SOUTH HADLEY –
On this last unofficial weekend of summer, many gardeners were still reaping a bounty from their small plots in area community gardens. Wayne Desroches, a past president of the GRO (Garden and Resident Outreach) Committee in South Hadley summed up a Saturday visit to his plot at the town’s community garden, which he’s had for seven years: “This was a surprise day.” He found a bountiful harvest for the second day in a row, picking green peppers, peas, jalapenos, a giant (18”) zucchini and an assortment of tomatoes. But the biggest surprise, hidden underground, was a five gallon bucket’s-worth of russet potatoes he affectionately calls his “hundred dollar potatoes” for the amount of time he puts into growing them, from cleaning and preserving the small ones to over-winter for next spring’s seeds, to digging them out by hand in the fall.
Kevin Gutting can be reached at kgutting@gazettenet.com.