It’s been an eventful growing season for the Earlscourt Community Garden. At first, we weren’t sure if community gardens would be allowed under public health regulations, and when they re-opened, there was a two month backlog for seeds orders and particularly devilish squirrels to contend with.

Despite these setbacks, The Stop’s Earlscourt team was able to grow over 900 pounds of organic produce and split the harvest with volunteers and The Stop’s food programs.

As their growing season comes to an end, here’s a wrap-up recap from the team:

“In many ways, this year in the garden has been much different than usual. In other ways, it’s been just as fruitful as the years before!

We were able to take a bounty of hot peppers (jalapeno, thai, serrano, scotch bonnet, just to name a few) from the garden and turn them into homemade hot sauce and hot pepper jelly that were distributed to garden participants to keep over the winter months. These same pepper plants are still producing all the way into October.

As the garden winds down and work slows down, we’ve been harvesting our fall crops which includes lots of greens like lettuces and kale, nappa cabbages, and root vegetables like radish, carrots, and turnips. As we harvest, we are also beginning to prepare beds for winter with cover crops and straw. One of the most exciting tasks of the fall is planting the garlic that will later be harvested in July next year. It’s beautiful to be able to still be planting this late into the year, and have something to look forward to after winter.

Through the collaborative efforts of 20 hardworking volunteers, we’ve produced over 900 pounds of harvest from intensive fruiting plants like tomatoes, eggplant and squash to herbs, leeks, garlic, parsley, and tons of different lettuces and greens like kale and swiss chard.

We don’t know what next year will bring, but what we can be sure of is that the community around the Earlscourt garden is just as resilient as the land we have been working on.”