Greetings fellow gardeners, last week was another productive harvest in the garden. We harvested over 900 lbs of produce last Saturday. Leading the way was our Yukon Gold potatoes coming in at over 350 lbs. We also found another small patch of red potatoes at 30 lbs. This week we dig up the last of our potatoes, 120 day Lehigh. Saturday we also plant for fall. Cabbage, Cauliflower and Broccoli plants all go in the ground this week. Beets and turnips also are on the schedule. After the potatoes are dug up, I will rototill the 2 rows and plant our fall crop of string beans. We will be trimming our onions this week too. They have been laying out under a tarp for 2 weeks drying out a little. I laid them out under our big maple tree to help keep them out of direct sunlight. Tomatoes are finally showing some life and turning red WOO HOO! Over 200 lbs harvested this week. But I am also seeing a lot of splitting. Not much you can do about that. I cannot give them away, a split tomato will usually rot before they are distributed. That's gardening. Can only control so much. Mother nature has the upper hand sometimes.  This week will be a heavy workload. Planting and harvesting the same day.  If you are interested in the garden but have never been out on a Saturday morning, this week would be the week. Just about everything is on the menu this week. The more hands that help the faster the work goes. Thank you to everyone who faithfully shows up each Saturday to help make this mission run as smoothly as it does. We will continue to grow good food for those who need it most. Steve 215-872-6616 [email protected]

Greetings fellow gardeners, this week was a warm one, but it looks like it could be a little less hot the next few days. We had rain this week several t-storms dropped about 1 1/2 inches of rain on the garden. Last Saturday we had a large crowd of volunteers, I stopped counting at 26 WOOHOO!  Our first potato dig was on the list, we dug up our red potatoes. Over 450 lbs WOW! That is amazing. We will dig up our Yukon golds this Saturday and the last potatoes will be the Lehigh. I am not getting too overconfident, but it looks like we could set a record with potatoes this year. This week will be the last harvest of cabbage and red beets. The beds will be reworked and next week we plant for fall. Tomatoes are just starting to turn. Harvested about 5 lbs this week. Starting to see a few splits already. Splitting happens when the tomato decides it is finished growing and is ready to turn. Then it rains and the plant sends water to the fruit and the skin splits open. Zucchini are still coming in along with eggplant. I took a walk down our Lima bean row looking for limas and there they were looking back at me. Not fully beaned out but they are well on their way.  The red corn is now over 8 feet tall and has started to tassel. Soon it will push out ears. This has not been the best year for our string beans. Only picked them 4 times and they are really suffering. Each year we have our victories and our disappointments. Gardening is never 100 % but we will still have a great harvest. Thank you to everyone who worked in the heat and humidity to get the harvest in. Steve 215-872-6616 [email protected]

Greetings fellow gardeners and the end to another hot and humid week. I have been running water everyday somewhere in the garden hoping to drag our plants through the heat. Some veggies are doing ok others are struggling. Last week we harvested our first green beans of the year. But I am afraid the beans will be short lived this year. The plants were stunted by excess water early in the spring and the smaller plants do not have the root system to pull in enough water to hold off the 90+ degree days. We will be planting extra beans for fall, hopefully with better results. This Saturday we start our potato harvest. We dig up our 90-day red potatoes. We planted 50 lbs. of Norland red seed potatoes in a 230-foot row and 25 feet in another row. Next week we dig up our Yukon gold. The last potatoes will be our Lehigh 110-day spuds. Our onions will be pulled this Saturday too. Eggplant is now on the menu as we wait for the tomatoes to decide to tun red. Red cabbage was harvested last week, we still have plenty of green cabbage waiting to be picked. We have about 2 weeks left of our spring veggies, then we redo the upper end and plant for fall. Usually, the last week in July or first week in August. 
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Thank you to everyone who helps out each week in the garden. Many hands make the work go fast even in 90-degree weather. Steve 215-872-6616 [email protected]

