SNOHOMISH — Area food banks will soon be stocked with lettuce, squash, carrots and other fresh vegetables, courtesy of the Martha Perry Vegetable Garden.
Volunteers planted seeds last weekend in the community garden, next to Bailey’s U-Pick farm at 12711 Springhetti Rd., to kick off a 10th season of growing charitable donations.
The garden gives its vegetables to the Snohomish and Maltby food banks, and the Monroe Community Senior Center.
When the supply is bountiful, it shares with more organizations.
Its veggies have made their way to the Volunteers of America Food Bank in Everett. Last year, garden co-director Carol Robinson hauled a load of surplus potatoes to Arlington.
“Across the board, there is a desire to add healthier options for clients,” said Elizabeth Grant, director of the Snohomish Community Food Bank and president of the Snohomish County Food Bank Coalition. “I’d rather have a dozen oranges than three dozen boxes of Ramen.”
The Perry garden helps fulfill that desire.
Each summer, it donates between 5,000 and 6,000 pounds of fresh vegetables to the Snohomish Community Food Bank, its largest benefactor.
Donated produce includes corn, beets, cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, kale and radishes.
“We’ve had some years of really great eggplant,” said Laura Hartman, the garden’s other co-director.
Hartman and Robinson have run the half-acre garden for about six years, aided by a core group of regular volunteers, but anyone who wishes to help is welcomed.
The garden hosts work parties each Tuesday and Thursday from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Hartman brings tea and snacks. Sometimes families make a day of it.
“It’s providing opportunities for the community to come down and learn about gardening,” Robinson said. “It’s a community resource.”
High school students sometimes work at the garden to earn school community service credit. Groups of employees from local businesses and organizations come annually for service and team building.
“Gardening is pretty basic,” Hartman said. “It is real work, but it’s not super hard. You feel real productive when you’re done.”
Martha Perry was a retired University of Washington professor and longtime member of the Snohomish Garden Club. She founded the garden in 2009 a year before succumbing to cancer.
The Bailey family donated a half-acre of their farm for Perry’s project. The Baileys plow the garden during the offseason, provide water for it, and let volunteers glean it after the main harvest is finished.
In its heyday a few years ago, the Martha Perry garden produced 20,000 to 25,000 pounds of vegetables a summer. But the number of volunteers has shrunk, causing Hartman and Robinson to shoulder more of the burden.
“This is not the kind of job you could pay me to do,” Hartman said, “but I don’t mind doing it for free. It’s fun to garden with people.”
For information or to reach out to voluneer, visit the garden club’s website at www.snohomishgardenclub.com
