Orange Christian Services for decades has provided cans of tuna, boxes of macaroni and cheese, along with cans of corn and green beans to hungry families needing help. Sandra Hoke and other volunteers thought something was missing.
“Everyone needs fresh produce,” Hoke said. Hoke, Claire Smith and other gardeners were inspired to start The Field of Plenty, a community garden to raise vegetables and fruits for clients at Orange Christian Services.
Saturday morning, volunteers and gardening enthusiasts gathered at the field for a series of seminars on gardening tips. The classes, which Hoke hopes will be held quarterly, are open to OCS clients and the general public to learn about “keyhole” gardening, composting and other tips.
Besides the planting advice, the group is giving cooking demonstrations and recipes for healthy eating. Future plans include an outdoors kitchen for the demonstrations.
Hoke said she was inspired by a similar garden in Beaumont connected with St. Anne Catholic Church. That garden sends produce to the food banks in the city.
Orange Christian Services is at 2518 West Park Avenue in the building constructed in the 1960s for a YMCA. The Y once had a tennis court behind it, along with a two-acre vacant field.
Hoke said she had scouted the field as a convenient place for a garden, but OCS didn’t own the property. It was owned by the heirs of developer V.J. Zeto and his wife, Jean, an avid gardener.
“Out of the blue, Charles Zeto, who lives in Dallas, called,” she said. He wanted to donate the land to OCS. The garden was begun.
The first crops went in early in 2016. Rain and the subsequent mud hampered building the crop beds during the spring. However, pounds of potatoes were grown and given away to OCS clients. More crops and beds came.
Hoke mentioned the purple hull pea harvest in the summer. “Word of mouth passed around for the purple hull peas. They (the clients) would ask ‘Do I get purple hull peas?’” she said. “We gave out lots and lots of produce. They loved it.”
The winter crops like cabbage, broccoli and even purple cauliflower have also been popular, though kale is something unfamiliar for a lot of people in this area. Hoke said she would make kale soup and give samples to clients and then ask if they wanted kale. She even passed along the soup recipe.
The “keyhole” garden is set up with paving stones in a circle with a small triangle, or keyhole, indention. The raised bed has a wire circle in the middle for compost. Gardeners can step into the keyhole space to add more items for composting. Rain washes out the nutrients from the compost into the beds for the plants to thrive.
Hoke said Field of Plenty volunteers have worked not to use chemicals in the gardens and are using compost and natural fertilizers.
The effort has drawn a lot of support from the community. Mike Manshack leveled the field. Soil has been donated. Hoke said volunteers spoke to the Gerdau Steel Mill in Vidor and the company paid for a six-foot fence around the gardens.
Bernie Peveto, who Hoke described as a cabinet-maker but a gardener at heart, has used his skills at precision building to turn cinder blocks into perfectly-aligned raised beds. Debbie and Patrick McHenry, owners of Cottage Cuttings nursery, have also been working on the garden.
The next phase will include planting fruit trees in a section of the field.
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