Community Learning Garden 2026

Tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, herbs, celery, zucchini, carrots, beets, broccoli and so much more can be found at the Orwell Community Learning Garden. The garden is located between the Orwell Town Hall and Congregational Church. Each bed is meticulously cared for by Vermont Master Gardeners and used as a teaching tool for local children and adults.

We thank Orwell Village School for working with us to make this garden such a success.

June 1-June 20: Preparing the gardens and thank you’s
June 20: What we planted & strawberries are ready!
June 26: Seedlings emerging, perennials flowering, mulching & watering
July 3: Weeding, staking tomatoes, compost care & a black bear visit
July 10: first cherry tomato harvest, replanting, plant labels & yummy dressing recipe
July 17: drought conditions, harvest donations begins, and Delicious Dill Dip recipe
July 31: Pests, pollinators, harvest & Fried Zucchini rounds recipe
August 10:
August 14: Height of harvest, no rain, happy perennials & Pico de Gallo recipe
August 30: Garden pests including aphids on the milkweed, saving seeds, harvesting & Favorite Dill Pickles recipe
September 7: Ukrainian Dill Potatoes recipe, critters snacking, seeds & blooms
September 13: OVS students snacking,
September 20: Big harvest (100lbs total to date!), blooming asters, HORNWORMS & Peach Pie with Streusel Topping
September 27: Green cabbage worm pest recommendations, harvest slowing & Rockwell Family “Bruschetta”
October 4: Seed saving, split tomatoes, garden cleanup begins & Braised Cabbage Wedge recipe
October 12:
October 24: Wrap Up! & Emily’s Butternut Squash Soup Recipe

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Part of this grant was used to purchase bird feeders and seed so the children could watch the birds from the classrooms. We will use these new raised beds to further the Perennial Pathway through Addison County. We have one bed already with native perennials, and will add at least one more. Thank you also to Lazy Dog Farm for supplying compost and mulch hay once again this year.

We discussed native plants and why they are especially important, as well and an introduction to USDA zones and how you can use this to select plants, particularly perennials, for your own gardens. Thank you for your help, ladies!

throughout the summer, with either myself, or Christina Shaw, (or both of us), in attendance. We will answer any questions from the community, and help with the EMG volunteers and interns, who will gain volunteer hours through this project. In order to continue with our Master Gardener certification each year, we are required to volunteer a total of at least 20 hours. Please look for those of us with name tags on, and we will try to help in any way. If anyone in the community has a topic that you would like us to cover, please let us know, or communicate with Kate Hunter, Librarian at the Orwell Free Library. Once we get all the vegetable starts, seeds, and new native perennials in the beds, we will be there each week to weed, water, and hopefully soon, harvest! The strawberries are already bearing, and anyone in the community is welcome to harvest them.

In this way, we are helping our pollinators thrive, we are providing ourselves with food security, and helping our neighbors and anyone who may be in need of extra produce. Last year we harvested food that anyone was welcome to take from the garden—it will be at the Orwell Free Library every Thursday afternoon, for pick up through Saturday at 1pm, when the library closes. If there is extra, please let us know if there is someone in need, or we can bring to the local food shelf in Middlebury.

We installed the bean towers, planted the rest of the vegetables and flowers, mulched all 11 beds, and watered thoroughly in
preparation for the hot weather to come in the next few days.
What did we plant, you ask? Here is a list of all the beauty and bounty to come:
Bed #1 (the deepest bed)—carrots, parsnips, chives, lavender, basil, Tulsi basil, sage, cocktail tomato, and alyssum.
Bed #2—tomatoes (full size), calendula, and bachelor buttons.
Bed #3 –tomatoes (cherry), kale, okra, eggplant, yellow squash, and alyssum.
Bed #4 –jalapenos, sweet peppers, fennel, celery, calendula, and vinca major.
Bed #5 –June bearing strawberries.
Bed #6 –scallions, leeks, mixed lettuce greens, arugula, onions, beets, radish, and dill (volunteer from last year).
Bed #7 –rutabaga, cucumbers, red Malabar spinach, pole beans (harvested and dried from this garden last year), turnips, and vinca major.
Bed #8 –zucchini, buttercup squash, celeriac, kohlrabi, calendula, and alyssum.
Bed #9 –mountain mint, heliopsis, beardtongue, echinacea, coreopsis, and foam flower.
Bed #10 –red cabbage, cauliflower, kale, broccoli, celery, and verbena.
Bed #11 – Brussels sprouts, columbine, baptisia, yarrow, lupine, bee balm, asclepias, blue vervain, and boneset.
We focused on a few things this year when planning out the garden:

1. Striving for native Vermont perennials.
2. Better spacing in the beds. Last year everything was too crowded, did not allow for aeration/drying out, and made it harder to harvest.
3. Having a good amount of vegetables that could be harvested in the fall, after the children are back in school. In addition, some of these plants do not need as much attention in the summer months, which can be helpful if someone cannot be there every day (to harvest, water, etc).
   The next open hours will be on Thursday, June 26 th , at 10 am. I am brainstorming for some good recipes that will feature our harvested plants and herbs. If you have a good recipe to share featuring produce, please let us know.
   
   Happy Gardening,
   Karen DeMoy and Christina Shaw, UVM Extension Master Gardeners

Week of 6/26/25

to be a new plant that looked as if it “could be” something real, but since it was in every bed, and not in any of the rows where we actually planted something, I could safely say this was a weed. We will need to be diligent in weeding this out over the next few weeks, otherwise it could take over in the beds.

I have some pictures with the new seedlings emerging, including rutabaga, turnip, parsnip, kohlrabi, pole beans, and yellow squash. There are also beautiful tomatoes on all of the plants, and lots of flowers with more fruit to come.

Some of the perennials are flowering, and are looking wonderful—echinacea, coreopsis, beardtongue, and the beginnings of asclepias buds emerging.

This is not surprising, given the temperatures of the last few days. With cooler temperatures to come now, the beds should not dry out so quickly. However, as the plants in the beds grow bigger root systems, they will use more water. We will watch for this, even if the temperatures are cooler.
We also started cleaning up the compost system that is present already at the school. There are three wooden bins, two of which have some plant material degrading. The third bin just has buckets, and other gardening debris. I sorted through this, discarded trash and broken materials, and saved a few useful things. We will start filling this now empty one bin with the leftover compost that was delivered, and it will be there for next year. We will also do the same with the leftover mulch hay. It will actually be beneficial for this to sit out a bit and age, so the remaining seeds will die, and it will be ready for next year.

Next week, we are hoping to have new hosing that will reach all the way from the school, so we will not have to lug them back and forth. Thank you to the Congregational Church and the Fortnightly Club for allowing us to use your hose and spigot—it was greatly appreciated. In addition, it will likely be time to start staking and securing the tomato plants. As I learned last summer, it is best to do this when they are still a bit small, when they are easier to wrangle, and less chance of breaking the stems. It will be fun to see more growth, and if we are closer to harvesting any other produce. Hope to see you at the gardens!

