Southminster Garden Update | Friendship Gardens Charlotte

Garden is dormant, but still a beautiful place

Dec. 20, 2011

An update on the Southminster garden from Chef Kris Reid. Reach her here.

Nature has undoubtedly mastered beauty. Even now, just two days before the winter solstice, our garden is a peaceful and beautiful place to visit. We have only a few things growing now; collards, arugula, beets, Swiss chard and Brussels sprouts. The herbs are tired and most of them have either gone to seed or need to be pulled. Although the sweet potatoes have been harvested, their beds are immaculately made and the soft loamy soil neatly raked over. Yes, the garden is still a nice place to visit – even as the weather turns and threatens to keep me indoors, the garden calls me out.

This year has been notable for the garden! First, Southminster was able to successfully launch the garden in partnership with Friendship Gardens (an initiative of Slow Food Charlotte and Friendship Trays). Our harvests, in addition to the produce of 15 other area gardens, have fed fresh food into Friendship Trays, Charlotte’s largest meals-on-wheels program. To date, we have harvested nearly 400 pounds of produce and herbs at Southminster. The sweet potatoes were quite an exciting harvest as nearly 60 pounds were taken to Friendship Trays by our garden volunteer Anne Bryant. If you would like, you can watch a short video online of Anne delivering our sweet potatoes to Friendship Trays. See it on YouTube here.

I am sure you remember Jack-The-Great-Pumpkin. We had him, along with two of his pumpkin friends from the garden, on display by the main dining room for the month of October. In the second week of November, “Jack”, the biggest, proudest, greatest pumpkin ever, was brought to the kitchen and turned into a magical soup! I hope you all had an opportunity to enjoy a little bit of Southminster’s first pumpkin – and the first pumpkin I have ever been able to grow!

As the year comes to a close, I would like to thank all of the residents who have supported and helped with the garden this year. Whether through donations, materials, or your time and efforts in the garden, It’s been a pleasure to work alongside of you and help grow the garden into the success it’s been.

In addition, many thanks should be extended to Anne Bryant, our dedicated garden volunteer who has come as needed to harvest and/or deliver our produce to Friendship Trays.

And finally, a warm thank you to all the folks at Slow Food Charlotte and Friendship Gardens. Without their vision and efforts, the garden would not have been possible. I am truly grateful and appreciative to have been a part of this program and look forward to many more years of growing food for this terrific organization.

May you all have a wonderful holiday and many blessings in the New Year! Now get some rest, for spring is just around the corner and we have a garden to plant!

Eat well.

Friendship Gardens Charlotte
Creating local, renewable nutritious food resources for meals-on-wheels recipients
An Initiative of Slow Food Charlotte and Friendship Trays, Inc.

Friendship Trays, 2401-A Distribution St. Charlotte, NC 28203 voice 704-333-9229 fax 704-333-5947
Meals-on-wheels in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC
Delivering, in a caring and friendly manner, balanced meals to individuals in this community
who are unable, because of age or infirmity, to obtain and prepare their own meal
Friendship Trays is a 501(c)(3) organization. Employer ID #56-1201496. Financial information about this organization and a copy of its license
are available from the State Solicitation Licensing Branch at 919-807-2000. The license is not an endorsement by the State.