It’s HOT, but OFE Growers keep on

The record hot summer has not slowed the gardens or the OFE gardeners.  Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, a contingent of gardeners gets up early and tends to the tasks of the gardens and orchards.  Despite problems with irrigation systems, a total lack of rain and searing sunshine every single day, the diligent gardeners have produced a bountiful crop.  Since August 1, the start of the accounting year, the gardens have produced nearly 200 pounds of cucumbers, eggplant, grapes and okra, along with peppers and other small fruits.  For the 2022-23 year (last August until July 31) the gardens yielded more than 3000 pounds, most of which went home with students, but a significant amount was canned by busy volunteers. 

Hal Opperman and his fellow laborers, Eric Vogl and Denton Langridge, replace the lining in the compost bin on the hottest day of the year.
A new herb bed is ready for filling and replanting

Summertime also means repairs and maintenance, so during this hot summer, the OFE laborers have built a new herb planter, replaced the lining in the compost bin, dug irrigation trenches, repaired a shed door and a long list of other routine maintenance tasks

Meanwhile, in kitchens across the area, busy cooks have canned the summer bounty into 34 different jams and sauces–over 1000 jars in all.  This year, Diane Wolf enlisted the Kingwood Women’s Club to help out the OFE with weekly canning days.  There are still over 300 jars left for sale:  an inventory list and order form can be found on the OFEGrowers website.   

 

With the right amount of water, sweet potatoes grow into the fall when they are harvested by students. The sprinklers required extensive renovation in the bed over the summer

 

Sally Koetzer weighs the weekly eggplant harvest, which she makes into the eggplant salsa sold by OFE Growers.
Patti Muhlberger picks muscadine grapes, a crop that ripens in the hottest part of the summer. The grapes become jam in the kitchens of OFE volunteers.
Dianne Wolf waters seedlings by hand, because as is often the case, the irrigation system was malfunctioning on this day.
Denton Langridge, Anne Mullins and Hal Opperman take a shade break