Summer is rapidly approaching...greens are up and running, tomato blooms are setting, peppers are popping, and strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries abound. Wouldn’t you like to trade something from your garden or kitchen for a sampling from everyone’s garden? Then you would love Coronado Home Harvest! Coronado Home Harvest is our town’s monthly free homegrown fruit, vegetable and flower exchange. It meets in front of the Winn Room of the Coronado Public Library Saturday, next meeting is Saturday May 26. It’s a great way to sample new things and learn about food and related subjects. Drop off a bag from your garden or kitchen and it will be filled with a selection from the best of Coronado.

Are you wondering what to bring, or if it is worthwhile?  Check out the last exchange for ideas. Even on the busiest day of the year, with the Rotary Pancake Breakfast, Flower Show, and Book Fair, many folks made it over to the lawn in front of the library and brought with them bundles of beautiful homegrown fruits and veggies to share. The exchange included lemons, avocados, celery, chard, arugula, oranges, tangerines and Mexican limes. Then there were the herbs: lemon balm, sage, tarragon, oregano, dill, Italian parsley, and basil. Plants brought to exchange included lots of succulents, red day lilies, crook neck squash starters and white butterfly ginger. Add to all of this homemade sauerkraut, fermented vegetables, gorgeous cut amaryllis and Chef Dano’s Gluten Free Organic Banana Cranberry Love Loaf and you can only imagine how beautiful the bags of goodies were when they were filled.

Our next exchange is set for May 26, 2012 in front of the Winn Room at the Library. Bring your produce or “home mades” between 9 and 10 am, and return to the Winn Room at 11am to pick up your bag, now filled with a selection of the best from Coronado’s gardens and kitchens. We will offer a free program at 11 in the Winn Room on “Vertical Gardening”. CHH member Angel Butcher will be speaking on “Vertical Gardens” and will have with her a fabulous example of this new approach to small space gardening. Some of you might have seen her “Tower” at the Flower Show last month. It will be even more spectacular after having had another 6 weeks to grow. With technology like this, everyone (even those of us who live in apartments or condos, or on postage stamp sized lots) can “grow our own.” Come and enjoy this interesting, fun and informative program. For more information, see www.coronadohomeharvest.org. The exchange is free and open to all.