Getting Started with Starts

As the saying goes, give a man a fish he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.

Maybe planting a few lettuces or kale won’t feed someone for a lifetime, but it could start a lifetime love of gardening and from there the plot thickens…

Recently FBG Garden coordinator, Dianna Wiklund  has been taking the extra starts from the Grange garden, Red Hen garden, and Nita Webster's  Seed Starting Workshop to the food banks for distribution.  Those who have land or a planter can grow their own personal “food bank” because "growing your own food is like growing your own money," according to garden activist Ron Finley.  Due to California floods limiting crop growth, produce prices are climbing. The FBGrowers are planting loads of greens in anticipation of the summer need and consequently have an abundance of starts that can go to homes.

Dianna has been taking starts to all Food Banks — Port Townsend, Tri-Area, Quilcene, Brinnon, Eaglemount, and Coyle. The last two are “pop up” food banks whereby a truck rolls in with food options, tables, tents... at the same expected time each week. The Old Eaglemount road pop up has been bringing fresh food to locals on the ridge for many years. This year JeffCo Food Bank Warehouse manager, Joe von Volkli, overseas the set up and take down from 1:00-3:00 on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of each month near the Eaglemount road "triangle". Coyle residents have a truckload delivered to their Community Center on Wednesdays from 10:00-11:00.

Over the past couple of weeks, Dianna has delivered 85 cherry tomato starts, 10 slicing cucumbers, 18 purple sprouting broccoli, 9 dill plants, 12 lemon balm, 1 celery, 3-4 pack of phacelia and many seed packs. Midori Farms brought 2 trays of Kale starts, 2 trays of Swiss Chard, and a tray of beets in 4 packs. Starts are dropped off, picked up, and then taken to the next food bank point until they are gone. On Wednesday Dianna took 6 trays to Coyle and came back with only one. 

The availability of fresh food from industrial farms may become more questionable in the future; learning how to grow and harvest “backyard food banks” is a start towards feeding ourselves much like the Victory Gardens did after WWII.