Until next week,
Karen DeMoy and Christina Shaw, UVM Extension Master Gardeners

Week of 7/3/2025

Yes, you read that correctly. A black bear cub was on the grass, right behind the Congregational Church. They took one look at us, and gamboled back into the woods. I am not sure who was more surprised, them, or us! We did not see further evidence of the cub, and/or family. There have been some veggies nibbled on in our garden, but nothing that would suggest a large mammal, or family of them. Unfortunately, no photographic evidence exists. However, everyone be on the lookout, and if you see them, be quiet, and try not to disturb them.

Especially in a raised bed planting, where the plants may be closer together, it is important that they are not lying on the ground, too close to, or on top of, surrounding plants. There are really nice fruit already on the plants—we cannot wait to harvest these!

          Our intern volunteer, Jill from Middlebury, was a great weeder! There was an abundance of ONE type of weed in all the beds. Likely, there are some seeds present from either the mulch or the compost—this is not unusual, or really an issue. It actually makes it easier to weed, as you can be sure it is not a wanted seedling that you accidentally have culled. Based on the distribution of the weed, and which beds had new compost added, it is most likely to have come from the mulch hay. The good news, is that we will save the remainder of the mulch in one of our compost bins, and have great mulch, likely mostly weed free, for next year.

          That brings us to our final task of the day—moving compost. Thanks again to Lazy Dog Farm here in Orwell, who donated our beautiful compost; and making it easiest to fill the beds, it was placed near the newest beds. After filling these, we had a fair amount left over. We are filling the compost bins with this leftover, so as not to waste any of this “black gold”. We moved approximately ½ of the remaining pile into the bin, so it was a great day’s work.

I have to admit, it is fun to put the sticker on the paper, because stickers are fun at any age! Please see the attached pictures of both an empty chicken (available at the library on the front desk, or can be downloaded here), and our family’s almost completed chicken. We filled this one up very quickly. It will be interesting to see whether it takes longer to fill as the summer progresses, as we are eating more and more of what we produce ourselves? I’ll let you know what I find out about this as the summer unfolds. There are also new ones to be filled in the handout bin at the garden.

          Enjoy the pictures of our tasks this week, and see the following recipe for Tulsi Tea—please come and snip a few sprigs of our beautiful Tulsi basil, or other herbs that are ready to harvest, including lavender, sage, parsley, and Genovese basil. Soon there will be other veggies!

Happy Gardening!

Karen DeMoy and Christina Shaw, UVM Extension Master Gardeners

Thai Holy Basil (Tulsi Basil) Tea:

4 cups water

12-24 tsp fresh  leaves Tulsi basil

4-8 tsp dried leaves Tulsi basil

Optional—ginger, mint, honey, or other fresh herbs or fruit for additional flavoring

Note: should “bruise” the fresh basil leaves prior to boiling for more flavor

Boil all ingredients for 5 minutes.

Simmer an additional 5 minutes.

Strain and serve hot, or let stand to chill and serve over ice.

Another note: Technically this is not “tea”. The definition of “tea” is a brew with the leaves of Camellia sinensis plant only. Any other beverage that is brewed is considered a tisane or infusion, although most people use the term tea for all brewed beverages of this style.

Tulsi basil is known as the “elixir of life” because it has so many health benefits, including improving sleep quality, anti-inflammatory properties, respiratory health, immune support, liver antioxidant, decreases blood pressure, blood glucose control, oral and dental health as a natural oral disinfectant, and is gastroprotective against stomach ulcers. Enjoy!

7/10/2025:

          Today was another hot day! We were thankful for the showers on Tuesday, giving the plants much needed moisture, even with the soaking I gave them on Sunday after the very successful Orwell Food and Farm Fest! Thank you to all of the vendors and Kate Hunter at the OFL for making this happen again this summer. There will be another on Sunday, September 7, from 12-4pm. There was an “Ask a Master Gardener” table, sponsored by the UVM Master Gardener program, and it was a busy table, with adults and children asking thoughtful questions—thanks for your interest in this program! Ok, sorry, got off the watering track with the Farm Fest. Even though there was a lot of water from the showers Tuesday, the beds were still very dry today. This high heat is just making any moisture evaporate so quickly. We are helping with having the mulch to cover the soil, but this heat is too much for even that to help 100%.

There are so many tomatoes on the plants, the cucumber plants are growing and climbing up the trellises with the pole beans, and the buttercup squash is trying to go over to the next raised bed—all signs of the veggies that we will soon be able to enjoy.  

          Thankfully, the amount of weeding was much less than the week before. We were able to go through and do each bed very quickly. This dry weather is good for one thing—keeping the weeds at bay. This quick weeding job allowed us to move onto other tasks today.

I removed the trash and big boards (one of these was a board for the fist compost bin, so that was a good find!), dug out the trees as best I could, and used my spade to dig and turn as much of the remaining organic material as possible. I am hoping to put some of the remaining mulch in this bin, and get some actual composting action happening. The middle bin will be the next task, but it is in even worse condition than this one.

          We also discovered that none of the kohlrabi seedlings survived. Unfortunately, it is possible that they were weeded, as I was not 100% sure what they looked like. I used my plant app to look this up, and nothing that was growing in these rows looked like the seedlings on my phone, so we cleared that spot, and will replant. Along these same lines, during the planting with the Girl Scouts, what we thought were radish seeds turned out to be beets, so now we have more beets, which is never a bad thing! I will find some radish seeds and get those started asap, as I have a great radish recipe to share, courtesy of my daughter, Natalie. We have already made this recipe three times since she has been home from college, so it’s a good one. Luckily, these only take 21-25 days to harvest, so they are a really fun addition to any garden. Finally, we noted that the turnips did not have great germination, so I will plan to replant more of these as well.

Please see some of the pictures I have included—a beautiful okra flower, our new rain gauge, beautiful tomatoes on the vine, the first ripe cherry tomatoes, an update on the compost bins, gorgeous Asclepias and blue vervain blooms (native VT perennials!), and some newly noted Japanese beetle and mammal damage to our vegetables.  

          All in all, despite the heat, we had a very productive day in the garden, and hope to see you next week at 10 am on Thursday, July 17^th.

Happy Gardening!

Karen DeMoy and Christina Shaw, UVM Extension Master Gardeners

Fresh Baby Arugula with Best Homemade Maple Mustard Vinaigrette

Ok, this recipe is mainly for this fabulous dressing that we ALWAYS have made in our fridge, as it makes even just a bowl of greens special.

