2024 has been the year of the rabbit (okay, I know it is the year of the dragon, thank goodness that’s not the problem!). It has been a slow start. The traps have shown us that in addition to rabbits, we also compete with racoons, groundhogs, rats and skunks. The traps were being poorly maintained (after a young skunk saga) and so we have discontinued that for now. We do have a red tail hawk that is a frequenter and helps keep rabbits and mice down at the GOH (at Willow Park: Curry St. & Tulip St. in Yorktown)

.We have been able to double fence and secure the “former FPCY” section, and much of the harvests have come for that area. We also have some nice climbing beans that have been producing harvests. Last week I packed 75 bags of green beans to be distributed at the last pantry! Also a smaller selection of tomatoes, peppers, squash and cantaloupe were donated and distributed.

To help prevent rabbit damage, the plan is to double fence the entire garden – the outer deer fence and an inside rabbit fence. A trench has been dug around the inside of the main garden area by the town, and the next step is to place a new “rabbit fence” with underground wire and shorter height. The materials are at the GOH and waiting, fence posts have been placed, the fence needs to be hung and the trench filled in.

Help is always needed and encouraged, Saturday from 10-2 and Thursday for harvest 4-dusk. We can also use help on pantry weeks to make sure the harvest gets delivered to FPCY or to St. Mary’s on off weeks. Barbara Wolff helped deliver the harvest last week, and I was able to help receive it and coordinate with Debbie. When it comes to FPCY, it is also good to have some help with organizing and bagging so it isn’t an extra stress to our pantry leaders.

~Dawna Dennis