

Greetings fellow gardeners and welcome to September. The season has flown by. We still have veggies on the menu just a little less, but our fall produce is chugging right along. Tomatoes are still producing but at a much lower rate. The last of our Roma  tomatoes will be picked this week. Green peppers are still coming in some are turning red. Our fall planting of string beans is in full flower WOO HOO even with the deer nipping off the tops of the plants, in about 10 to 12 days we will have string beans. Our pole string beans are about 5 feet up the trellis on their way to 7-8 feet. Eggplant and Zucchini are still showing up. I noticed our cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower had a few cabbage moth loppers, so I took care of those pests. Sunday August 25th the garden sponsored Rev. Dr. Matt Lenahan from Lancaster the director and coordinator of the Wittle farm.  Matt talked about how man was created by God from the land. We have become separated from the land and do not know where our food comes from or how to grow our own food. Afterwards I took Matt on a tour of our garden. It was great to talk "SHOP" with someone who does what we do. We discovered we both know someone who works at a farm dedicated to donating their produce. Small world!  This week we will be doing a lot of the same, pick, weed, repeat. Our Sweet potatoes are almost due I think next week we will dig them up.  Last year the deer chewed them down so much they never produced. This year I covered the beds with netting keeping Bambi at bay. Last weekend Lory and I were able to visit our grand kids down in Virginia. Thank you to all the volunteers who showed up and kept the produce flowing while I was away. Steve 215-872-6616 [email protected]

Greetings fellow gardeners, well we go from 99 degrees 100% humidity to the 50s in a week, wow does this feel good. The garden is still chugging along. This past week our Roma tomatoes hit full stride and I was picking by wheel barrow full each time out.  Some of our round tomatoes have reached the end of the season but a few will hang on until fall. Peppers have slowed down and we pulled our summer string bean plants just too many bugs they really did a number on the plants this year. I was too late in treating them. This week was SALSA week. WOO HOO last Sunday a hardy group cleaned and cut up tomatoes, green and hot peppers, onions and a little garlic. Monday morning the batch was delivered to Bauman's in Sassamansville. I picked up the jars Tuesday and we will let the volunteers decide Saturday how hot or mild it is.  Thank you to Lory Blank, Donna and Steve Barndt for their help with the prep work and delivery. 

This Sunday we have a special event planned and you are all invited. 

The Salford Mennonite/Advent Lutheran Garden will host on Sunday, August 25, 2024. Around 11:30, garden volunteers and other congregation members from both congregations will enjoy each other's company in the Gathering room at Salford for a picnic lunch (bring your own) and presentation. 

The presentation will be led by Rev. Dr. Matt Lenahan. He is an ELCA pastor in Lancaster as well as director of the Wittel Farm (Elizabethtown). He has advocated for connecting with Christian stewardship of God's creation to the call to feed the hungry. His research includes understanding agricultural science and business practices. 

​The event will include a presentation and picnic lunch (brought by each attendee), with beverages and dessert supplied. We will also try and include a tour of the garden. (Check out the new shed) If you want to attend, please get back to me, Jean Godsall Myers or Brad Alderfer so we know how much to prepare and set up for. Thank you, Steve 215-872-6616 [email protected]

Greetings fellow gardeners, this week was peak time for tomatoes. Including todays harvest we picked over 1,400 lbs. of toms this week. That's a lotta BLTs! But with 3 3/4 inches of rain last Thursday/Friday, the tomatoes started to split and with the damp weather they are more susceptible to diseases. String beans are on their last hurrah, but our fall planting is flying right along! The cucumber beetles have finally done in the Zucchini. Our summer plants are slowly fading into the Summer sunset. I do have a few cucumber plants that I hope will produce in September. Hot and Green peppers continue to be plentiful. The tropical storm that moved through last week had some high winds that knocked over our wedding trellis.  I have Bird house gourds planted there this year. They have grown so big and heavy we had to retie the trellis to posts and brace the sides with wooden boards. There are quite a few gourds on the vines. Our fall plants are looking good, but a few insect pests have found their way into that part of the garden, but a little TLC took care of that problem. Summer is slowly winding down; fall will be here before you know it. Think about it we are only 60 days away from our average first frost date. My how time fly's. Thank you to everyone who worked in the garden so far this season, this year we have had a fair amount of rookie volunteers. GREAT to see! always enjoy a new face. Steve 215-872-6616 [email protected]

Greetings fellow gardeners last Saturday was a hot and humid morning in the garden. That did not stop our volunteers from finishing one last big project. After we harvested all our potatoes and onions, we had 2 - 230-foot rows of weeds. I roto-tilled as much as I could but the bulk of the weeds had to be raked up and hauled out by the wheelbarrow full.  After the weeds were removed I roto-tiled the 2 rows one more time, raked them smooth and planted 2 rows of string beans. What a surprise this Wednesday as I discovered almost all the beans had spouted or were pushing up dirt trying to get some sun. WOO HOO. We also planted turnips and red beets. Both are looking good. The biggest story of the week be sides over 600 lbs. of tomatoes harvested, is our new shed arrived Thursday morning. After many years of planning the garden has its own place to store its equipment and supplies. There are a lot of people to thank for this. First all of the garden lovers who donated a record amount of funds at our annual fund raiser this year. That overwhelming response put us in position to start the process. Thank you to Salford Church Board for approving the remaining funds needed for purchase. Gene Kropf gets a big thank you for his patience in obtaining our work permit from the Township. Our new shed sits on a gravel pad that was installed by an outside company who specializes in this type of work. When I ordered the shed the price for the pad was added into the final cost. When the pad installer surveyed the site where the shed would go, they discovered the area had a small slope and that would increase the cost of installation. Money, I had not planned on spending. But to my surprise and with great gratitude I was told a donor, who shall remain anonymous, paid the extra cost. No questions asked. WOW! It will take a few weeks to sort out all our stuff maybe install some shelving.  Thank you to everyone who had a hand in making our new garden shed a reality. There are housewarming parties maybe we should have a garden shed warming party. Steve 215-872-6616 [email protected]

Greetings fellow gardeners, last Saturday we planted our fall plants. Cabbage, Cauliflower and Broccoli. Then this week it turned into a scorcher again. Young seedlings are very susceptible to heat. I have been watering as much as I can to keep the young plants from frying in the high heat. So far out of 630 plants we may have lost 3 so far. I will continue to water as much as I can until we get a little rain.  The planting was a big job along with harvesting. We dug up the last of our potatoes, over 160 lbs. And they are really nice. We trimmed the onions and somehow fit all that into our small cooler shed.  The onions got a little wet and we have been losing a few to spoilage. I will have to come up with better solution to dry them next year. Tomatoes are looking really nice. I have not watered them in a couple of weeks and along with no rain the splitting has all but stopped. I will eventually have to run the water at least to give their roots a wash.  Even with a good group of volunteers we were unable to finish all of what I wanted done. Just too much work to go around. We did not plant our red beets, turnips or fall string beans. I am hoping to get that done this week. The summer string beans are in full flower again, hopefully that will lead to a second harvest from these plants. Eggplant, Lima beans, Green peppers and Zucchini round out the harvest menu. You may have noticed our new pad next to the garden. This is where our new shed will be placed next week. 

Thank you to everyone who worked in the heat and humidity to get our fall planting done. August can be a hot one too, I am very thankful for the volunteers who are willing to put in the time when the heat is on!  Steve 215-872-6616 [email protected]