Ingredients:

Large bowl of fresh greens of any kind, or mixed

Dressing:

¼ cup maple syrup
1 ½ Tbs apple cider vinegar
1 Tbs Dijon mustard
4 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
½ tsp grated onion
½-1 glove garlic, grated
1/8 tsp salt
Pinch black pepper

Place all of the ingredients into a quart mason jar, and shake away until combined. Refrigerate. See note below about refrigeration. Shake well before each use.

Note—I use a microplane for both the onion and garlic, that way you are basically getting “juice” rather than bits of them, and it makes a better texture for the dressing.

Also, I always double this recipe, or even triple it so we do not run out too fast.

This dressing will separate in the refrigerator, so plan to take out and leave on the counter for a bit to warm, so it will combine nicely after shaking.

7/17/2025:

Fellow EMG Christina Shaw and I were there for community open hours at the OCLG today, and it was another HOT day. The beds were dry, but nothing was in distress, thankfully.

Well, except for one perennial that has been struggling since planted at the very beginning of this summer, foam flower (Tiarella cordifolia). This plant prefers part shade to shade, and cooler temperatures. Unfortunately, this location (and this summer weather) is providing none of that. This is a clear example of what not to do, when subscribing to one of the “pearls of knowledge” provided to us in the Master Gardener program—“right plant in the right place”. This is an excellent phrase to live by in gardening, and a good lesson to me. Since it is not fully dead yet, I will plan to transplant this to a better location (likely in my woodlands, which is their preference). I will look around for another plant to replace it with, but that bed is chock full of Vermont native perennials, and leaving this spot empty will leave some room for the others to spread as they normally would. Thank you to Green Mountain Natives for the donation of this plant, and I’m sorry I did not put it directly in an environment where it would thrive.

Ok, back to watering. Sadly, Orwell seems to be in the unlucky spot of drought in the area. While Chittenden County is having downpours regularly, with few spans of 3 dry days in a row to get hay cut, dried, and put up, southern Addison County has not had ANY appreciable precipitation for one month. Yes, one month. When gardens, even heavily mulched ones, benefit from 1” of water per week, having no natural precipitation in that long of a period will put serious stress on the plants. Our garden here is mulched with hay, but an even better system would be to have some newspaper under the hay. This prevents even less loss of moisture from the soil, and greatly decreases the frequency of necessary watering. We have not done this here yet at the OCLG, but may consider it for next year. And needless to say, there was nothing to see in our beautiful rain gauge—it’s still waiting for its first rain!

Please keep an eye on the OFL Facebook page where you can see pictures of the harvest, or just stop in any Thursday to see this week’s offerings!

This is a better location for the compost and mulch, so it is not in the way of the groundskeepers as they mow and trim each week at the school, and it will be saved to use next year.

          Near the end of the hours, we had a community member stop by. I showed them all the beds and what was growing and nearing harvest. They kindly offered to help water, if needed—I may take them up on this if there are weeks I cannot come by between Thursdays. Thank you to everyone in the community for offering to help, and I hope that people will continue to come by and pick something that looks good, or maybe you want to try something new without purchasing it first, or maybe you just need a little bit more of something for the recipe you’d like to make. These are all great reasons to stop by the OCLG! Please see the map I’ve made—either on the OFL website, or there will be some in the document holder at the gardens.

Happy Gardening, and see you next Thursday!

Karen DeMoy and Christina Shaw, UVM Extension Master Gardeners

Delicious and Easy Fresh Dill Dip

1 ½ cups whole milk Greek yogurt OR sour cream

½ cup mayonnaise

¼ cup fresh dill, chopped, plus a bit more for garnish

2 Tbs fresh parsley, chopped

1.5 Tbs dried onion

½ tsp onion powder

Salt and pepper, to taste

Mix all of the above ingredients well. For best flavor, make and put in refrigerator for at least 2 hours prior to serving. Use with cut up vegetables, or to top a baked potato.

Enjoy!

7/31/2025

Today I am missing fellow EMG Christina, as she and her family are traveling in Iceland for the next few weeks—the change in temperature will be very welcome, I am sure!

There are flowers on the yellow squash, pole beans, and eggplants, so fruit will soon follow, I hope. One plant that was not thriving in its original location was the kale. It was in bed #3, and was being completely out-competed and shaded by the tomatoes, yellow squash, and eggplant. So I transplanted the 5 kale plants to bed #8, in the area where even the second planting of kohlrabi did not germinate. I am hoping the kale will grow quickly so it will not be over shadowed by the zucchini leaves. In addition, I removed the foam flower (Tiarella cordifolia) from bed #9 where it was not thriving, and replaced it with a perennial green, sorrel (Rumex acetosa). While sorrel is not native to Vermont, it will hopefully add a nice mix to this perennial bed, while also providing interesting lemon flavored greens for our salads. Also, we are finally seeing beautiful seed pods on the arugula. I opened one to see how they were coming along, and they are definitely not ready to harvest yet, but will be soon. Harvesting our own seeds is another way to make home gardens self-sustainable, as well as even more affordable. It is also really fun to share seeds with friends, and gather new varieties that you did not even know you needed!

          I also moved one of the piles of mulch to the third bin of the compost. I will need to clear the second bin next week to move more of this, to get it off the school lawn. Before I covered them with the mulch, there were some pretty morning glory seedlings making their way up in the compost. They are truly hardy, and very difficult to kill, so I have no doubt they will come back even if fully covered with mulch.

I took the dill seed home and dried it properly, and this will be available next week at the OFL for you to take home to plant for next year, or to use in yummy pickling recipes. We had a few community members join us today, and I was able to give them a full tour of the garden. They took home some of the tomatoes that I just picked. Finally, I am happy to say that people have been coming to the garden to pick veggies, which is what we are here for. There were quite a few zucchini almost ready last week, and they are gone, so I sincerely hope someone is enjoying these beauties!

          Until next week, Happy Gardening!

          Karen DeMoy, UVM Extension Master Gardener

Fried Zucchini Rounds (AKA :”Zucchini Cookies”)

While not the healthiest way to eat a zucchini, it is one of the most delicious, and will hopefully convert even the most skeptical of kids and adults when it comes to zucchini—Yum!

1-3 Zucchini, whole, skin on—slice into rounds 1/8” to 1/4” thick (this is also a good way to use up some of your larger zucchini or summer squash

Bread crumbs (I prefer seasoned, and regular, not panko)

2 eggs, beaten

¼ cup milk

Vegetable oil, for frying

Salt, to taste

Once the zucchinis are all sliced, line up two bowls. One will contain the breadcrumbs, and the other will be the beaten eggs mixed with the milk.

Pour ¼ to ½” vegetable oil into a deep frying pan, and heat oil on medium.

Using a fork, dip the rounds first into the egg mixture, letting most drain off.

Then put into breadcrumbs, and pat to cover both sides fully with the crumbs.

