Gardening: Food Pantry Wish List

Last week I wrote about Bill Voshalike, the local gardener who wants to help AMEN Food Pantry stock up on locally grown produce.

Voshalike wants local gardeners with extra space to consider growing a row or two of extra produce for the pantry. He met with the pantry last week to explore the idea.

“Now is the time to be planning for one or two crops to target as ‘Gleaning Rows’ for delivery to the AMEN pantry next Spring,” Voshalike said. “If you always plant green beans for your family for example, it isn’t really much more work to plant one or two extra rows of green beans, but remember from the story of Boaz and Ruth in the Bible that the Glean was to be fresh and prime harvest quality, not outdated or of a lesser quality.”

The pantry compiled the following wish list of locallygrown produce: onion, carrots, summer squash, butternut winter squash, cucumber, beets, turnips, stringless green beans, bell pepper, jalapenos, cabbage, leaf lettuce and arugula (does not have to be washed, but one wash recommended), cantaloupe, egg plant, okra and potatoes.

“Many gardeners are supporting AMEN now through their spring and summer harvests,” Voshalike said. “The hope is that by communicating together … we’ll be able to offer a wider selection of seasonal vegetables extending into fall and even winter.”

Voshalike said he wants to build communication between interested gardeners. For anyone interested in contributing to this effort, please email me at andy@fayettecountyrecord. com. I’ll put you in touch with Mr. Voshalike.

On another note, I love international trade. Our lives would be miserable without it. It keeps at peace with the countries we trade with throughout the world.

War is bad for business, after all (unless you’re in the business of building war machines).

My parents surprised my wife and I with a present for our anniversary last week, a new 10x24 ft. greenhouse. Thanks to trade with the boogeyman China. Dad told me it only cost them little over $300. Sure, it’s made of chinesium. The assembly instructions were lacking, to say the least. And I’m going to modify some of the structure to make it more sturdy in the wind. But who cares? It was $300.

If the two major presidential candidates have their way, their options should’ve been limited to American-made greenhouses that cost many times that amount. Mom and dad might have got us a steak dinner instead.

Trump wants to impose massive tariffs to drive manufacturing to the U.S. Despite claims to the contrary, the Democrats want the same thing. Just last month, the Biden administration imposed new 25% tariffs on Chinesemade steel products.

Good thing they bought it when they did, or I probably wouldn’t have a greenhouse.

We’re mainly going to use it to start plants from seed for ourselves. I love growing rare and interesting varieties of vegetables from different parts of the world. Commercial nurseries usually grow the more common, reliable varieties.

So if you want to experiment with unique varieties, you have to grow plants from seed. And that requires a greenhouse.

Maybe we’ll grow enough plants and sell a few. Maybe one day we could use the profits to purchase a bigger greenhouse with fancy temperature and humidity controls. Maybe this cheap little greenhouse will help us launch a nursery empire. Or maybe this cheap little greenhouse will be all I need.