Visiting participants gardens in Laurel Co.: Tina

We visited a few of our participants gardens to catch up on their progress. Our first stop was at Bill Moore's garden. He grows it on a big plot of land by Hart Baptist Church. His garden is doing very well. He has early and late corn and beans. Bill's garden feeds about 30 families. He has a lot of help working his garden.  He gives most of his food to elderly, low income families that otherwisse would not be able to afford fresh vegetables. He encourages other families to grow gardens to provide their families with nutritious vegetables that are much cheaper than buying it at the grocery stores and much better tasting. Bill is very knowledgeable and enjoys helping others with any of their garden issues.

Our next stop was at Angelina's. Her garden is looking very good, this is her second year gardening. The day we visited her Son was watering due to our lack of rain. Angelica's family take great pride in their garden and keep it neat and weed free. She has harvested a peck of broccoli and getting ready to freeze it but didn't know how, it is the first time growing broccoli. I told her to rinse broccoli, cut into 1 inch or less pieces. Then add 4 tsp of salt per 1 gallon of water to make a brine. Let soak for 30 minutes and rinse. Blanch for 3 minutes, then immediatly place in ice water for 3 minutes. Then place on towel to drain of the water. Place in bags and freeze. She said she didn't realize it was that simple and would be freezing it that night.