Once the oil is hot, so that it is sizzling when a crumb is dropped in, gently lay in one layer of breaded rounds. Flip once when golden brown.

Remove when both sides are golden brown, and let drain on paper towels.

Salt to taste while still hot.

Enjoy!

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August 10, 2025

Today was another hot one! While there was a little water recorded in our rain gauge (1/2”), everything was DRY. This is getting to be serious, how hot and dry our summer has been, after the very, very rainy spring and early summer.

While I am happy to have our new rain gauge, it has not been put to great use this summer, unfortunately.

There was also some money left with this pile—coins, which has me a little stumped. Anyone is welcome to our garden harvest, and I hope that one would harvest only what one would take home. I am suspicious that some of this is due to critter friends, such as our bear, or raccoons, who may be able to pull the carrots out? Most of this I was able to salvage, and we put out in the library for donation.

Please stop by the OFL to see the produce, and take what you may need home. Produce to come includes summer squash, sweet peppers, banana peppers, celery, lettuce greens, and fennel. There is also always basil, Tulsi basil, sage, parsley, and chives to harvest if you are in need. Please see the maps at the garden or the OFL to help you find what you need.

          Another project this week was fortifying the tomato plants, as well as the dill and bean volunteer plant with new stakes. This helps with air flow, access to sunlight, and will help prevent breakage to the stems. Anywhere there is a break in the stems can allow disease into the plant, which will weaken it. I used metal garden stakes, and twine to gently prop the branches without causing stress. I also replanted radishes. These are such a fun vegetable, because they grow so fast, and are beauties to look at, as well as dressing up a salad or tuna. However, my initial planting did not germinate well, likely due to a lack of consistent water. This second planting will hopefully have more moisture, and have a better chance of good germination. I will keep you posted!

          Finally, as mentioned above, I stopped back on Sunday, 8/10, and I am glad I did—the beds were so dry. Thankfully, a community member was willing to help water, and we were able to get this done efficiently. While they watered thoroughly, I was able to harvest, and do a nice weeding of the strawberry bed (which we have mostly neglected after the harvest in June).

          Please stop by the gardens to have a look, taste a delicious tomato, or come on Thursdays from 10-12 noon to see what we are up to. Until next week, happy gardening! And next week we will welcome Christina back from Iceland, yay!

          Karen DeMoy, UVM Extension Master Gardener

Quick Sweet and Sour “Pickles”

½ cup water

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

¼ cup maple syrup

Dill weed, +/- dill seed

Cucumbers, sliced—enough that they are all covered by the brine.

Mix all of the above ingredients together, and let sit in the fridge for 1 hour, to overnight, to let the flavors meld together.

Recipe courtesy of Jennifer Elliott, DVM

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August 14, 2025

I worked on moving the mulch hay to the compost bins, and did most of this on Thursday, then finished up on Saturday, with watering and harvesting help from Natalie. We had to make a fourth “bin” to the right of the compost bins already in place, to fit all the mulch hay in. This is going to be super helpful for next year, as the seeds that were still present and viable this year will hopefully be dead or inactive, which will result in even less weeding than this year! Our beautiful, dark brown compost material will have another season to work its magic in the bin, helping to convert the material under it into usable compost, as well. Ideally, this would be turned, and have some worms digesting the compost, but we will start with these bins and see how they do for next spring.

I will be gone all of next week, and fellow EMG Christina is back from Iceland, and will be taking over for the week. This will also be our last (I can’t believe the summer is already over!) Thursday Community Open Hours for the season. School will be back in session starting Wednesday, August 27^th, so our Open Hours will move to Saturday mornings at 10 am until we shut down the beds in October. Hopefully our focus on these weekends can move a bit away from simply maintaining the beds (and the never ending watering) to more educational topics. Please let us know, or you can mention to Kate Hunter at OFL, if there is a topic you are hoping to learn more about. This can be anything from weed identification, to native perennials, to deadheading, to processing, or anything else. So far we have had 23 community member interactions at the OCLG this summer, and I would love to see that number rise before we put the beds to bed for the winter.

          Please see some of the pictures from this week—they include some of the perennials that are blooming (blue vervain, swamp milkweed, and boneset), and the veggies that we are getting ready to harvest (eggplant, lettuce, radishes, red cabbage, and beautiful bean and cucumber towers). I tried to capture a picture of some pollinators on the blue vervain, as the yellow of the bees contrasted so nicely with the blue/purple of the flowers, but I could not snap them quickly enough to capture them in focus. I will try again next week. Thank goodness for our pollinators!

          Happy gardening, and we will see you with Christina on Thursday, 8/21, then again on Saturday 8/30 at 10 am.

Karen DeMoy and Christina Shaw, UVM Extension Master Gardeners

Pico de Gallo

This is the “classic” fresh salsa that is best immediately after putting all the ingredients together, and pairs perfectly with tortilla chips. All of the amounts in this recipe are approximate, as you know what you like best. We choose to have a bit less fresh onion in ours, as we feel the onion sometimes overtakes the other flavors, and we literally cannot add enough cilantro. But choose how your family likes it best!

Tomatoes—chopped—can use paste type for the least amount of liquid, but we just use whatever types of tomatoes we happen to have on hand, and then drain the juice out as I chop.

Sweet pepper—chopped—again, use whatever you have on hand, green, red, yellow banana, lunchbox type. I love when there are multiple colors to make it even more beautiful.

Onion—chopped very fine, to taste. The onion flavor will only get stronger the longer it sits.

Garlic—finely chopped, to taste

Jalapeno pepper—finely chopped, to taste—this will also depend on how hot your jalapenos are

Cilantro—chopped, to taste

Lime—juice of ½ to 1 whole lime, depending on the amount of pico being made (we do not always add this, but I love the flavor it adds)

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all of the ingredients above, adjust the amounts to your specific tastes, and enjoy!

8/30/2025

  

This was a first for us since June. More time to harvest, deadhead, weed, and do general maintenance of the beds. Thank you, as always, to the grounds crew at OVS for trimming around the beds and keeping things so nice. Also, now that school is back in session, we have switched back to using the water from the Congregational Church, and we thank you, as well, for allowing us to use your spigot and water. We’ve rolled the hose up on the edge of the woods where we saw the bear in the beginning of the summer, but no sightings since.

          Today fellow EMG volunteer Christina and I, along with a community volunteer, dead-headed the calendula (Calendula offincinalis), bachelor buttons (Centaurea cyanus), and Genovese basil (Ocimum basilicum). I did leave some of the flower heads on the calendula for future seed collection, but these readily self-seed from the season before, and while some of this can be welcome, we don’t need to have whole beds filled with calendulas.

