From park to table

Harvest season is here for Mountain View’s budding gardeners.

Member of Mountain View’s gardening club Soil & Water recently celebrated the start of the 2017 harvest at their new plot at the city’s Heritage Park. The group is marking the occasion in a true food-lover’s fashion they’re throwing potluck picnics.

At their potluck on July 22, the gardening club savored a spread of salads, casseroles and stews made from the produce they’ve cultivated throughout the year. For the most part, everything was made from their own locally-grown harvest, except for some exotic ingredients like ginger that don’t grow too well in this climate.

“It was a celebration of the friends and people who have helped out at the garden,” said Soil & Water program director Kavita Coombe. “Whenever there’s a harvest available, that all gets shared among everyone.”

This year was a particularly exciting time for Soil & Water since the group had a new gardening plot. The city of Mountain View gave the group a 2,220 square-foot space at Heritage Park, which opened in December.

So far, the group is growing a wide range of fruits and veggies at the new park. Coombe began listing off the inventory of onions, tomatillos, eggplants, six types of cucumber and four varieties of squash. Suffice to say, it was a long list, she said.

Anyone interested in gardening with Soil & Water can learn more at the group’s website at soilandwatergarden.org. Volunteer work days are held Wednesdays and Sundays at Heritage Park, located at 771 N. Rengstorff Ave.