Extra Row, Year Two!

Dave here:

Year two of the Extra Row Project with farmers Tucker Andrews and Charlie Siegchrist has been completed!

In June, Tucker Andrews laid down plastic and planted 400 feet of butternut squash for TTJ volunteers to tend, harvest and deliver to food agencies at the end of the summer. We had great weather for working in the fields this summer and early fall, weeding in July and harvesting in early October before the first frost. There were about ten volunteers on each work day, so we were able to complete the tasks in about an hour; many hands made the work light and fast!

It was a great experience working with Tucker and seeing the final results, with over 2400 pounds of butternut squash grown, weeded, picked and transported to five food agencies in Chittenden County.  While the majority of squash were donated to Feeding Chittenden in Burlington, others were delivered to the Janet S. Munt Family Room, Williston Food Shelf, Heavenly Food Pantry at the First Congregational Church in Essex Junction, as well as two deliveries to the Jericho-Underhill-Essex Ecumenical Food Shelf. In all, 880 squash were harvested and donated.

Special thanks to the TTJ volunteers that assisted in the weeding, picking and delivering the squash to the food agencies. They include: Jeff York, Bill McMains, Amy and Steve Ludwin, Mary Bibb, Geoffrey Cole, Irene Wrenner, Burt Lindholm, Bob Savaglio, Barb Lindburg, Jessica Dion, Jason Gallet, Barbara Frankowski, Laura Markowitz and Anne Clift.

As Val Gabert of the Heavenly Food Shelf said, “...without all of you working together in support of each other, this opportunity would not be available.” Thank you Tucker, for again making the Extra Row Project possible!

Charlie Siegchrist of Barber Farm in Jericho Center joined The Extra Row Project this year, supporting the Essex-Jericho-Underhill Ecumenical Food Shelf’s  distribution day. Thanks to Joanna Weinstock for providing us with additional volunteers to pick those sumptuous green beans in July- the bean bushes were overflowing with beans and several bushels were picked with plenty of volunteers to complete the task.  

With such an abundance of beans, a few volunteers showed up again a few days later to provide additional bushels, this time delivered to the Janet S. Munt Family Room in Burlington for their families. Thank you to Charlie for planting and tending those beans and joining the Extra Row Project!
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