These, along with more dill (Anethum graveolens) seeds, will be available at the Orwell Free Library this week, with some envelopes, for you to take home. The arugula will be great to plant next spring, and the dill can either be used for planting next year, or in your favorite recipes. See the end of this post for a quick and easy dill pickle recipe. We’ll let you know when the calendula seeds will be ready, later this fall.

However, I did remove the affected stems so that the plant would not be damaged as it is putting effort and energy into its root systems at this time of the year, in order to be able to withstand the winter and come back next year. Preventing the plants from stress allows them to be as healthy as possible.

As this was the only fruit set on this entire plant, and there is not enough time left in our season for any new fruit to ripen, we removed this entire plant from the bed.

          The forecast is not calling for more rain soon, so I will be back down to water every 2-3 days as needed. The other nice thing about this time of the year is that with the temperatures dipping low at night, and the days not as hot, the beds will not dry out as quickly, even without as much watering.

          Continue to watch for posts and pictures from the Orwell Free Library with the harvests and also to see what is ready for harvest in the garden itself. As always, this is a garden for the community, and everyone is welcome to come and pick what you might need! (I even came and got some cherry tomatoes when I found I did not have quite enough from my home garden for a recipe I was already in the middle of making!)

          Happy Gardening and we’ll see you next week, Saturday, 9/6 at 10 am. Also, don’t forget about the Orwell Food and Farm Fest happening next Sunday, 9/7, from 12 to 4pm. We will be there representing the UVM Master Gardener Program at the “Ask a Master Gardener Table”, so come with your questions, or stories. There will also be a GIANT vegetable contest—can’t wait to see what people have been growing!

Karen DeMoy and Christina Shaw, UVM Extension Master Gardeners

Favorite Dill Pickles

From The Complete Book of Small Batch Preserving, by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard

Makes four 2 cup jars of pickles.

16-20 small pickling cucumbers, approx. 3 lb

2 cups white vinegar

2 cups water

2 Tbs pickling salt

1 Tbs granulated sugar

4 large heads of fresh dill, or 2 Tbs dill seeds

4 cloves of garlic

2 tsp mustard seeds

Cute a thin slice from the ends of each cucumber.

Combine vinegar, water, salt, and sugar in stainless steel or enamel saucepan and bring to a boil.

Into each sterilized jar, place 1 clove of garlic, 1 head of dill or 1 ½ tsp dill seed, and ½ tsp mustard seeds.

Pack cucumbers into jars well, then pour the boiling vinegar mixture over the cucumbers, leaving ½” space at the top. Use a sterilized knife to make sure there are no air bubbles in the jars. Wipe the rims clean, and place tops and rims on the jars, tightly seal. Process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes, making sure the tops of the jars have 1-2” of water over them. Once removed from the canner, let sit for 24 hours, and make sure the tops are sealed properly before storing. If they are not, place pickles in the fridge. Enjoy!

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9/7/2025

            Well, we were planning to have Community Open Hours on Saturday, 9/6, but there was wonderful RAIN all day long, so we changed the open hours to Sunday, 9/7, right before the Orwell Food and Farm Fest. What a great day this was! The weather was perfect, the turnout for the fest was wonderful, and there were amazing and talented vendors This was a celebration of all things to do with farming, raising our own produce, making cider on the spot (thank you, Cliff!), seeing fellow Orwellians (and neighbors) hone their crafts, and listening to local music perfection. Thank you to the Orwell Free Library for making this event happen, and we look forward to it again next year! At our “Ask A Master Gardener” table, we had 26 meaningful interactions and discussions about fruit trees and diseases, what people are seeing thrive (and not!) in their gardens this year, what fellow gardeners are planting in NJ, and much more. Thank you to each and every person who stopped by for a chat, to ask a question, or to take home a peach from my trees that are gracing us with plentiful fruit this year. 

         Fellow EMG Christina and I harvested tomatoes of all sizes (cherry, full sized, and cocktail type), yellow squash, a cucumber, celery, jalapenos, green beans, beets, scallions, the remaining onions, as well as some Tulsi basil and apple mint today. (Earlier in the week, I also harvested tomatoes, and collected/sorted dill and arugula seeds.)

This was a bit of a quick week—harvesting on Thursday 9/4 and 9/7, with no watering needed, as we collected 0.9” in our rain gauge. We did a bit of dead heading of the flowers, saw some lovely pollinators, and a second bloom on our native lupine (Lupinus polyphyllus).

         We pulled the cabbage plants, as there is nothing to harvest, and leaving the plants with dead leaves will just be a source of fungus, bacteria, and potential insects to the rest of the remaining plants. We also collected some calendula (Calendula officinialis) seed heads that are just about ready to harvest. I am hoping the lettuce (Lactuca sativa) will be a nice fall crop, as it is coming along nicely. 

Next week open hours will be on Saturday, September 13^th at 10am with Christina. Please watch the OFL Facebook page and posts from Kate to see when we will be there on the weekends this fall—there are some weeks where it may be on Sunday morning, instead. Also, be sure to put Saturday, September 27^th on your calendars—it is the Annual Harvest Sale at the Library, from 9 am to 1pm. Come join us for delicious baked goods, soups, pumpkins, gourds, books, and more!

         Happy gardening, and happy harvesting!

Karen DeMoy and Christina Shaw, UVM Extension Master Gardeners

Ukrainian Dill Potatoes From the www.thekitchn.com

2 lb small new potatoes

2 tsp kosher salt, plus more

3 cloves garlic

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, or other oil of your choice

½ cup finely chopped fresh dill

1. Measure 2 lbs new potatoes. If they are around 1” in diameter, leave whole. If they are larger, cut into 1” chunks, so they are approximately similar in size, for even cooking. 
2. Place the potatoes in a large pot and add enough water to cover by about 2”. Add 2 tsp kosher salt, cover, and bring to boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low, and gently simmer until the potatoes can be pierced easily with a fork. Do not overcook. May take approximately 10-15 minutes. 
3. While the potatoes are cooking, finely grate the garlic cloves on a microplane, or run through a garlic press and put into a small bowl. Add ½ cup oil and stir to combine. Finely chop the fresh dill until you have ½ cup.
4. Drain the potatoes and return to the pot. Add the garlic oil, dill, and another pinch of kosher salt. Toss to combine. Taste and season with more salt if needed. 

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September 13, 2025

I was happy to see a patron at the Library that was waiting to take some of our green zebra tomatoes. A few weeks ago I had encouraged him to try this variety, as it is my favorite for its slightly different, but still deliciously tangy and familiar bite of tomato. He has been back two weeks in a row for more. I also had some fun news from Librarian Kate—the kids missed picking the green beans at recess on Friday, because I picked them clean on Thursday. This has apparently been a fun recess treat at the Orwell Village School, picking green beans and cherry tomatoes. We are so happy for this news, and I will be mindful of what I harvest, leaving most of those on the plants from now on. Both of these anecdotes exemplify what this garden brings to our community, and how gardening can bring joy to gardeners and anyone enjoying the fruits of our labors.

