Harvest Community Garden producing beans, cucumber, fruits and more
The Harvest Community Garden in Shell Knob may see its largest crop yet this year, as Director Betty Ragland said she thinks the garden may top 1,000 pounds of produce.
In its seventh year, the Harvest Community Garden is a volunteer-run half-acre plot behind the United Methodist Church in Shell Knob, and all the produce harvested stays local.
“The objective is to help feed the community, especially the less fortunate and seniors,” Ragland said. “We supply quite a bit of produce to the Central Crossing Senior Center, and we give some to Straight Edge, an alcohol recovery program. We also distribute to residents through the Alliance Food Pantry, and we feed garden produce to the kids who come to daycare at the church.”
Ragland said the Garden produced 900 pounds of crops in 2021, falling below that in 2022 due to excessive heat wiping out the tomato plants. This year, with the most variety it has ever seen, Ragland said more than 500 pounds have been harvested thus far, and there are still three more months of harvesting to go.
“This year, since we got a donation from Bake Creek Heirloom Seeds, we’ve experienced a new variety [of plants],” Ragland said. “The newest phenomena are the snake beans and Chinese red noodle beans. We have a fw regular cucumbers, but we also have Poora Khera cucumbers that originated in India, Suey Long cucumbers originating in China and Beit Alpha cucumbers originating in Israel.”
The Garden also grows multiple tomato plants, including pineapple, millionaire, cherry and beefsteak.
“We have Berkeley Tie-Dye tomatoes and Brad’s Atomic Grape,” Ragland said. “We are growing popcorn in the ‘Three Sisters’ area, which has popcorn, squash and beans. We did popcorn because we host the SKITS plays and bought a popcorn machine, so we thought we’d grow our own popcorn for it.
“We have blackberries, red raspberries, cantaloupe and watermelon, plus multiple types of peppers and three or four kinds of basil.”
With so many different plants, Ragland relies on a supportive volunteer base, about 24 strong and with about 8 working on a regular basis.
“Only one person wanted to rent a raised bed, so this is all volunteer gardeners growing for for others,” Ragland said. “Our scheduled work days are Wednesday and Saturday, usually from 9 a.m. to about noon or 1 p.m.”
When asked how many hours that translates to or how much they work, Ragland had a simple answer.
“Too many,” she said. “But, it is rewarding to have this variety of plants, and it warms my heart when we give food to somebody who really appreciates it. We did the Farmer’s Market recently when one vendor was on vacation, and the public relations and being able to show our variety was kind of fun.”
Moving forward, Ragland said the garden will stay about the same size, with more trails planned but no new beds, unless there is an interest in more rented raised beds.
Ragland’s expansion efforts are focused now on involving people, especially children.
“We have included kids in the garden in a separate area, and it’s really rewarding to pass that ag education on,” she said. “That’s where my passion lies, educating others. We wanted to start plants with the daycare kids, too, but didn’t get to it this year. We want to do that next year.”
Expanding ag education is not just a Harvest Community Garden goal. The MU Extension in Barry County partners with the Garden to form the Shell Knob Community Victory Garden, which offers classes to local residents.
“We’ve held education classes the last two years, and I think that is benefitting the community because it’s not just gardeners who come,” Ragland said. “We have about 20 people not involved with the garden who attend classes regularly.”
For information on the classes and Victory Garden, people may call the MU Extension in Barry County at 417847-3161 or visit https:// extension.missouri.edu/ counties/barry.
For more information about the Harvest Community Garden, or to volunteer, people may text Ragland at 417-8466854.
