Swapping, sharing summer's bounty
A Narberth produce exchange allows gardeners to trade in their edible surplus.
The Narberth gardeners who gathered at the Flower & Vegetable Exchange yesterday morning all faced the same, predictable dilemma: too much produce.
"You end up with 20 zucchinis, and you don't know what to do with them," said Avi Fox, 21, a prolific gardener and the founder of Narberth Greens, the local environmentalist group that operates the exchange.
The exchange offers a convenient solution, Fox said. "Somebody else has 20 tomatoes, so it works really well because you can trade."
Every Saturday at 10 a.m., the exchange brings about 10 to 20 local growers to the front lawn of the Narberth Community Library on Windsor Avenue.
They swap watermelons, gourds, green peppers and other fruits and veggies. Whatever's left can be taken by anyone for free.
The exchange, which started June 14, lets residents trade recipes, share growing tips and discuss the simple pleasures of gardening.
"The actual exchange of produce from a monetary point of view is not so great," said Narberth resident Jonah Swann, 29. "But it's just fun. It's a good time."
The exchange gives Swann a chance to obtain vegetables that would be too large for his 80-square-foot garden.
Swann and his family trade herbs and peppers for "cucumbers and squash and things that we don't have enough room to grow," he said.
Narberth resident Rhonda Davis, 41, said she liked learning more about gardening. "It's a great place to just talk to people who are crazy about growing stuff," she said.
She added that the exchange made it easy to get rid of her excess produce. "You try to push the stuff on to your neighbors, and they're not into it," she said. "But people who like to grow things really like to talk about it and share it."
One of the exchange's goals is "to keep the foods local," said Fox, the Narberth Greens founder. "It's important to know where your food comes from," she said, adding that imported food uses fuel and increases costs.
The exchange makes it easy for Fox, a Narberth native and a junior at Temple University, to eat local. "I don't eat vegetables that I didn't grow or don't come from the exchange."