I did have to water on Thursday, as I am hoping to keep the beans, beets, tomatoes, peppers, yellow squash, zucchini, and herbs producing until the first frost. The basil, parsley, and sage are all thriving—the Tulsi basil is especially fragrant as one works in that bed. This variety does not seem to do as well with cutting and placing the stems in a jar of water, as the regular Genovese variety. I will plan instead to harvest and dry some at the end of the season, and experiment with teas and other recipes over the winter. I also collected bachelor button (Centaurea cyanus) and lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) seeds. I will let them dry over the next few days, and see if they will be ready to share next week.

A few nice surprises include the crop of lettuce that is coming along with this new, cooler weather. This is in the farthest bed to the west, nearest the church. It has afternoon shade, which also helps with many varieties of greens, as they will get bitter if they are in too much heat. There is also a picture of our bed where we cut and harvested the arugula seeds (now available at the Library for you to take home!)—there are many new arugula seedlings that have self-sown. We will see if they have enough time left in the season for some nice, tender, young leaves for our salads! Also to add to our salads are some beautiful radishes. These are such a fun vegetable to grow, with one of the shortest days to harvest at 25. It is nice to plant these periodically throughout the summer to keep the harvests coming.

Now for the equally interesting, but less exciting news: I think we have definitively determined who our pest may be—the BEAR. Please see the pictures from the first bed with the previously planted carrots and parsnips. The carrots were all pulled and flung about earlier this summer. Now ALL of the parsnips are gone, and there is a print with what looks like claw marks in the bed. Ahhh. This is the bane of gardens without fencing, as discussed last week. Parnsips (Pastinaca sativa) have a very long growing season, with approximately 100-120 days to harvest. It is recommended that they be harvested after a few light frosts to concentrate their sweetness even more, so I was consciously waiting to harvest these for a little longer. But, I waited too long, as they apparently were just ripe enough for the bear to enjoy. There have been no further sightings of said bear by us gardeners—has anyone else seen it, or evidence of it, in town?

            On Saturday, Christina and a new EMG volunteer, Carrie, along with a community member, worked on the beds. The veggies are beginning to look a bit tired, and some plants are just about spent for this season. They pulled out the broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cucumbers, since there are no more flowers, and cleaned up the leaves and rotten bits, adding them to the compost bins. Carrie also worked on pruning back some of the tomatoes, as they are very crowded. They are still producing well, and the plants are healthy, with no sign of disease, so they should continue to produce fruit until the frost, (fingers crossed the bear does not decide to eat those, too!). They harvested a small amount of beans, and celery. Next week we’ll plan to continue with bed maintenance, any harvesting, and hope for more seed collection.

            See you next Saturday, and happy gardening!

            Karen DeMoy and Christina Shaw, UVM Extension Master Gardeners

Miso Brown Sugar Braised Radishes

This is a recipe pieced together by my daughter, Natalie Rockwell, from a few different recipes she found and played around with. What is so surprising, is that this cooking process changes the flavor of the radishes to something completely new and unexpected. Hoping you will give this a try!

1 Tbs miso paste

1 Tbs brown sugar

Radishes, with the tops (remove young leaves to use, and chop slightly)

Butter

Water

Sesame oil

Soy sauce

Garlic, grated

1. Halve the radishes and place cut side down in buttered large sauté pan.
2. Dissolve the miso paste and brown sugar in a small amount of water and add to the pan.
3. Sauté on low to medium heat until the liquid is all absorbed, and the radishes are fork tender.
4. While the radishes are cooking, blanch the cleaned, young radish tops for a few minutes, until tender. Squeeze out as much water as possible, then mix with a few drops sesame oil, soy sauce, and grated garlic, to taste (this will depend on how many greens you are using).
5. Mix the cooked radishes and greens for a delicious side dish, or use to top rice for a main dish.

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September 20, 2025

This week we continued with sunny, dry, and hot weather. While it is beautiful, and there is always so much to do outside when the weather is nice, we really need some rain. I had to go down and water both Tuesday and Thursday this week, and we watered as well during open hours on Saturday. The up-side of this was that three kids helped me after school on Tuesday, with harvesting and watering. They shared how much they loved picking and eating the green beans at recess every day, which I loved hearing. Hopefully they leave me a few pods with seeds that I can dry in order to plant next year! This variety is interesting in that it takes all summer to bear fruit—this is actually a perfect situation for our garden. By fall, most people’s bean harvests are waning, unless they did a second sowing. During the height of summer, it is hard to give green beans away, but in the fall, people may be looking for them again, like these kids.

            I harvested almost 5 pounds of veggies and herbs on Tuesday, and brought them over to the library. Dale was the happy recipient of some tomatoes and our beets. I also spoke with the new head chef for the Abby Group at the Orwell Village School, Heather Ryan. I am hopeful that we can work together to make a meal, or part of a meal with some of the produce from the OCLG—if not this year, then it is something to plan for next year. This is why I love to plant some of the root vegetables, onions, and herbs that are harvested in the fall, and not just the things ready throughout the summer. This was always a goal for the OVS Gardening Club before COVID, but it never came to fruition in the fall. It is good to have goals for the future, and this is a good one! Stay tuned and we’ll see how it goes.

            Between Thursday and Saturday’s harvests, we netted over 6 pounds of produce, bringing our total harvest to OVER 100 POUNDS DONATED so far this summer. This is amazing for our small project! We still have a few weeks to go, now that this past weekend of near frost weather is behind us. We’ll keep an eye on the forecast, but our beds are too big for us to cover in any practical way, so we will have to roll with what Mother Nature deals for us. Harvested this week: celery, yellow squash, zucchini, beans, beets, all sizes of tomatoes, okra, basil, parsley, scallions, and radishes. There are still a number of zucchini, yellow squash, beets, tomatoes, red Malabar spinach, and beans that will continue, and the new crop of lettuce is just about ready to pick. We tried some of the sorrel (Rumex acetosa), which is doing great in its new location—try a few leaves of this mixed with salad greens for a nice, lemony flavor. (see photo)

Please see some of the photos attached to see what is blooming in the perennial bed: verbena (Verbena bonariensis), New England aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae), purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpura), and beautiful flowers on the okra and summer squash plants.

We also had some visitors: on our beans, a HUGE grasshopper that startled me; and the dreaded tomato hornworm (Manduca quinquemaculata ) on our cherry tomato plant (see pics). The interesting thing about this hornworm is that it was parasitized with the eggs of a wasp (Cotesia congregates).

