Culinary Wellness Garden Update: Giving Thanks For a Great Harvest
In April of this year, we broke ground on our Culinary Wellness Garden, a ¼-acre parcel created by volunteers to grow organic heirloom vegetables for Witherell residents. Throughout summer and early fall, we harvested a bounty of fresh vegetables that were used in meals to offer real farm to table dining at Nathaniel Witherell.
In early November, Harry Shea, co-founder of the Culinary Wellness Garden along with the late Bob Willis, hosted the last volunteer day of 2017. The day was a huge success. “We cleaned out and prepared all the beds for the winter. Our spring will be much easier as, unlike this year, the beds are now in place,” says Shea. “We also installed rabbit fencing below and above the surface, attaching it to the existing deer fencing,” he notes.
The local vendors who graciously supported the garden with either materials and or services were invited to attend. Certificates of Appreciation were handed out or mailed to companies that provided donations, like VegTrug based in Colchester, England. Bill Gallagher of Summer Rain and Nick Bridge and Mary Jo Bridge Palmer of Sam Bridge Nursery were also in attendance.
At the event, Harry Shea made a major announcement that next year the garden will benefit from and participate in the latest European space technology as a beta client with farmAR. FarmAR, based in Noordwijk, Netherlands, was the winner of the prestigious Copernicus Masters B2B Challenge awarded during European Space Week. The company has produced an app designed to help farmers make more informed decisions based on satellite data. Data received during a satellite flyover will be processed through farmAR’s proprietary software and will be delivered to our Master Gardener and Harry via an app on their phone.
The volunteer day concluded with an outdoor Thanksgiving picnic to celebrate our inaugural growing season.
Pictured in the photos below are Jennifer Jackson, Master Gardener, and Linda Willis; as well as Jennifer Jackson, Linda Willis and Linda Shea.
