Every year, I grow standards like tomatoes and basil, but I also like to try new vegetables every year, to see what works with my soil and the local conditions. This year, I started a number of heritage vegetables from seed, including carrots, beets, tomatoes, and beans. It’s faacinating to read about produce that has been grown for generations, and seeds passed on. I like being part of that chain. I have four kinds of beans: some are best for eating fresh, and others are soup beans. I have five kinds of lettuce and other salad greens. I also started four types of heritage tomatoes. When growing from seed, you never know how many seedlings will make it, so you plant more than you need. I had good luck with my tomato and pepper seedlings, so I gave some to friends with gardens, and planted the rest. I’m happy to be able to share my produce with Grow a Row.

Pictured below: tomatoes, beans,  lettuce, garlic, and a few weeds!

Please help us reach our goal of 5,000 pounds of food distributed this summer! You can donate surplus produce at our market stall on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2-4 or Saturdays from 11:30-4:30. You can also drop food off at the Partners in Mission Food Bank at 140 Hickson Ave (please indicate that it is for Grow a Row).

Please join us in the Acorn Garden every week as we plant, weed, water and harvest produce to donate to local emergency meal providers. This summer we are growing tons of tomatoes and herbs to prepare and preserve into delicious tomato sauce that we’ll distribute later in the season. We’re there every Tuesday evening from 4 to 8 p.m. and you will find our garden within the Oak St. Community Garden here. Hope to see you there!

Join the Grow a Row Committee, local gardeners and community members, for a celebration including a potluck, music and more information about the Grow a Row campaign.

Monday, May 9th, at 7 pm, Kingston Unitarian Fellowship, 214 Concession Street

For more information, please contact Kate Archibald-Cross, Grow a Row Coordinator: 613-546-4291 ext. 1871, or kate@lovingspoonful.org

Welcome to 2011! We are busy planning for the warmth of summer and getting ready for our most successful Grow a Row season yet.

Kingston is one of over 80 cities in Canada with active Grow a Row campaigns.  Last year, more than 50 growers helped us to surpass our goal of distributing 4,000 pounds of food – we received and delivered 4,158 pounds in 2010, and look forward to an even more fruitful 2011. We hope to distribute at least 5,000 pounds of food this year and we would love for you to help us reach this goal.

 How can you get involved?

Anyone can make meaningful contributions to Grow a Row: our growers range from full-time farmers to city-dwellers who grow an extra row of carrots in their yards or tomato plants on their balconies.

First of all, please let us know that you would like to be a grower for this year, and then start planning what you can grow to contribute. This is a great time of year to browse seed catalogues and websites to plan for your summer harvest. We welcome all produce donations, but root vegetables and other hearty vegetables that store well (cabbages, peppers, squashes, etc.) are especially valuable for meal programs.

Once you have signed on to be a grower for this season, we will keep you posted about upcoming events, as well when and where to deliver your produce when the time comes.

If you or someone you know would like to partner with Loving Spoonful and Grow a Row Kingston, or have an idea of another way to get involved, please let us know.  Both in-kind and cash donations are always welcome. 

For more information on Loving Spoonful and Grow a Row, please visit our website: www.lovingspoonful.org and click on Grow a Row under Projects.

Thanks Mayor Rosen for sharing your backyard harvest with Grow a Row.

Grow a Row was happy to partner with the Oak St. Community Garden to host the annual Harvest Celebration at the Oak St. Garden on Saturday, September 25. We enjoyed great company and marvellous food and even got some work done while we were at it! We tidied up the Acorn Garden and planted some beautiful garlic that will produce delicious scapes in the spring followed by gorgeous bulbs later in the season. Kids enjoyed making basil- and mint-infused ice cream, and we enjoyed eating it. Local cake artist Rebekha Jeffries created a masterpiece that tasted as good as it looked, and truly captured the feel of September in the garden. (You can email her here for information on ordering cakes.) We will be putting the garden to bed over the next couple of weeks and are already excited about the possibilities for next year’s harvest.

Even though the growing season is wrapping up, we’re still keeping busy: if you are interested in getting involved with Grow a Row, please drop us an email

Growing up with a fruit and vegetable garden was a large part of Nathan’s life growing up, so starting a small garden in his small enclosed patio he shares with his partner Julia seemed natural. Among the variety of fruit and vegetables that Nathan cultivated last summer were eight different varieties of heirloom tomatoes, jalepeno and bell peppers, heirloom melons and basil, and a scattering of cabbage, bok choy and a variety of herbs such as basil, thyme and rosemary. His motivations for donating to Grow a Row were simple: “Fresh food is essential to good health for those who cannot afford to eat. And when you have a garden, you always have a few extra food items than you can’t use at any given time. Donating to Grow a Row is an easy way to integrate both into a way to support those in need in our community.”

Loving Spoonful wishes to extend a warm welcome to Kate as our new Grow a Row Coordinator. Kate Archibald-Cross has lived in Kingston most of her life, and has a strong commitment to growing, buying, and eating locally. She and her family live and work downtown, and she can most often be found on the playground, in the kitchen or roller-skating on the flat track. She will be working with the Grow a Row Committee to coordinate the 2011 Grow a Row campaign among other projects. Welcome Kate!

Thanks to the staff at InterCall for growing a row! They converted some of the flower beds around their building into vegetable plots. In this photo are staff members Christie (left) and Corliss with some of their harvest.