Loudoun Plant a Row kicks off 2011 gardening season

If spring is here, summer cannot be far behind – and with it, the attack of the killer zucchini. Zucchini is an admirable vegetable, but eventually even the most creative cook runs out of recipes (zucchini crunch, zucchini casserole, zucchini tacos …), families rebel,  and overwhelmed gardeners start leaving bags of the green veggies on neighbors’ doorsteps in the dark of night.

Julia Brizendine has a better way, and founded Loudoun Plant a Row two years ago to get the word out.

“The point is, we let people who grow gardens know not to throw anything away.” She had heard the ads asking for donations of non-perishable goods, Brizendine said, but she had no idea that local food banks that assist the needy also welcome fresh produce.

“I figured if I didn’t know, others don’t know,” she said. “So the whole mission of this organization is to get that information out to everyone who has something to give away.”

March 13, Brizendine, founder and chair of Loudoun Plant a Row, and Laura Lieberman, volunteer and media outreach coordinator, kicked off the 2011 growing season with a seed give-away day at Corcoran Vineyard’s tasting room in Waterford.

They also offered fresh snacks for anyone who came by—fresh peas, spinach dip, strawberries, and fresh salsa.

Thanks to Amy Fox, founder of a local chapter of the Yellow Tractor program  (learn more at  www.yellowtractorprogram.org, the non-profit encourages families and children to eat more healthfully and to grow some of their own food), recipe cards for the fresh salsa were on hand for all comers.

Loudoun Plant a Row accounted last year for at least 16,000 pounds of fresh produce that went to Interfaith Relief in Leesburg. Interfaith Director of Operations Dave Dwyer said he thinks the actual number is much higher. Many donors, he said, drop a bag or box of summer produce at the store but don’t ask for a receipt for tax purposes or identify themselves as Plant a Row volunteers.

Brizendine is shooting for 10 tons this summer.

If a drive to Leesburg doesn’t fit in the grower’s schedule, the bounty from the garden can be dropped at Plant a Row collection sites in South Riding, Round Hill, Leesburg, Potomac Falls, and at Brizendine’s office, VPC Landscape Construction in Hamilton.

“The Loudoun Valley Homegrown Markets Association has been very generous,” Brizendine said. “One of our volunteers picks up at Cascades every Sunday with the Interfaith refrigerated truck, takes the donations back to Leesburg and just plugs the truck in. It’s still fresh the next morning when they get there and distribute it.”

The seed give-away is another prong of the program: encourage all gardeners to plant an extra row (or more) and to dedicate that extra produce to Plant a Row.

The offerings Saturday at Corcoran Vineyards tended to concentrate, appropriately enough, on cool weather crops—lots of spinach, chard, mustard, beets, radish, carrots, chives, onions, arugula, lettuce. One seed packet displayed micro-greens, and another, a multicolored assortment of carrots.

Lieberman saw a patch of bare ground at the Juvenile Detention Center in Leesburg and had an idea. She went over to the center and asked the person in charge if they would be interested in starting a garden and donating the surplus. They were very interested, Brizendine helped them get a greenhouse set up and the young detainees now get basic growing instruction—Brizendine and Lieberman are meeting with them next week to talk about getting seeds started indoors—and a chance to work out doors.

“And they are so proud when they see a cherry tomato that they grew on the salads in the cafeteria,” Lieberman said.

Dwyer couldn’t be happier, he said. “The produce has unbelievable nutritional value, it’s fresh, and it’s more healthy. Fresh. Fresh. Fresh. That beats anything in a can.”

For more on Loudoun Plant a Row and a list of drop off and collection sites, go to www.feedloudoun.org.