What an amazing August it’s been! While we could see the changes to the farmhouse at the Mickley-Prydun Farm, we also had changes in our Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative Food Pantry garden.

I am writing this article Aug. 29, and so far this month, we have picked 260 pounds of vegetables and herbs.

Many of these pounds came from zucchini and yellow squash, but over the past two weeks, we have been picking 30 pounds of tomatoes per week. The varieties are red and yellow slicing tomatoes. Slicing, I have learned, is code word for big, beautiful and one slice covers a hamburger bun. I have also learned the best time for picking a tomato to share is when the bottom is ripe, but the top part is not quite ripe. In addition, when you pick these tomatoes, they fully ripen in the pantry within just a few days. We took to this practice during our pantry distribution weeks, and our guests were thrilled with the size and firmness of these tomatoes.

During weeks where we were not having distribution, we donated our bounty to Whitehall Food Pantry at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Catasauqua Area Food Bank, Allentown Ecumenical Food Pantry and City Limits Assembly of God Food Pantry.

Although we had some very hot days in August, early in the month, we had some reprieve. Our awesome pantry garden volunteers used this time to catch up on weeding our pepper, tomatillo, tomato, eggplant and basil beds. I decided to tackle the corn bed myself. Hidden among the weeds were some sweet pepper plants, and finding them was difficult, but fortunately, they were still alive and waiting for space and sun.

After the bed was cleared, the critters were able to find the corn and quickly began knocking down the stalks to get to those juicy ears. After a couple of the stalks landed on pepper plants, I decided the corn was a complete loss and knocked the remaining plants over in directions that would not impact any more of the pepper plants. The critters got to eat the corn, and our pepper plants could be saved. Some may not agree, but I call that a win-win.

I used my small rototiller in our former potato bed, and we replanted it with radishes, red beets, parsley and cilantro. The radishes germinated first and look great! The red beets were next and are coming in nicely. We are just starting to see a few cilantro and parsley plants emerging, but I am confident we will see these continue to sprout up in the coming days and weeks.

Due to an abundance of rain earlier in the season, we delayed the final installation of our irrigation system. As a result, this week, we hand-watered for the second time this month (August). With five volunteers using two hoses and a few watering cans, we can water the entire garden in about 15 minutes.

One bed that has been difficult to water has been our winter squash bed; however, this week Fran Worman was able to find her way through the vines to be able to give the bed a good drink. There are lots of butternut and acorn squash in there we can see, and given the size of some of these, I am anticipating we will harvest hundreds of pounds.

Thanks to everyone who has been dropping fresh produce on the table at the Re/Max Unlimited office at 1080 Schadt Ave., Whitehall. Year to date, you have donated 72 pounds of your garden bounty! Your garden excess may be donated 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays. Your generosity is greatly appreciated.

The Seed Farm was recently featured in a great article in Bethlehem Press. The writer of the article, Tami Quigley, asked me to share a little bit about WCHI’s relationship with The Seed Farm. Much of the information I contributed appeared in her article. If you haven’t read it, you can search “The Seed Farm” at lvpnews.com.

As a reminder, our pantry garden work nights are 6:15-7:15 p.m. Tuesdays, and all are welcome to join in our fun. Bring your favorite work gloves or use some of ours.

There’s a lot more of the growing season remaining. I wish you continued success with your victory gardens!

Editor’s note: This piece was written by Gwen Herzog, WCHI Food Pantry garden chair.