Harvesting the Stone Soup Community Garden

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) - Despite the chilly, drizzly weather, a small but hardy company of volunteers showed up to harvest vegetables from the Stone Soup Community Garden on Saturday morning.

This summer the community garden boasted several beds of potatoes, squash, kale, cabbages, brussels sprouts, broccoli, raspberries, and more. Various flowers including sunflowers and nasturtiums bloomed among the vegetables to attract pollinators.

Peter Miller, who manages the garden, said that he hopes their crops help feed those who could use the food during the winter.

The garden is open to the public all summer, and much of the produce, such as the broccoli and most of the cabbages, had already been collected. People would often wander through and graze on the produce. “Which is fine,” Miller explained. “It’s for anyone who is in need of food.”

It took just over an hour to harvest the remaining crops, primarily consisting of potatoes and kale.

Everything harvested on Saturday will be made into fresh, locally grown meals for the hungry in Stone Soup’s kitchen, just as it has for the past seven years of operation.

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