Second Delivery

Rivka sent out an email plea that there were cucumbers that needed to be picked NOW.

So I swung by and found 5 beautiful cukes. At several Ginaterites' approval I kept one for a Shabbos gazpacho at my house. But then I took the others to the Center for Food Action. I was unsure if 4 cucumbers were worth the delivery. It was hardly enough to divide up evenly for all the people I'm sure they serve.

I was there in time to see a few food bags being given to a woman. I don't know if they were for her family or if she was passing them on, but the man working there took two of the cucumbers and sweetly asked her if she'd like them. It was such a nice spark of kindness.

Press Release of First Harvest

Elyse Anderson sent out the following press release:

“THE LITTLE GARDEN THAT COULD”

A COMMUNITY TURNS A PASSION FOR ALL THINGS GREEN

INTO AN OPPORTUNITY TO FEED OTHERS.

##

The First Harvest from the Garden of Kehillat Kesher,

The Community Synagougue of Englewood & Tenafly

goes to the Center for Food Action.

August 19, 2009 (Englewood, N.J.) They call themselves the Green Shuls Committee and “green” they are, spreading the word to conserve, recycle ,use energy efficient light bulbs and organic household cleaning products. Their latest green message, “grow your own vegetables and share with your community”.

Ginat Kesher, (Kesher's community garden) was planted by its membership, both parents and children. The garden plot, located in the Wagner family’s Englewood backyard, (one of the growing synagogue’s 100 families), was prepped and tilled early one June Sunday and the following week the seeds, and plants were planted and the fence erected.

“It's been a fairly self sufficient garden, because we’re using the "paper" weed barrier, the tomato blight that's taken over the N.E. has not affected our crops. says member Rivka Miller. “Our blueberry bush produced a few berries, but we look forward to next year it being even bigger.“

When the volunteer farmers prepared to harvest, they thought about how best to distribute the food, should it be made available to the committee or entire membership. David Mark, chairperson of Kesher’s Green Shul’s Committee said, “The decision to give our crops away was easy, it’s what the Torah teaches us, the value of helping neighbors in need, we’re just happy to do our part”.

The first official harvest took place Sunday, August 16^th, 2009. “There are white and green beans, zucchini, eggplants, cucumbers and tomatoes as well as some herbs like dill, cilantro and oregano”, says member Yitzkak Gittelman. Most of the food will be donated to the Center for Food Action in Englewood.

That bug is no bug!

Contacted a friend of mine and got an email from Yitz and both confirmed what we kind of thought... that the "bug" was actually just a shedded exoskeleton of a cicada. Way cool. Still creepy looking.

Hello cucumbers

A quick visit to the garden today with Rivka. There wasn't much to do... few weeds, but also not much to pick yet.

I learned that cucumbers grow out of the flowers and are very tiny and spiny looking, like caterpillars. Also the tomatoes are starting to look green and round and there was one big beautiful green pepper.

There was also an ENORMOUS bug of some kind that we didn't like the looks of. Are sending out the photo (however blurry) to a friend for help with identification.

Planting

Fallen a bit behind here... technical difficulties

From Ginat Kesher

From Ginat Kesher

From Ginat Kesher

The veggies and herbs were planted on Sunday, June 28th. They included:

Tomatoes (heirloom, sweet million cherry)
Zucchini
Green Beans,
Cucumbers
Peppers
Radishes
Basil
Cilantro
Dill
Rosemary
Mint
Flat Leaf Parsley

Now it's just a matter of waiting. No point in weeding or harvesting if nothing is growing yet! We're keeping a Google Calendar together where members can just post when they're available to work on the garden.

For pics see this flier.

Ground Breaking

I personally know almost nothing about gardening and was a little nervous today as we got started. We began with just a chunk of ground. Several members had surveyed the space already (including those who own the property!) and tested the soil.

The first step was tilling the soil. In other words, we had to turn the grass upside down and get to the dirt. We had to pick up and toss rocks, brick, roots and other hard debris that was underneath.

One person would use the tiller as others shoveled and raked.



Once the ground was pretty well dug up, we flattened it out with rakes and put compost on it (the dark stuff). It was bought in bags at the store rather than schlepped from people's personal compost heaps.

On top of that we put biodegradable paper to keep the weeds down. The kids had fun putting the rocks on it to keep it down.

After all that, it was time to put up the fence. By now, I was exhausted, but those who still had any wind left managed to pull this off.

All this took about 4 hours.

Next week... planting.

Who We Are

Ginat Kesher.

It's a garden begun by members of Kehilat Kesher, a modern Orthodox synagogue in Tenafly/Englewood, NJ. It was begun by several of us from the "Green Shuls Committee".

How'd we get this crazy idea?

For two previous years we participated in a CSA (Consumer Supported Agriculture) program during the summer, purchasing shares of vegetables from a local organic farmer.

Our goals:
-to support a local farmer
-to have organic produce
-to cut down the "food miles" our vegetables traveled
-to reduce the distance between our food's origins and our mouths, thereby helping us and our children to be more sensitive and aware where our food comes from!

However, our farmer was no longer available this year.

So, with a committee of just a few people with some diverse skills (a good people organizer, a couple of experienced gardeners, some folks who like directing kids and a bunch more people willing to go along for the ride) we decided to plant our own.

We're starting modestly this year and hope that in future years we can expand.

Whatever we grow, we'll eat, bring to shul, or donate.