Around us we are best off sticking with common, basic veggies: red tomatoes varieties that can take alot of handling without turning to mush, not unusual colored, soft heirlooms (much as I might love them) slicing cucumbers, green peppers, red radishes, yellow or bicolor sweet corn Foods that have a long harvest window are good. You can leave them a week...or three, if the pantry doesn't have a big need at the time ie, carrots, onions, beets (roots and greens), potatoes (also can harvest any of these when you have enough time and help to clean them up) Small red fleshed watermelons that fit in small apartment refrigerators are popular. Veggies that don't take forever to harvest....we will do few if any beans or peas unless we have ALOT more volunteer harvesters, also not too many cherry tomatoes which can be overwhelming to harvest Find out what client mix is usual at the pantry. We had one pantry that was unable to give away the many hot peppers we had. A volunteer lived near another pantry that was thrilled to get them and was able to use 20 pounds or more in a week. Herbs were not taken much at our pantry. I imagine this would depend on the area and clients, also. I was actually asked not to bring anymore. Try not to be offended if they turn something down. You and I just will not always know what their clients can use. Talk with the pantry staff when you bring produce in, find someone who will honestly (and kindly) tell you if your donation is great for them or isn't really of use. I found some thanked me profusely even for produce that they were overloaded with at the time. There was a good chance my donation would not be used while it was still fresh. Once I started questioning more, I was able to split the harvest between two places and supply each with things more suited to their needs.(Took me awhile to get over the rather rude way one pantry volunteer turned away my beautiful chiles!) Bring good looking produce. Send the culls home with the gardeners. If you are trying to encourage people to eat healthy, you have to make it attractive. Don't give the pantry the rejects. Hope your project goes well. Many people will appreciate having fresh produce available to them.

Serenade is organic. it eats the spores and bacteria etc. It originally was found in soil. I have added it to water and water the soil and let stand. If the soil is full of bacteria it will eat them and multiply and basically sterilize the soil. I also use it when watering new seedlings. My opinion is that I can use more or less of it depending on the problem. I buy the liquid concentrate and add to water. For the above when watering I use less then at some other times. The above has worked for me. It is very low cost as the concentrate makes a lot of solution. Your mileage may vary and I would recommend an experimental trial before making a final decision. Originally when I had a big infestation I would spray all of the entire plants for protection. I have also used it to sterlize everything. no harm in spraying everything to help with prevention. I like it because it is very safe to use. It is NOT poison. It is a microbe that eats pretty much all spores and bacterias etc. It is completely safe to people and animals etc. Works for me. I do not claim it will work for you. Only you can determine that. spraying your plants with water sounds backwards. but the water contains this hungry microbe that is looking to eat all the bad guys. You might also consider phoning the company that makes Serenade and talk to them about your problem and see what they say.

Lynxe, this is getting really redundant. It's not a question of whether one can compensate for the deficiency. I suppose if one wanted to, they could live on nothing but supplements. Those on that very low calorie diet trying to hyper extend longevity essentially do that. But that is not to say it's optimal for good health or sustainable by the vast majority of people. As I said before, the issue is that the strict vegan diet, by itself is not complete. Meaning that it is not fundamentally consistent with the full nutritional requirements of the human body as it has evolved over the past tens of thousands of years. This, on its face says that it is not optimum. Further, as I said before, we know about the need for B-12, and the challenges of adequate protein, iron, zinc, iodine, DHA, calcium in following that diet. But it's what we don't know that's missing in that diet that could be harmful. We went for decades lauding a low to no fat diet and it wasn't until they looked deeper into the kinds of fats and the metabolism of those fats and things like essential fatty acids that they realized the low/no fat diet was not optimum. Not only for the required fats, but also for the sustainability of the diet as fats help keep one from feeling hungry. Further the replacement of fats with sugars, as many food cos. did to try to keep their food palatable, was very damaging to the waistline and blood sugar levels. Moreover, on a personal level, I never went vegetarian but approached that and found myself not doing well as I wasn't getting adequate protein (suffered hair loss and weak nails) and I was getting excess carbs which showed up as belly fat and cellulite. When I went back to eating a more balanced diet, all of that improved as well as my muscle tone and energy levels. I know quite a few other people who tried vegetarianism and went back. I know others who have tried veganism and went back to vegetarianism because they felt better and were doing better. You can argue that it was because they weren't doing it right, but the reality is, given how much time and effort they were willing to put into it, including some animal products in their diet was more effective and sustainable for them. If veganism works well for you, then that's wonderful. If you're willing to invest the time and effort to get sufficient variety/supplementation to keep your diet complete, that's great. I'm happy with whatever works for anyone that keeps them healthier. But given that only 2% of Americans are even self-described as vegan (and we don't know how many of those are long-term vs. dabblers) and given the nutritional risks/effort required to maintain health on that restrictive a diet, as well as the anecdotal experience of those who have tried it especially for the long term, I believe it is not the best diet for the vast majority of people. -------------------- This video discusses multigenerational veganism, or the lack thereof. The link below is a blog post by a doctor on her actual experience with patients who pursue veganism (vs. the theoretical) and how rare it is to find someone who will maintain the diligence required for long term health with veganism. If you do a search on "long-term veganism" you'll find lots more. Here is a link that might be useful: Dr. Clouthier on Veganism

Fun thread. We are in a "summer green" climate. While some (most) things in the herb garden are perennial, they are dormant in winter so we harvest and dry during the summer, for use in the winter. (Rosemary, thyme, lavender, all the mint family) No basil in the winter save for the pesto we make at the end of the summer, nor cilantro (but we do harvest the coriander which keeps all winter) We have two sad little citrus trees, which give approximately two fruits apiece each year. I herd them into the house in October and put them back out in May. Probably not worth the trouble but I grew up in a "winter green" climate and really miss having citrus trees in my yard! Paradoxically, because we do not have AC in the house, it actually gets warmer indoors during summer than most "winter green" houses probably do, so we still refrigerate all the food. (Not the tomatoes naturally, they would turn to mush) This time of year is a frenzy of harvesting and preserving. You can of course get anything at the store year-round but it tends to be shipped in from far away, which is unappetizing on many levels!