It really is easy...

Yes, it really is easy to have a productive garden.  One needn't feel like gardening "success" is measured in acres and tons (or even bushels).  Here is a good "get-you-started" guide for what to grow. 
*Edit*: Also, there's this, explaining a bit about those seed packet you find everywhere this time of year.  

Looking forward to 2014's garden season!

Well...  The crocuses are blooming, and by my personal gardening calendar, that means it is almost time to start sowing seeds for this summers gardens.  This is ALWAYS an exciting time of year for me.  This year the excitement is compounded with my recent "promotion" (not really, but that's the most succinct way of putting it) to be in on the administrative side of the community gardens at and around Northern Kentucky University. 

Introducing the Harvest Stewards Board of Directors

In the process of rearranging things here... We now have a Board of Directors, and it is an impressive lot:

John Crossman is President of Crossman & Company, one of the largest retail leasing, management, development, and marketing firms in the Southeastern United States. John and I were college roommates at Florida State University where, in 1993, John earned his B.S. in Real Estate. John is deeply involved in charitable activities including Good News Jail & Prison Ministry and I Am Second in Orlando, Florida where he and his wife, Angie, live with their daughters Claire (10) and Ava (8).

Curt Buermeyer is a graduate of Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, where he earned a B.A. In Psychology. Curt and I were graduate school classmates. We studied together at the University of North Carolina, where he earned his PhD in clinical psychology. Curt worked for 5 years in private practice and at the National Leadership Institute. In 2007 he left private practice to focus exclusively on leadership development. He later founded LeadPeople LLC, an executive coaching and leadership consultancy. Curt, his wife Nikki, and three children (Luke, 12; Allie, 11; and Tyler,7) live in Herndon, Virginia.

Maggie Gough is a native of Boone County, Kentucky and a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University where she earned her degree in Dietetics. Maggie is a Registered Dietician and has been the Assistant Director of Wellness at Northern Kentucky University since 2011. It is through her involvement as the Coordinator of the Highland Heights/Northern Kentucky Community Gardens that I came to know Maggie. She and her husband Brad live in Cincinnati with their daughter Ainsley, 2 ½, who will be a big sister any day now.

Sue Plummer, a graduate of Bowling Green State University (B.A., French) and the University of Cincinnati (M.A., History), is an Education Specialist for Mercy Neighborhood Ministries in the Walnut Hills area of Cincinnati. It was Sue's work as Manager of the Julie Hanser Community Garden that caused our paths to cross in 2010, when she delivered a presentation on her work there to the Community Garden Development Training course I was attending. Sue and her partner Dave live in the Avondale neighborhood of Cincinnati.

Late-season, 2013

It has been a slow summer in the gardens, but we've just rounded up a good chunk of squash and beans and corn (yay for "Three Sisters" gardening!) and some sweet potatoes. So we're a shade over 30 pounds thus far. And although it's late in the season, we've got a lot of time left!

I had an insightful tête-à-tête with my good friend and executive coach, Dr. Curt Buermeyer recently.
I've known Curt for almost 2 decades, and right from the beginning, I realized that he was a forward-thinker, one who had a kind of prescience and ability to easily grasp the big-picture of things. Curt and I discussed how we might take Harvest Stewards from being a nice, clever idea to being a substantial and influential movement; something that leads people, something not only with purpose but also with a magnified impact. Much of our conversation circled around defining and segmenting Harvest Stewards' customer base. “Customers?”, you might ask; “How can you have customers when you GIVE stuff away for free?” Yeah, I thought the same things. But as we talked, it became ever clearer that apart from serving the needs of hungry folks, Harvest Stewards can also serve the needs of donors -of those who have money to put towards a charitable cause. Considering this customer segment, I see Harvest Stewards occupying a special niche. Harvest Stewards brings a unique value set to the table. First, all of our efforts are concentrated right here in the Greater Cincinnati area. Donations don't have to travel very far at all to be put to good work; donations help our very own neighbors and neighborhoods. Moreover, the type of food aid Harvest Stewards offers is uniquely life-changing not only for the recipient but also for the gardeners who contribute. We know that the people who receive food aid from Harvest Stewards generally do not make fresh produce a part of their regular fare. Produce, after all, is expensive, compared to so many other processed pre-packaged foods. Some of our recipients live in what we now call “food deserts”- those areas in which proper grocery stores are nowhere to be found. Whatever the case, and for whatever reasons, Harvest Stewards introduces folks to fresh, locally-grown (and most often, organically-grown) food. Part of our aim in this respect is to get folks to stay in the habit of eating healthful foods, eschewing junk foods. I also said that the food aid Harvest Stewards provides can be life-changing for the gardeners who so kindly and generously sacrifice their hard-won garden treasures. The connection between the gardener and the recipient is so very direct- from my hands to your mouth, essentially. This is intimately compassionate. To get more and more people involved in this kind of thoughtful, compassionate giving? That would be a profoundly positive, deeply transformational turn in the world. How could one not want to be a part of such a thing?
Many thanks to Dr. Curt Buermeyer for a good skull-session and the clarity that it has engendered (with more to come, for sure!).

A friend just recommended Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community. I haven't read it, but it seems like the sort of thing that should interest me. The title is more or less exactly what I would like to see churches (in particular) doing as a rule rather than as the exception. More on this later, after I finish reading it.

NKU Press Release, 7 December 2012

Here's a nice little press release about Harvest Stewards and the work we did last Summer with a group of community gardens around NKU. Many thanks to Maggie Gough for writing this!

Community Gardeners Share Bountythrough Partnership with Harvest Stewards
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – The Northern Kentucky Community Gardens has partnered with the newly established local nonprofit Harvest Stewards, LLC, to get produce into local food pantries. Each week Shan Bentz, director of Harvest Stewards, sets out and collects a bin at each garden site for gardeners to voluntarily share any excess vegetables they might have.

During the first growing season with the partnership in place, Harvest Stewards collected over 115 pounds of produce. The food that Harvest Stewards collected has gone to Action Ministries, Fairhaven Rescue Mission and Be Concerned.

“Most gardeners reach a point where they have more tomatoes or zucchinis than they know what to do with and we are glad to have provided them with a meaningful place to send such nutritious food,” said Rachel Wirrig, a gardener and member of the Northern Kentucky Community Garden Committee and associate pastor of Asbury United Methodist Church.

Bentz said the new partnership helps spread the Harvest Stewards narrative of “growing a little, giving a little.” He said it is not only the recipients of the produce who benefit through this type of program; it also helps create a greater sense of community, interdependence and responsibility for the care of others.

The Northern Kentucky Community Gardens will continue to partner with Harvest Stewards and Wirrig encourages other community garden sites to do so as well. “All we had to do was agree to let [Harvest Stewards] place the bins and let the gardeners know the option to share was available. Shan did the rest. It was so easy,” she said.

Harvest Stewards, LLC is working toward becoming a 501c3 charitable giving organization and Bentz said the organization hopes to expand its garden partnerships.