            Next week, the Garden open hours will remain the same, but it will overlap with the OFL Harvest Sale. Please join us from 9 am to 1 pm for wonderful food (baked goods, egg sandwiches, lunch items, and delicious soups to enjoy there or take home for later), books, puzzles, DVDs, fresh flower arrangements, and pumpkins/gourds/winter squash of all kinds.

            I am including a recipe below that was inspired from my harvest at home, rather than from the OCLG—PEACHES! It was finally a decent year for most of our trees, and after two kinds of salsas, jams, freezing, and canning of the rest, I had some leftover for pies. Enjoy, and see you next week!

Karen DeMoy and Christina Shaw, UVM Extension Master Gardeners

Peach Pie with Streusel Topping

Crust:

1 cup AP flour
1/3  cup shortening or butter (I usually do a mix of the two
½  tsp salt
3-5 Tbs cold water

Filling:

4 cups peaches, peeled and sliced
½ cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup AP flour
½ tsp cinnamon (more to taste)
¼ tsp nutmeg (more to taste)

Topping:

¾ cup AP flour
½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
½ tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, melted

Cut the butter/shortening into the flour and salt until looks like coarse crumbs. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough just holds together. Form into a ball and put in refrigerator until ready to roll out.

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix all of the filling ingredients gently.

In another bowl, combine all the topping ingredients, until forms coarse crumbs.

Roll out the dough for a 9” or 10” pie plate. Spoon the filling into the pie shell, and top with the streusel crumbs. Bake for 40-45 minutes until the peaches are tender and the topping is golden brown.

Adapted from The Complete Book of Baking, Pillsbury, 1993.

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9/27/25

            This week we shared OCLG open hours with the Orwell Free Library Harvest Sale, and the Silver Heist 5K Fun Run that raised money for the Orwell Village School Booster Club and the Orwell Historical Society. Both events were very successful, bringing in people from all over the state of Vermont, and beyond. Thank you to everyone who came out in support, whether baking, volunteering, running, or purchasing the baked goods, pumpkins, flower arrangements, delicious soups, egg sandwiches, pulled pork, and books!

            The harvest is slowing down with this fall weather. This weekend we picked some nice, large zucchini, tomatoes (cherry, full sized, and Campari), beans, and some beautiful lettuce greens. With the weather appearing to hold above the freezing mark, we will continue to harvest and slowly remove plants from the beds over these next few weeks.

           This bed no longer has any of these plants remaining, as they were being completely eaten, likely by the bear. So, since the plants have all been removed to the compost bins the larvae still need to find something to their liking, and they found this columbine (Aqualegia spp.) leaf. There are multiple ways to try to prevent or mitigate the damage caused by their larval form—these include: protective coverings so they cannot lay their eggs, manual removal daily (although they are often hard to find, especially in the shoots of broccoli and cauliflower), encouraging natural predators/beneficial insects like paper wasps (Polistes dominula), organic pesticides, such as BT (Bacillus thuringiensis), and crop rotation. The first and last methods are the ones most important in a garden like ours—trying to prevent their egg laying capability on our plants, and then moving the plants to another location the next growing season. This is something we will note in our “To Do” list for next year. Because the life cycle of this moth is so fast, the protective barrier is the BEST method from keeping this pest from destroying your plants completely—an entire life cycle can be repeated every 3-6 weeks! This means multiple hatching of eggs into destructive larvae every summer. It is important to note, however, that even if you see holes in the leaves, or droppings from these worms, the leaves and vegetables are still safe to eat after washing—they may just not look as pretty!

            We are also continuing to collect seeds from the garden. We have had great success with dill and arugula (still some arugula at the library to take home, and more dill seed to come), and we have been harvesting both calendula and bachelor button seeds. They have been drying and will be available soon at the OFL for next year’s garden. I have also been collecting seeds in my home garden and will bring some of those down to the library to share, as well. If anyone has any seeds they would like to share, this could become a great resource for the community, and one that other libraries are already utilizing—I’m looking at you, Brandon Free Public Library! Libraries all over Vermont (and beyond) are such great resources for SO MANY things and we literally could not survive without them (nor would we want to!).

           

            Happy Gardening, and Happy Fall!

Karen DeMoy and Christina Shaw, UVM Extension Master Gardeners

Rockwell Family “Bruschetta”

1 loaf French bread, cut slightly on the diagonal, ½” thick

1 Tbs butter, softened

Tomatoes, any kind, sliced—enough slices for the number of bread slices

Dill weed, dried is easiest, but fresh would work as well

2-3 Tbs Parmesan cheese, grated

Basil leaves, fresh, either torn or whole, depending on their size

Cheddar cheese, sliced thinly, enough for each slice of bread

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Put the sliced bread on a cookie sheet, getting as many as possible on there. Use a scant amount of butter on each slice of bread. Put in preheated oven for 5-10 minutes, to get a good “toast” on them. This will prevent the bread from getting too soggy.
3. While the bread is toasting, slice the tomatoes and cheddar cheese.
4. When the bread is done, start to assemble: Put on slice of tomato, then shake of dill weed and Parmesan cheese. Follow with generous amount of basil, and finish with cheddar cheese.
5. Put back into the oven until the cheese is melted, 5-7 minutes.
6. Enjoy!

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10/4/2025

This week began very nicely with rain holding over from the previous week. Fellow EMG volunteer Carrie watered for us on Thursday, and we followed up with a bit more on Saturday.

These latest harvests bring our total of donated produce to over 116 pounds! What a nice achievement for our small garden plot, and for our town. And, this does not include what townsfolk have harvested on their own, nor the tons of beans and cherry tomatoes that are going straight into the mouths of the OVS kids.

Soon we will have nice seed packets at the Orwell Free Library, free for the taking. I am hoping to have dill, arugula, bachelor button, multiple different varieties of marigolds, columbine, pole beans, and Tulsi basil. Please consider sharing if you have any extra seeds from your gardens. We will be happy to supply envelopes, if needed.

            We did a bit of weeding, removed the spent arugula plants, as well as dead leaves from the beans, turnips, and rutabaga areas. The arugula plants dropped so many seeds that have been growing on their own in the bed where the onions have already been pulled. With our continued growing season, I anticipate  we will be able to harvest this in the upcoming weeks—a treat that came about because we let the plants go to seed. This, along with the new mixed greens and sorrel, will make some nice salads this fall.

            We do plan to pull some of the spent plants next week, and could have done more this week, but we will be hosting the Junior Girl Scout Troop 58187 early next week, and I am saving this project for them. We will plan to discuss the different flowers, vegetables, and herbs that we have, and I would like as many plants left as possible. After that, we will begin to remove the plants in earnest.

            Even with these cracks, the fruit is safe to eat, although they are more susceptible to rotting more quickly, so best to use those up first. For more information about different types of issues in your tomato plants, see the following link: Key to Common Problems of Tomatoes | University of Maryland Extension.

