Saturday the Wrentham Food Pantry received its third delivery of fresh organically grown vegetables thanks to the efforts of the
Harvest from the Heart Volunteers. Organized by Ken Oles, the garden has produced approximately 40 pounds of vegetables for the local food pantry. The deliveries are scheduled to keep coming as the garden on the Wrentham Development School property is turning out to be bountiful. “The garden is really prolific,” Oles says. “The plants are very healthy.”

The harvesting is on a regular schedule with volunteers spending about two hours every Friday morning gathering vegetables and herbs from the 9,000 square foot lot. The newly picked crops are cleaned right at thesite before it’s brought to St. Mary’s. In the late afternoon, another group of volunteers sorts through the various heads of lettuce, herbs, onions, broccoli and other vegetables, and gives them another wash if necessary. Everything isplaced in produce bags donated by the Plainville Stop & Shop. (
Pictured: A group of volunteers tend to the garden.)
Other crops gathered so far include Swiss chard, parsley,basil, oregano and a few zucchini. Oles hopes the tomatoes will be ready for picking by the 4th of July. The garden also has eggplants, peppers,bush beans, and some turnips. Soon, new crops will be planted as part of a succession plan. Root crops will be replaced with surface plants like beans.
Oles says there has been some insect pressure such as the arrival of the Colorado potato beetle, which they can just pick off the plants.“Right now we’re just monitoring it,” he says. “If it doesn’t get worse, we’ll leave it alone. “
The garden is being tended to by a core group of 50 volunteers. There are University of Rhode Island Master Gardeners helping with the project, and local businesses have chipped in too. White Barn Farm and Westin Nursery have donated valuable plants, Cataldo’s Hardware has provided equipment at cost, and Groundscape Express provided the compost system.

Roberta Oles, Ken’s wife, says the garden has received donations from people throughout Wrentham and says that anyone in the community is welcome to volunteer and work in the garden. The harvests will continue to be on Friday mornings at 9:30.
With the summer still young, the early results from the garden are very positive and Oles is already dreaming about expanding the garden next year. “I would like to expand it to an acre,” he says. He says the larger garden will require the use of machinery, but he’s ready for that.