Greetings fellow gardeners, last Saturday I was not able to be at the garden. My son Micah and his fiancé Rachel were married. I had to jump into a suit and behave myself for a few hours. I had sent my volunteers a list of projects to accomplish, I was getting e-mails and texts telling me to relax they have it covered "We got this". Zucchini, cucumbers, red beets and cabbage all plentiful right now. This week we add string beans to the menu. Not really happy with the bean plants, at a very critical time we had a big 2 inch rain about 4 weeks ago. That soaked the area of the garden the beans are in. Beans do not like their feet wet and they sat in water for a while. The wet ground stunted their growth so about 3/4 of the green beans are short and not very bushy. We will harvest what they give us. We will dig up a bed of carrots this week too. Next week we start our potato harvest.  The early red potato plants are almost all dead and getting ready for digging. Always a fun time. We will harvest our onions next week to. I was able to pull all the old broccoli plants this week. Those beds will be reworked and replanted later this month.  Tomatoes are still green and do not want to ripen as fast as I would like. Always big anticipation waiting for that first ripe tomato! 
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Maybe it is looking through the fog of anxiety, uncertainty,  day to day hustle and bustle that I fail to see just how blessed I am and I fail to count the many blessings that have been given me. Last Friday was one of those days. We arrived at the Venue ,where my son would be married, with several cars packed full of stuff for the weekend. How is this going to work? But to my surprise we had people come from everywhere to help. My sister in laws, extended family and My wife were outstanding in their prep and hard work to make this occasion a success. My garden volunteers pulled off a Saturday morning with no hitches. I cannot be more thankful.  In Isaiah we read "But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint" WOW was I lifted up. Thank you to everyone reading this e-mail who helped out last week (garden and wedding prep) or attended Micah and Rachel's wedding. I am truly blessed to have this support group that surrounds me.  Steve 215-872-6616 [email protected]

Greetings fellow gardeners this week was another hot one in the garden. Monday was very windy; the wind really tore up some of the garden. I ran water everyday somewhere in the garden. Thank you, Jant L, for water duty this week. Last week we harvested over 130 lbs. of cabbage NICE! This was our early cabbage. Zucchini have really hit their stride with over 200 lbs. harvested so far. Cucumbers are picking up the pace and this week we add green peppers to the mix. Red beets are still plentiful. Our potatoes are starting to really die off now. The plants are telling us it will soon be time to dig them up. I think maybe 2 weeks. We may pull our onions at the same time. String beans are flowering, and I will be watching them closely waiting of the first stringers to show up. The seeds our peace campers planted last week have sprouted and I am watering them as much as needed to help keep them going in this heat. Every year we have volunteer plants that show up on their own somewhere in the garden. This year we have a huge pumpkin plant in my compost pile. A few sunflower plants and ground cherries have made their annual appearance. But the champion is our volunteer potatoes. Last year was the first year we planted potatoes on our boxed raised beds. In all the excitement of harvesting them a few were left behind.  These sprouted this spring and I have been digging them up as we harvest what was planted this year. So far, I have dug up over 20 lbs. of volunteer potatoes with more to come. WOW! 
Thank you to everyone who helps out in the garden. Steve, 215-872-6616, [email protected]
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​Greetings fellow gardeners there was a lot of heat this week, I have been running water everyday somewhere in the garden. So far so good. Thank you, Andy Alderfer, for helping out with water duty this week. Last week we had 25 volunteers on Saturday morning. A new record!! WOOHOO give yourselves a hand! To say the least we plowed through our work and were done in no time. We uncovered the last of our veggies, harvested Zucchini, Broccoli and red beets. This week we will add cabbage and cucumbers to the menu.  Our late run Broccoli is now in full head too. But the big news is our String Beans are flowering. Usually, 10 days after full flower we have string beans to pick. I can hear the cheers from here!  Wednesday evening there was a burst of energy in the garden. We were visited by two groups of Peace campers. After a brief tour both groups helped plant our Native American "Three Sisters Garden" Some of the seeds we used were sent to us all way from Oklahoma where our friends from the Lenape tribe live.  The campers also helped harvest a few carrots. Busy busy busy.... but fun!  This Saturday looks to be very hot. I am looking to get out of the garden as soon as we can. Harvest and process what we can and get home before the high heat sets in. That means no extra work this week. Get in and get out. Thank you to all who help out in the garden. It really is true how many hands make the workload light and go by fast. 

