I am writing this article on the evening of Sept. 22, just a couple of hours after we completed our Tuesday work night. The plan for tonight was to weed the beds; however, when I arrived at the garden, I noticed we had quite a few potato plants that were pretty much dead.

I was concerned our potatoes could start rotting in the ground, so before anyone else arrived, I pulled a couple of plants to see what things were looking like. The first plant I pulled had several medium-sized potatoes and one larger potato. The second plant I pulled had several medium-sized potatoes and one very large potato, which was slimy and rotten on one end.

Sue Butchinski arrived, and we decided to pick the potatoes to prevent additional loss, so we grabbed the potato baskets and started pulling and digging. We found the potatoes came out much easier than last year. Jenn Dietz arrived and, after a quick primer, she started picking potatoes.

Jenn came upon a small garter snake and threw it over the fence; then, Sue came upon a second snake, which Jenn also threw over the fence. Sylvia Lee arrived, and then we had four for potato picking. We filled all our potato baskets, yellow bins, buckets, tote bags and part of a large, plastic bin.

We marveled at how many potatoes had grown on some of the plants and laughed about the unusually shaped potatoes we found. It was a fun night, and in about an hour, we had the entire bed picked. Sue, Jenn and I weighed everything and loaded my car while Sylvia wheelbarrowed the spent plants to the tree line. Our total take for the evening was 291.21 pounds.

We’ll pick the remaining potatoes from our small bed on our Sept. 29 work night. We estimate it will yield another 100 pounds.

At our work night Sept. 8, we harvested 177.5 pounds of vegetables and herbs, including zucchini, tomatoes, jalapeños, peppers, acorn squash and butternut squash. Unfortunately, some of the acorn and butternut squash had bites taken out of them, courtesy of rabbits that had gotten into the garden. We discovered small bunnies while hilling the potatoes at our work night Sept. 1. To not traumatize the Girl Scouts who were with us, we left them alone.

Obviously, they migrated to the squash bed, and the rest is history. We shared the squash, along with the rest of the harvested vegetables, with our pantry guests at distribution Sept. 10. We also had some great herbs and other vegetables donated by the community, and Second Harvest Food Bank provided cabbage, corn, eggplant, grapes and potatoes.

At our work night Sept. 15, we picked 165.18 pounds of vegetables and herbs, including zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, jalapeños, acorn squash, butternut squash and basil. Amazingly, 20 pounds were sweet peppers, and 18 pounds were jalapeños. We also had community donations of squash, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and herbs, and Second Harvest provided eggplant, apples, cabbage, corn and potatoes.

Again, a great variety of fresh produce was available for pantry guests at the distribution Sept. 17.

Our plan for October distribution days is to provide pantry garden-grown selections of acorn squash, butternut squash, potatoes, peppers, zucchini, basil and possibly cilantro. We will supplement with available selections from Second Harvest, as well as donations from our local community.

At a future work night, we will replant our potato beds with radishes and red beets for distribution in November and December. We also plan to plant garlic, which will not be ready to harvest until late spring.

Year to date, we have harvested 1,150.86 pounds of vegetables and herbs. Our community has donated 291.83 pounds of vegetables and herbs, and our pantry has shared 568.83 pounds of excess produce through the Lehigh Valley Plant-A-Row network.

The cooler weather we have had this week reminds me the summer vegetable growing time is short, and our first frost of the season will probably occur before I write my next article. As you empty your gardens, share your excess with family, friends and neighbors.

If you still have excess, our pantry is ready to accept your donations in the vestibule at Re/Max Unlimited, 1080 Schadt Ave., Whitehall, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays.

If you would like your donation to be picked up or if you prefer to drop your donation directly at the pantry, call or text me at 610-379-6823.

Savor the final flavors of summer, and have a great October!

Editor’s note: This article was written by Gwen Herzog, pantry garden chair.