PORT TOWNSEND — “Cultivating Community” will be the topic of the next presentation in the Yard &Garden Series, scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
The lecture will be at the Port Townsend Community Center, 620 Tyler St.
This is the third in a six-week series sponsored by Jefferson County Master Gardeners. It occurs every Saturday morning until Feb. 13.
Tickets for the six-lecture series are $50, while $12 single tickets will be available at the door if space is available.
This Saturday, Judith Alexander will speak about two efforts she has pursued in the past few years: motivating neighborhoods to start cooperative community food gardens and initiating a local food system council to assist Jefferson County in establishing food security.
Most of the more than 25 neighborhood community gardens are collectively planted and collectively harvested, contrary to the more common pea patch model where people garden their own individual small plots, significantly limiting options for crop variety, Alexander said.
“People can learn from each other, learn to share, accept each other’s gifts and talents, as well as limitations,” she said.
“More than food is grown in these gardens.”
Lys Burden will speak for the Jefferson County Food Bank Farm &Garden nonprofit organization. She has worked on behalf of the volunteer food gardening efforts for local food banks for the past five years.
Local gardens dedicated to growing fresh, organic vegetables specifically for food banks have been very productive, Burden said. They have delivered a total of 16,500 pounds of freshly picked produce during that time. Recent productions have reached more than 5,000 pounds annually.
Zach Gayne will speak about the Port Townsend High School garden.
The garden has increased in size throughout the past several years and is starting to produce food for the district’s food services as well as its culinary arts classes.
Ninth-grade students are in the garden once a week throughout the school year and are actively caring for the soil, as well as planting and harvesting — and eating.
In the 2016 growing season, the garden produced more than 2,000 pounds of vegetables and berries, Gayne said.
The garden is also beginning to compost food waste generated in the school kitchen.
“There is a great deal of optimism and support within the school district for furthering our gardening education efforts,” Gayne said.
Karen Kastel is the food recovery/gleaning coordinator for Food Justice Jefferson County, a program of WSU Extension Jefferson County.
She and a group of volunteers go out into the fields of small farms and glean produce, picking what’s left over after the farmer’s harvest.
The food is distributed to four food banks in the county, senior meal programs in Port Townsend and the Tri-Area Community Center in Chimacum, Jefferson County YMCA Program summer meals, Jefferson County Mental Health, Dove House and the Boiler Room.
Seth Rolland co-founded Quimper Community Harvest, a local fruit tree gleaning group, in 2008 with Cathie Wier and Judy Alexander.
Over the past nine years, more than 40 volunteers have harvested excess fruit from local trees, delivering 68,000 pounds of fresh, local, organic fruit and vegetables to schools, food banks and seniors, Rolland said.
The 2017 Yard &Garden brochure with information about each presentation and a ticket purchase form is available at www.jcmgf.org.
For more information about the Jefferson County Master Gardeners, visit www.jcmgf.org or phone Susan Cronshaw at 360-301-2081.
