Gardening For Fun And Philanthropy: Resident Donates Community Garden Produce To Pantries

BREWSTER – Fresh fruit and vegetables are some of the tougher items to come by in the food pantries of Cape Cod.

The Brewster Community Garden on Lower Road has a corner plot dedicated to growing food for food pantries, but for the past five years, since he began during the pandemic, Lucas Farber has dedicated most of his allocation to growing crops to donate to local pantries.

“I do keep some for myself,” he said. “I’ve been growing for about 10 years. I have a property on Stony Brook Road. I had a garden that was 1,750 square feet, 40 by 40, and that burnt me out.”

His current plot, one of 64 at the community garden, is much more manageable and quite productive and rewarding.

“I like giving back,” he said. Initially he donated to the Family Pantry of Cape Cod. After delivering vegetables there, he said, “A woman said thank you and looked right at me. That did it for me. That thank you. They had a lot of dry packaged food and it’s good for people to have fresh organic produce.”

Farber now brings his produce to Katy’s Korner at the Lower Cape Outreach Council in Orleans. It’s a little closer.

“They’ve got a couple of freezers. You walk right into the cooler and fridges. And the donations go from Brewster to Provincetown,” Farber said.

The community garden is on 18.5 acres of land donated by Brewster’s Eddy sisters. There’s a new apple orchard, a woodland walking trail recently explored by the Botanical Club of Cape Cod and the islands, a wildflower meadow and loads of flowers and vegetables in neighboring plots.

“This is my serenity. My peace,” Farber said of his mini-garden. “Eighty-five to 90 percent I give away. I keep some for myself when it comes to garlic and potatoes. I reuse that the following year. The potatoes are in their fifth generation. They get soft and sprout but then you plant them. It's smart gardening. Keep something on hand so you don’t have to buy the following year. My friend's basement is the perfect temperature and has air circulation. The worst is to go through the whole season and have everything rot.”

That’s being thrifty as well as generous. Saving the garlic allows you to select bigger cloves so it gains in size over time as you create your own cultivar.

“I have four different varieties of tomatoes: Sun Sugar, Sun Gold, Verona and Red Cherry,” Farber said. “Tomatoes are the only thing I buy. Everything else I buy seed that I start indoors or in the ground. Today will be my seventh donation this year (to the pantry). I have summer squash, cucumbers.”

Farber has raised beds in his plot — all the better to monitor the soil and give seedbeds a warmer start. The disadvantage is he has to water more. He looks forward to rainy days,

“That used to be all romaine, butter crunch lettuce, arugula, golden beets and radishes,” he said, pointing to an empty bed soon to be planted. “I haven’t done zucchinis the last couple of years.” Summer zukes can overwhelm anyone. Farber also sets part of the plot aside for other uses.

“I plant flowers now. I have a knack for it according to other people,” he said. “I started [gardening] in my early 20s then moved away to a different state and then the Virgin Islands. I moved back in 2014 and got into it in 2015. I started planting stuff and really enjoyed it. A woman calls me ‘the scientist’ and people ask me a lot of questions. I enjoyed it. I took a horticulture class.”

He does like to scientifically experiment with something new each summer and try new techniques for growing. But things don’t always work out.

“Critters ate my plot beans and snap beans. I think chipmunks,” he lamented.

Currently his plot features marigolds, basil, kale, arugula, the various tomatoes, squash and cucumbers, dahlias, smartweed, chives and thyme and pin cushion flowers. He has a work pile to amend soil before incorporating it into his beds. He has peppers in his section of the communal food pantry plot.

He’s already harvested and brought beets and pink beauty radishes to Katie’s Korner.

“I like the satisfaction. Germination, when the first sprout comes up. It’s almost like having a child. You have to support it the rest of its life,” he reflected. “I always try to plant something new, but I’ll never do watermelon again. It was super seedy.”

Too seedy to donate for those raised on supermarket melons. But the veggies and fruits, (remember tomatoes are fruits — radish is a vegetable) are fresh, crisp and packed with goodness only sunlight and soil can deliver.