At Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative’s pantry garden, we continued to harvest throughout the month of November.

On our Tuesday work night Nov. 12, we picked 10.73 pounds of radishes and broccolini, which we offered to our pantry guests at a distribution Nov. 14. Also, at the Nov. 14 distribution, we offered our butternut squash as a choice on our holiday rack. They were quite popular, and we only had a handful left for our evening distribution. The broccolini and especially the radishes were also popular with our guests.

Second Harvest Food Bank produce boxes containing apples, sweet peppers, onions and squash were offered to each household, so once again, a lot of fresh produce for pantry guests.

On our Tuesday work night Nov. 19, we picked 33.19 pounds of vegetables and herbs, including kale, chard, radishes, parsley, cilantro, oregano and dill. These selections were made available to pantry guests at the Nov. 21 distribution along with Second Harvest produce boxes.

Hannah, from The Seed Farm, made a visit to the pantry garden Nov. 13 to see what we still had growing in the garden, advise me on the next steps to get the beds ready for winter and to gather soil samples for analysis by Penn State Extension.

She was pleased with the number of vegetables and herbs we still had growing both under cover and in our remaining open beds. Hannah noted our spinach was still “baby,” but it would continue to grow at least into December. She was happy to see we still had some viable herbs in three of the beds, but noted we need to weed these beds before we cover with straw mulch for winter.

Hannah was thrilled with how our covered kale, chard and broccolini looked. She advised that, even after our November harvest, we should leave the plants covered. Apparently, we may have some regrowth in spring we will be able to harvest before rototilling under.

Finally, using a test kit provided by Penn State Extension, Hannah gathered a small amount of soil from most of the beds. She will take the soil back to The Seed Farm, where it would be laid out to dry. The dried soil samples will then be mixed and a small amount sent off to the lab.

The information obtained from the soil analysis will show any nutrients that will need to be added for next year. If you are interested in having your garden or lawn soil tested, you can obtain more information at extension.psu.edu/soil-testing.

I recently contacted Whitehall Township Public Works Department to have our rainwater catch system disconnected for the winter. The water tank still needs to be completely emptied and the top cap reapplied before everything freezes up. We also need to empty and dry out our remaining water barrels around the garden before we store them all in the shed. Finally, we will remove our pantry garden banner from the fence.

Assuming we don’t get tons of snow, which will prohibit us from driving down to the garden, we should be able to pick spinach, radishes and possibly some herbs and give them out at our distributions in December. In my January 2025 article, I will report on whether we were able to accomplish this plan.

To recap, we picked 43.92 pounds of vegetables and herbs in November, and year to date, we have picked 885 pounds. Despite the drought and some severe critter issues, I am very pleased with our 2024 results, and I hope you are as well.

Enjoy your December!

Editor’s note: This column was written by Gwen Herzog, Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative Food Pantry garden chair.