{"id":1915,"date":"2010-07-19T15:59:51","date_gmt":"2010-07-19T15:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=1915"},"modified":"2012-10-09T17:09:55","modified_gmt":"2012-10-09T17:09:55","slug":"maryland-department-of-agriculture-employees-plant-vegetable-garden-at-eastern-shore-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2010\/07\/19\/maryland-department-of-agriculture-employees-plant-vegetable-garden-at-eastern-shore-office\/","title":{"rendered":"MARYLAND DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE EMPLOYEES PLANT VEGETABLE GARDEN AT EASTERN SHORE OFFICE"},"content":{"rendered":"

Surplus Vegetables Donated to Food Bank<\/em> <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

SALISBURY, MD (July 19, 2010) – Maryland Department of Agriculture employees of the Salisbury Mosquito Control Office are harvesting vegetables for charity from their new office vegetable garden. Inspired by First Lady Katie O\u2019Malley\u2019s garden at the Government House, four employees planted a community vegetable garden on the University of Maryland property outside their office building, and are donating the surplus vegetables to the Wicomico County Food Bank.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it would be a really neat thing to do to have a garden here and help feed the needy in these hard economic times,\u201d said Jackie Kimball, the MDA employee who had the idea for the garden and got it started.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a really great project. I\u2019m excited and proud that our employees have taken it on and are involved so heavily with the community,\u201d said Agriculture Secretary Buddy Hance. \u201cThis type of garden is exactly what First Lady O\u2019Malley and the University of Maryland Master Gardeners had in mind with all the positive impacts with the Grow It Eat It backyard gardening program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently the garden is growing sweet corn, peppers, zucchini, squash, okra, black eyed peas, lima beans, onions, and tomatoes. In the traditional community garden style, the employees who are involved with the garden can take the vegetables for themselves, and the surplus is donated to the Wicomico County Food Bank. So far, about 50 pounds of vegetables have been donated.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of our employee\u2019s 13-year-old daughter would not touch fresh vegetables until her mom started bringing them home from the garden and trying different recipes for dinner,\u201d said Dave Schofield, head of MDA\u2019s Salisbury Mosquito Control office. \u201cHer daughter now looks forward to the different vegetables that are brought home. That’s what it\u2019s all about!\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to helping the needy, Kimball said that she wanted to learn more about gardening. However, she has never had the room at home to start her own garden. \u201cThis is the first time I\u2019ve ever attempted a garden,\u201d Kimball said. One of the four employees involved, Arthur Meilhammer, has been gardening for several years and has acted as a mentor in teaching the others about gardening practices. In addition to Kimball and Meilhammer, the gardening crew consists of Paul Nuwer and Wicomico County employee Rhonda Daley. Gardening is no easy task \u2013 each of them puts in about three hours a week working in the garden, working during their lunch breaks, after work, and even on the weekends.<\/p>\n

Reception for the garden has been extremely positive. When the idea was first brought up, the employees needed permission from the University of Maryland Vegetable Research Farm, which owns all of the property the MDA building sits on. The University didn\u2019t just give them the go-ahead \u2013 they came over with their equipment and tilled the soil so that they would have an easier start. The gardeners have plans to continue production by planting fall crops and eventually expanding the garden.<\/p>\n

Inspiration for the garden stemmed from First Lady Katie O\u2019Malley\u2019s vegetable garden at the Government House. This April, as part of National Gardening Month and Maryland Grow It Eat It Month, she planted a vegetable garden for the second year in a row. The \u201cGrow It Eat It\u201d campaign encourages Maryland families to improve health and save money by growing fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs using sustainable practices. This year, the Government House, the University of Maryland Extension\u2019s Master Gardeners and the Maryland Department of Agriculture teamed up to present a lecture series one day per month through October in the Government House garden. The program filled up quickly and has been a success.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

Follow MDA on Twitter @MdAgDept<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Surplus Vegetables Donated to Food Bank SALISBURY, MD (July 19, 2010) – Maryland Department of Agriculture employees of the Salisbury Mosquito Control Office are harvesting vegetables for charity from their new office vegetable garden. Inspired by First Lady Katie O\u2019Malley\u2019s garden at the Government House, four employees planted a community vegetable garden on the University  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1915"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1916,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1915\/revisions\/1916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}