Sharing Tomatoes Last week while on vacation in Maine, more tomatoes were ready to be shared. Thanks Lisa Deeley Smith for picking the tomatoes and taking them to the Arlington Senior Center to share with our senior community. Will be checking out the garden again tonight and will post new pictures soon. Hopefully we will have more to share this coming week. Blessings!

The Tomatoes have arrived!

Well, it's been over a month since I last posted. The heatwave in July made it difficult for us to do much weeding. It was just too hot. We finally got most of the weeding completed. It's probably not the most beautiful tomato garden but it is beautiful to us. In July, the Arlington Advocate did a story about our tomato project and took pictures. That was exciting. After the weeding, the next big hurdle was getting all the tomato plants staked up. As of this writing, most of them are completed but there are still a few more which need to be done. A special thank you to my husband Phil for really overseeing the maintenance of this garden. This has been a good learning experience and understanding what needs to be done and when we need many hands to make it happen. Thanks Greg (my brother-in-law) for the pipes - they were very helpful for staking the plants. Thank you to all the Trinity helping hands who have weeded, watered and staked the tomatoes. This has been truly appreciated. The project has also turned into a intergenerational experience as we have preschoolers through older adults being a part of the project. Now for the exciting news! This morning we delivered our first bag of over 50 tomoatoes to the Arlington Food Pantry to be distributed today. That is what the project is all about. Sharing the fruits of our labors with the community. Thank you Christine Connelly from the Town of Arlington for your assistance and to Oakes Plimpton (Boston Area Gleaners) for your advise, assistance and connections as well and to my fellow Zontian, Patsy Kramer for assisting me as well in making connections and giving me advice and ideas on how to distribute. Will post again soon and have added some new pictures. Blessings, Barbara

Showers of Blessings

It's been a little over 3 weeks since we planted over 100 tomatoes plants.  So far so good.  They have been getting wartered daily - either through mother nature or through volunteers coming down and turning the sprinkler on for them to get nourishment.  Some of the plants now have blossoms and small tomatoes.  For a novice gardener like myself, I marvel in amazement at God's creation.  Throughout the beauty, the weeds are now beginning to come.  It will be time to weed this weekend.  Thank you to those who have volunteered to assist with the chores of the garden.  This is a community effort and we welcome hands that want to help.  If you would like to commit to one day, or several days throughout the summer, please contact me at abwbarbara@gmail.com and I will be happy to put you on the garden schedule. 

In the Beginning.....

Welcome to Trinity Baptist's Tomato Times Blog.  We are exc ited about this new outreach project we have begun and wanted to share our progress, pictures and stories with you.  This Spring Trinity decided to take a piece of land on our front lawn to make a difference in our community.   We decided to plant tomato plants and share the tomatoes with those needing food and fresh tomatoes in our community.  Being the administrator of the project is a new venture for me since I know very little about growing vegetables.  However, I am surrounded by friends in the Trinity community who are veterans at this and know they will guide me along the way. 

The first step was to map out a location on our lawn that will fit 100 tomato plants.  That's right.  I decided on planting 100 plants.  This way if I loose a few along the way, we will still yield plenty of tomatoes.  Thank you Alan for choosing the spot for our tomato garden.   Next step was to till the land.  Thanks to my brother-in-law Greg and my husband Phil, the land was tilled. 

Now we need tomato plants and alot of them.  Some of the Trinity community donated some but a big thank you goes to Wilson Farms who gave a very good discount on 102 tomato plants.  I know that these are good plants since I have been a patron of Wilson's for as long as I can remember and their high standards and great quality produce speaks for itself.  Thank you Lauren and Steve Wilson.

Let the planting begin!  Now that I have over 100 tomato plants,  the time has come to plant them.  This weather hasn't cooperated very well but finally this past Wednesday night, we gathered on the front lawn for the planting of the tomatoes!!!!   Young and old alike came out to lend a hand.  I am so thankful for my Trinity family who came out with their gardening tools and planted 110 tomato plants.  Lisa guided me on how to design the garden, reminding me that we needed a path through the garden so we could get to the plants to care for them.   Joe, Sheri, Tommy, Devin, Alan, Lisa, Nor, Greg, Nola, Elsie and Phil - thank you for making this dream become a reality.

At the end of the eveing when the planting was complete, we looked up into the sky and there it was -- a double rainbow.  Clearly a sign from God that we did good.

In the weeks to come as we tend our garden, we invite you to stop by take a look and follow our progress through this blog.  If you would like to help us with the weeding and tending of the tomatoes, email us at trinitybaptist@rcn.com and we would love to get you involved to.  That's what community is all about.  People helping people - reaching out and building relationships.  That is what my prayer is for Trinity's Great Tomato Project of 2013 - a project that will help us to reach out and build relationships in our community.