Grace Lutheran Church garden ready for harvest

GWINN, Mich. (WLUC) - This spring, volunteers from Grace Lutheran Church and the Gwinn Lions Club joined Steve Finley from the Gwinn Seed Library to plant a garden behind the church.

On Thursday, some of those crops were ready for harvest. Finley, the Seedbearer for the Gwinn Lutheran Church, joined volunteers to start the harvest.

“We tilled the land, we opened it up, we put in aged horse manure, we put soil on top of that and then we planted and one of the most fun moments is when you’re putting a seed this big into the ground and they look at you and they go, ‘It doesn’t look like there are many seeds here,” Finley said.

But, there were many seeds and the garden is expected to yield hundreds of pounds of food.

The crops included pumpkins, dill, carrots, beets, beans and more. Finley said he does all of this with the help of the whole community.

“Because God said ‘feed my people,’ I can’t argue with that so, that’s the whole premise is that this is a passion. This is almost like a mission, and I have the support of Lions and I have the support of Gwinn and I have the support of Grace,” Finley said.

90 percent of what is harvested will remain with Grace Lutheran Church to be distributed during the Feeding America Food Truck at the church on Sept. 27.

Finley said he hopes this inspires other communities in the U.P.

“I want people from across the U.P. to realize that they can grow hundreds of pounds of produce and be able to distribute it in their own community, why not do this in your own community,” Finley added.

This is the first year for the Grace Lutheran Garden harvest.

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