metro >> on the cover
Green thumbs yield crops for the table and the hungry.
Louis Finkelman I Special to the Jewish News
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
"We may also get some cucumbers and
squash; the seeds seem to be coming up,
but one never knows if they'll survive:'
said Joe Lewis. "We also have some fruit,
though it's hard to know if we'll get any-
thing edible because the bugs like fruit
possibly more than we do:'
Gretchen and Neil Weiner keep a veg-
etable garden at their home in Livonia.
Asked about her kitchen garden, Gretchen
says that she only has lettuce and a few
herbs and, as an afterthought, then lists
many other kinds of vegetables that they
grow from seed.
"I think of the lettuce and a few herbs
as my only kitchen garden because they
are right there and I can go out and snip
a few leaves while I prepare our dinner.
The vegetable garden is across the yard:'
Mark Rothenberg says that he and his
wife, Andi, started a tiny vegetable patch
in their backyard in West Bloomfield
more than 20 years ago, when their chil-
dren were infants, "to show them how
things grow:'
After a few years, the urge to fill the
garden with plants became a passion for
the Rothenbergs. Now their patch has
grown to a garden, 20 feet by 10 feet, with
tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans and an
assortment of herbs. For Mark, the great-
est pleasure associated with gardening
comes with giving away bags of tomatoes
to friends. One friend eagerly accepts gifts
of fresh herbs to use in his restaurant.
Inspired by a neighbor who let Sharon
Krasner's toddler son pick his garden
cucumbers for instant snacks, Krasner
started her own vegetable garden. "It pro-
vided food for my children without hav-
ing to spend money at the grocery store:'
she said.
She started with plants in pots, includ-
ing the herbs she uses in cooking nearly
every day: rosemary, basil, parsley and
some mint. She finds gardening therapeu-
tic, "which is perverse, because it is also
so frustrating:' Sometimes a crop fails;
sometimes a crop yields more than she can
possibly use.
"Last couple of years, my zucchini, of
all things, did not produce:' she said. "I
had to go to some friends to get some of
their oversupply. But my cucumbers took
over the place, so I could give cukes in
exchange:'
Krasner considers sharing the harvest
8
July 25 • 2013
Judy Front pulls up a beet from her bountiful garden.
Earlier in the season, Mark Rothenberg of West Bloomfield takes care of young plants.
one of the chief joys of gardening. Sharing
also works in the spring, to get plants to set
in the garden. This season, Krasner picked
up a few bunches of a neighbor's prolific
green onions in time for planting. "Free is
good," she said.
Gardens At Home, Work
Judy Front describes her home garden in
Oak Park enthusiastically, listing 15 differ-
ent vegetables before concluding "and also
other varieties of leafy plants for salads:'
Vegetables from Judy's garden go into
nearly every meal throughout the summer.
Judy also gardens at work. As director
of sports, aquatics and camps at the Jewish
Community Center in Oak Park, Judy
makes sure children in the JCC day camp
experience planting, weeding and harvest-
ing so they know where food comes from.
She also works with the Jewish Senior
Life Community Garden at Temple
Emanu-El in Oak Park, a cooperative
venture with the temple and with JSL
that generates fresh produce for Teitel
Apartments residents. Patti Tauber, JSL
social worker and community garden
coordinator for Teitel, makes sure that
residents, volunteers from the com-
munity and Master Gardeners all work
together to produce a beautiful garden
for visitors and residents to admire.
Tauber particularly enjoys the smile
of one of the residents who comes to
work in the garden every week and com-
ments happily on the garden's progress in
Russian. Later in the summer, the garden
will enrich the diet of elderly residents
with delicious fresh produce.
This year, one of the outside volunteers
replaced all the metal tomato cages with
gorgeous bamboo structures. The wide
paths of the community garden allow
people to navigate wheelchairs between
the raised beds. With a few more dona-
tions, the garden's paths could be paved
and the beds raised waist high so that
even residents with limited mobility
could work the gardens.
Judy Front and some of the other
leaders of the community garden have
taken Master Gardener volunteer classes
offered by the Michigan State University
Extension Service in cooperation with
Oakland County. Students who take the
12-week training experience and commit
to using their expertise in community
service projects can qualify as Master
Gardeners. Carol Lenchuck, coordina-
tor of the Natural Science Program for
Oakland County, stresses that students
learn the science of horticulture so they
can understand what works and why it
works.
By taking a similar course in compost-
ing, Judy Front qualifies as a Master
Composter. "None of the waste from my
kitchen goes out with the garbage," she
says. "It is too valuable for the compost:'
You can be sure that vegetables come
from your home garden fresh and free of
pesticides. What about soil contaminants?
Carol Lenchuck explains that most subur-
ban Detroit backyards never were factories
or gas stations, but only residential or
farmland, so people do not have to worry
about contaminants like lead or cadmium.
Garden Geeks on page 10