Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: a gardening and produce-handling question

[Fred-List manager (fholson]

Anne <aynabet3 [at] gmail.com>
is the author of the message below.  It was posted by
Fred, the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org>
after restoring the subject deleting two quoted digests.
(By mistake I let a message thru that quoted a digest yesterday
- sorry.)  Fred
--------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------
So happy to hear of other cohousings that grow food!

Here at Winslow Cohousing on Bainbridge Island WA our community
vegetable garden grows food for Common House meals.  Extra food is
shared with the community and used by garden workers.

If we still have additional food we share it with the local food bank.
Just today I took some them some excess summer squash.

No one is paid for the work they do in the garden except for the
produce they use.   It's a labor of love, with many helpers.

The garden workers have one "slot" in the meals rotation. This means
that picking for specific meals allows reduced or no meal duties,
depending on various scheduling factors.

The gardener responsible for a specific meal checks with the cook to
see what produce they want, then provides that. On a regular basis the
gardeners let cooks know what is ripening/available.

The cook notes, on the meal cost summary, if produce was used for the
meal. The meal system makes a payment to the garden budget.   This
part is not yet perfected though.

I'm happy to answer additional questions.

Anne