The Trosky Peppy Pebbles 4-H Club planted their “Stone Soup” garden in late May at the Al and Lisa Smith farm near Trosky. When harvest time arrives, the club, nearly 20 members strong, will donate all the organically-grown produce to the Pipestone County Food Shelf.
President of the Pipestone County Food Shelf Board Harold Totman said it’s not unusual for people to donate fresh vegetables to the food shelf. Every year farmers donate bags of tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, corn and a veritable cornucopia of other fresh produce.
“Farmers bring them in and we set them by the door and we just let people take what they want,” Totman said.
Lisa’s son Billy, president of the Peppy Pebbles, said through plant donations from Tom Klumper and seeds from the Smiths, the Peppy Pebbles are growing tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, green beans, peas, sweet corn and squash.
The peas and green beans should be ready for harvest in a few weeks, followed by the cabbage and the tomatoes, Lisa said. The group planted their crops to allow a steady supply of goods to bring to the food shelf in late summer and early fall.
Nearly the entire group showed up for the planting, Lisa said, and she anticipates a good turnout for harvesting and for delivery of the goods to the food shelf. The challenge, Lisa said, is getting club members to weed the garden more than the one Tuesday they work in the garden each month.
In this, her first year as a 4-H leader, Lisa borrowed the idea for the garden from the Land Stewardship Newsletter. She is a member of the organization that promotes sustainable agriculture and thought it would be a great project for the kids.
“We were looking for a Community Pride Project for the fair,” she said. “The group decided it was something they wanted to try.”
A Community Pride Project, she explained, is a project that the whole 4-H group takes part in. As the project progresses, the group tracks the progress by taking pictures. The pictures are then displayed at the county fair.
The Peppy Pebbles donation will be appreciated, as 34 new families came to the food shelf over the past month, Totman said. A typical family of three leaves the food shelf with about $60 to $70 worth of food, so any donation is welcome.
For now, the food shelf is “pretty well fixed,” Totman said, but if the current trend continues, demand could overtake supply.
Fortunately, there are groups like the Trosky Peppy Pebbles that do what they can to help their community.
“It’s been fun,” Billy said with a smile.
“You’ve got to give the kids a thank you,” Totman said.