            There appears to be a nice weather week ahead for us, with temperatures in the 70’s during the day, and only a chance of frost one night. So, we will plan to continue our open hours until our final weekend of October 24/25. Next weekend, the open hours will be on Sunday, October 12, from 11 am to 1 pm. There will be NO open hours on the weekend of October 17/18, as Christina and I are both away. The final weekend will be a longer workday on Sunday, October 25, from 11 am until we are finished.

Please see below for a wonderful cabbage recipe—it highlights a different way to use cabbage than the more traditional uses, and is so delicious! I know we didn’t actually get to harvest our cabbages, thanks to the critter that ate them all, but this is the time of year to be harvesting them in your own gardens, and a good way to use some up, as they take up a lot of room in the fridge. They do store well for months in the cool of a root cellar or fridge, if you do have room for them, and it can be a treat to have your own harvested veggies in the dead of winter, especially in this savory recipe. For more information about storing vegetables from your garden, see WinterVegetableStorage.pdf

See you next week, and happy autumn gardening!

Karen DeMoy and Christina Shaw, UVM Extension Master Gardeners

Braised Cabbage Wedges

1 cabbage, outer leaves removed, and core cut out– cut into 6-8 wedges, depending on the size of the cabbage

3 Tbs extra virgin olive oil, divided

¾ cup vegetable broth

3 Tbs soy sauce

2 Tbs sugar

2 Tbs apple cider vinegar

1 Tbs chili garlic sauce

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp ginger, grated

Scallions or green onions, for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Heat large, oven safe sauté pan over medium high heat, and add 2 Tbs oil. Add the cabbage wedges and sear for approximately 2-3 minutes per side. Remove from the pan using tongs, and set aside.
3. To the same saute pan add the broth, soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, chili sauce, garlic, and ginger. Whisk together and cook for about 3 minutes. Add cabbage back to the pan, and drizzle with remaining Tbs of oil.
4. Place the pan in the over, uncovered, and back for 25-30 minutes, until the liquid has reduced to about 1/3 of the original quantity and the cabbage is tender. Do not flip the cabbage.
5. Serve the wedges with some of the remaining liquid from the pan drizzled over the top. Can sprinkle scallions or green onions on top, to garnish.
6. Enjoy as a delicious side dish

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10/26/15—Wrap Up

          Here we are, the end of another successful, though quite challenging, growing season. With the supremely wet spring, then full-on drought from June to August, this season was not for the fainthearted. Also, if this was your first time attempting to garden, please do not give up! While the weather is always surprising, it is not always quite this hard. It was interesting to see what plants tolerated the changes in extremes the best, and which ones struggled the most. I saw different things in my home garden versus what we saw at the Community Garden, even though the weather was the same. One thing I noted that was probably the biggest difference between the two, was the need for water. Early on in June while watering our home garden, our well was drained. Luckily this was when we were putting down the final mulching of layers of newspaper and straw. We made the decision to not water again, so as not to stress our water supply. We were then alarmed at the lack of rain, but basically decided that what was going to survive would survive, and we would see. The paper and straw mulching, although labor and cost intensive at the outset, basically saved our garden. Not everything thrived (I’m looking at you, eggplants, that never grew at all!), but some things actually did quite well like the carrots, parsnips, and zucchini/summer squash—these never got the powdery mildew they usually succumb to in wetter years. In the Community Garden, we basically could not keep up with the need for water due to the nature of raised beds, and such porous soil. This is great for drainage, preventing roots from getting waterlogged if it is a wet year. The tomatoes and zucchini were the stand out best producers for this year. Interestingly, the cucumber and climbing beans had the most beautiful and healthy plants, but did not produce as much as I expected—too much energy into the plant growth. Next year I will plan to prune these to try to encourage more fruiting.

          This past week, fellow Master Gardener Carrie helped us put the garden to bed on Saturday, and then I went on Sunday, which was the final open hours for this year. I removed all the remaining plants, with the exception of the perennials: sage, lavender, and chives in bed #1; the strawberries in bed #5; all the perennial flowers in beds #9 and #10; and the baby arugula in bed #6. This arugula is from the original planted in the spring that we allowed to go to seed. It is now harvestable, and I cut a large bag, along with the mixed greens, before pulling those plants. Between Carrie and myself, we harvested an additional 6 pounds of produce this weekend. I also cut the last of the sage and lavender to dry, took the final beets, and found one last onion. Finally, I harvested lupine, bachelor button, and more calendula seeds. In addition to the harvesting and pulling the plants, I cut back all the perennials, and weeded the beds so they would be as weed free as possible for the spring. It took some time getting all the bean plants from the trellis—they were on there and not letting go! The stakes and trellises were cleaned and put away for storage. It is important to clean all of your equipment and tools  before storing to prevent rust, and to keep everything in good working order, and easy to just pick up in the spring, ready to go when you need them!

          As I mentioned earlier, this truly was a successful year for the Orwell Community Learning Garden. It was our second year, and we learned things from the previous year that we put into play this year, and have learned more again that we will use in the future.

Here are our stats for the year:

Pounds of produce harvested and donated: 143

Community member interactions: 29 adults, 18 children

Master Gardener and Intern volunteer hours: 112.75

What is not included in these stats are the pounds of produce collected by people in the community, nor what was harvested by the kids during recess—we love both of these so much!

          Thank you to everyone who supported this effort, whether by volunteering, donating plants and seeds, harvesting, reading the blog, or just walking by and noticing that there is a garden project in our community! Please let us know if you have suggestions for next year—plants or veggies you’d like to see, topics to discuss, comments on open hours, etc. You can email or drop by the OFL and speak with Kate. Also, keep an eye out for seed packets to come later this fall (they are currently taking up all my counter space, which is being used as a giant drying rack).

          Please see below for a delicious, warming soup from those late fall beauties, the butternut squash. Until next spring, happy gardening! (It will only be 2 months until those beautiful seed catalogs will come in the mail and get us excited again!)

Karen DeMoy and Christina Shaw, UVM Extension Master Gardeners

Emily’s Butternut Squash Soup

1 large butternut squash, peeled, deseeded, and cut into cubes

1 medium onion, chopped

Vegetable or chicken stock, enough to cover the above veggies in the pot, and maybe a little more

8 oz cream cheese, cut into a few pieces

2 Tbs (or more) dark maple syrup

Thyme, salt, and pepper, to taste

Bacon crumbles, croutons, etc, for toppings

1. Place the veggies and broth into stock pot, bring to a boil and then let simmer until they are soft.

2. Add the cream cheese pieces, let them soften a bit, then use immersion blender or transfer to regular blender that is safe for hot liquids, and blend until smooth and creamy.

3. Add the syrup, thyme, salt, and pepper to taste.

4. Enjoy with whatever toppings you would like!