Gardeners meet to swap and eat

Correction: Jan Treecraft’s name was spelled incorrectly in the original posting of this story.

Gardeners often joke that their neighbors grow sick of them pushing produce by the end of each summer. More tomatoes (or cucumbers or corn or carrots)? Why, thank you!

I’m not ever one to complain about free food, but if your freezer can only handle so many loaves of zucchini bread, Spokane residents Jan Treecraft and David Tremaine have a solution.

The South Hill neighbors organized a “gardening exchange” today that brought together novice and experienced gardeners in Treecraft’s backyard. About 10 people attended, some bringing surplus produce from their gardens, some bringing seed packets for next year, some bringing books about organic gardening they no longer need. The concept was simple: take what you can use, give what you can live without.

“It’s fun to get together and share information without having to go to a chat room,” Treecraft said.

One of the first people to arrive gave Treecraft seeds for “Russian Mammoth” sunflower seeds, which grow about 12 feet high. Treecraft decided to plant them along the back of her property next year.

Treecraft and Tremaine set out jars of homemade “super chunky” applesauce—with or without rosemary—for the taking.

Conversation jumped from politics to sustainability to history and, of course, to growing and preparing food.

Liza Mattana offered a tomato tip. After a neighbor gave her enough tomatoes to make 60 pints of pasta sauce (literally), Mattana dried the rest using her a dehydrating machine.

“That’s a great idea. I just bought a brand-new dehydrator at a garage sale,” another participant said.

Attendees also watched as Treecraft’s husband, Dan, made progress on a chicken coop he hopes to finish building by spring.

When the cold air became unbearable, the group moved inside the Treecrafts’ house, where the smell of roasting vegetables and homemade lentil soup filled the air. Attendees dug into dishes everyone had brought for the potluck-style event and took turns saying something they learned about gardening last summer and something that still confused them.

The group seemed inspired by the growing number of backyard (and front yard) gardeners and the increased interest in sustainable gardening. One neighbor commented that he and his wife had been stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic out at Green Bluff this morning.

“I think people are more and more inclined to go to the source of food directly,” he said.