Dave here:  Transition Town Jericho and their volunteers have completed the picking and distribution of the butternut squash you grew for the Extra Row Project.
The harvesting took about an hour, with 18 volunteers and a pick up truck Saturday October 1st.  We piled them at the end of the row ready to distribute to local food shelves.
Over the next 14 days the squash was distributed to local food shelves and other distribution points.  Each squash was wiped down and counted as they were boxed for each distribution.
The distribution was as follows, preceded by count of squash delivered:
500 Janet S. Munt Family Room
140 Jericho Underhill Food Shelf
125 Williston Food Shelf
 30 Colchester Food shelf
130 Essex UCC church Heavenly Food Pantry
 50 Aunt Dot's Place
 10 Jericho Center food shed
 40 Jeri-Hill Seniors
130 Feeding Chittenden  (375 pounds)

1155 squash distributed,
3,234 pounds of squash, if the average weight is 2.8 lbs each.

Special thanks to Jeff York and Heidi and Steve Klein for helping Dave and Laura transporting squash to distribution centers.

Here are the squash as they are delivered and displayed, ready for taking home to eat!

Dave here:  as a follow up to the Kids Garden Contest, Transition Town Jericho Team visited some of the winner's gardens in August and September to see how they did during this growing season.  The kids were very excited to show off their gardens and tell the TTJ team about their experiences.  Below are some pictures of the kids with their gardens and a few words about what they learned.

Aiden and Charlotte were very excited to show off their garden.  Charlotte and Aiden had a healthy garden filled with Snap Peas, Cucumbers, Beans with some Marigolds and Cosmos flowers.
The Snap Peas, and Beans were producing, and the first good sized cucumbers were harvested while we were visiting.  Also was able to snack on pea pods and beans during the visit.
They said they liked growing a garden and would do it again next year and  would not do anything different next year, but maybe less flowers.

Juniper grew Cherry and Large tomatoes, cucumbers and flowers.  Oliver (not pictured) grew Hen and Chicks.
They sold some of the vegetables at their farm stand along side the road.  The proceeds go to the Smiley school.
Juniper would tell others her age that gardening was pretty easy, and that they should do it too.
Next year Juniper wants to do all flowers in her garden!

Vera loved having a garden.  She has her eye on a much larger piece of property, currently an overgrown field, that she wants to turn into flowers and start a business selling them.  She definitely wants to garden next year, and she would definitely encourage her friends to give it a try.

Kids garden visit with Ronin, Bodie, and Jackson (back to front),
We were greeted by Viking helmeted very excited kids to show us their garden.
They grew Dino Kale, red Russian Kale, Carrots, cucumbers, peas that were climbing up some string. 
They tried the square foot garden technique which was good early in the garden, but got too much growing in the space
They liked growing the garden, especially the snap peas.  Liked watching the cucumbers grow.  Peppers in the middle of the garden were not growing well, maybe too crowded?
Would like to plant a garden next year, would like to grow watermelon, pumpkin, carrots.

  Maddie referred to her garden as a jungle.  The garden was well covered with dwarf sunflowers, much taller than she!  She was also surprised that the garden got so crowded with all her plants.
She had a lot of fun with the garden and will do it again next year.
She would not allow the plants to spread and not plant as many wildflowers. 
Next year she will plant flowers to attract butterflies.

Cally grew Arugula, Kale,  lettuce, cherry tomatoes and lemon cucumber, as well as greens and Thai basil.  she also grew Zinnia as well.
She found that using newspaper under the soil did a great job keeping the weeds down.
Next year to grow more herbs in the garden as it is close to the kitchen and quickly accessible.  Add lettuce and beets and little pumpkins.

Dave here:

On October 1st, 18 volunteers with a pickup truck went into Tucker Andrews field and picked butternut squash that he had planted in June.  There were hundreds of squashes spread over a row that was 40 yards long.  

With 18 ready hands, we got to work loading the squash in small boxes and onto the truck to deliver to the staging area near the entrance to the field.  From that staging area, we will load the squash to drive to different food shelves in Chittenden County.

​After about 45 minutes of cutting stems and carrying squash the field was cleaned and squash piled at the end of the field.  At best count we estimated there to be approximately 1000 squash picked.

The adage, “many hands make light work”, was truly the message of the day.

Thanks to the volunteers: Geoff, Katy and Hunter Cole, Reed and Chris Simms, Heidi Klein, Anne and Dave Clift, Laura Markowitz, Bob Savaglio, Joanne Weinstock, Lisa Walker, Barb Lindburg, Tom Costello, Danielle Thiery, Pearce Sweeney, Chantal deLaBruere OConnor and Jeff York.

Over the next few weeks the squash will be delivered to food shelves in Jericho, Williston, Colchester and Burlington, Vemont.