​Greetings fellow gardeners, this past week we ramped up our harvesting with Zucchini. Last Saturday we removed the insect netting from the zucchini, and it has been non-stop ever since. Around 30 lbs. harvested this week. Our early broccoli is finished, but the later broccoli is just starting the grow heads. Walking through the garden I noticed our early cabbage has some nice heads and maybe next week we harvest cabbage. Red beets will be on the menu this Saturday. We will remove the netting from the cucumbers and eggplant. I was able to start trimming some of the tomato plants. The corn seed from Oklahoma I planted has sprouted WOOHOO! It looks to be hot next week so I will be running water. The garden has been the center of many wonderful events to celebrate. This year is no exception. Two of our volunteers got married last week! Lewis Leiterman and Taylor (Tess) Strayer tied the knot and then came over to the garden to have pictures taken under the garden wedding trellis! Tess is the daughter of Gary and Sharon Strayer. Tess has been a volunteer ever since her Mom dragged her to the garden when she was in high school. When Tess met Lewis, she brought him along many Saturday mornings. Lewis is the Chef and co-owner of Rivertown Taps. A restaurant in Phoenixville. His time is focused on running a successful business, so his garden time is limited but he still is a big supporter of the garden. Congratulations and many blessings to our happy couple. Steve, [email protected] 215-872-6616

​Greetings fellow gardeners, Last week was another busy week in the garden. Saturday, we finished planting veggies for the summer. Yellow squash, extra cucumbers, a few fill in tomatoes and sweet potatoes, all made it into the garden. To the raised beds where we planted potatoes, we added a thick layer of mulch. This week we start the big job of caging our tomatoes and peppers. At last count we have over 800 cages. The real job is making sure you place the cage carefully in the ground and not right through the drip tape. I am not the best at fixing leaks. We will finish up our flower planting this week. We used quite a bit of mulch on the potatoes. My mulch pile shrunk enough that we will be able to move one of the compost bins over to that area, so we have move room when our new storage shed arrives. This Saturday we will harvest our first veggies of the season. Our Romaine lettuce is huge and needs to be picked. WOO HOO here we go! Next on the list looks like broccoli will be ready within a week or so. Red Beets are not far behind. Thank you to everyone who helps out in the garden. The entire garden looks fabulous.  Steve, [email protected] 215-872-6616

Greetings fellow gardeners last Saturday was a wet drippy damp day. A little on the cool side. Our volunteers worked their way through it, and we were able to plant 450 pepper plants and 110 tomato plants. The garden is really coming to life. The string bean seed and Lima bean seed we planted are up and running. I ran water every day when the sun finally came out and boy did it ever. HOT HOT HOT> I was able to hill our potato rows. Now we have to add some compost to the potato beds so when the spuds start to develop, they are covered and grow under the mulch. This week we will plant our sweet potatoes. You plant "slips" these are plants that grow out of a sweet potato and then vine out eventually forming sweet potatoes at the base of the original slip. Usually around 100 days to harvest. Flowers are on the menu too. 
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There are a lot of small jobs around the garden that need to be done all summer long. One of those jobs is weeding. Weeds never take a vacation and need to be delt with constantly. I am asking for volunteers to come in during the week and weed as much as you want. The raised beds are the most vulnerable followed by the plants in the plastic. Weeds find their way up through the holes we make to plant the plants.  Weeds pull nutrients and water away from our veggie plants and can stun the veggie plants growth if the weeds are not controlled. We do our best to hold the weeds down to a mild roar but a little help from our friends would be appreciated. Let me know if you are up to the challenge and we could work out a time that is right for you.  Thank you to everyone who helps out with this mission. Steve, [email protected] 215-872-6616

Greetings fellow gardeners, last Saturday we took another step towards a full garden. Tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, eggplant, string beans and lima beans all made it in the ground. The eggplant, zucchini and cucumbers were then covered with insect netting to keep the pests away from the young plants. The netting will stay on until the plants get too big and start to push up on the cover. This week we plant our green peppers and squash seeds. I still have some room for more tomatoes, so I bought 2 more flats. I was going to hold off on planting a large number of tomatoes, but I couldn't help myself. Who doesn't like a fresh grown garden tomato? If we have time, we will start to hill our potatoes and fertilize some of our spring veggies which are about halfway to harvest. I also planted one of our raised beds with red dry corn. The stalks get over 8 feet tall and the cobbs are a deep red color. The corn is then left to dry and can be ground into corn meal. Very tasty. I will also be planting some corn seed sent to us from the Lenape Nation in Oklahoma. This is also dried and used for flour or corn meal. We will also plant some squash seed sent from Oklahoma too. 
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Thank you to everyone who worked on their hands and knees to make sure all the plants made it in the ground. Not an easy job but our volunteers are the best. Steve, [email protected] 215-872-6616