Brigit McCallum, left, helps Oxsana Sigleski pick cherry tomatoes in the pantry garden plot at Waterboro Community Garden on Tuesday. Sigleski has revived the pantry garden and says the result is as enjoyable to her as it is beneficial to the Waterboro Community Pantry. TAMMY WELLS/Journal Tribune
WATERBORO – As Maine’s growing season draws toward its close, two local women, Oxsana Sigleski and Brigit McCallum, bend to pick sweet cherry tomatoes. The tomato plants were prolific this year, and clusters of fruit are ripe and ready. In another bed, there are crisp green peppers, and some broccoli florets, ready for harvest.
The bounty from the pantry garden, a large, fenced plot in Waterboro Community Garden, located adjacent to Town Hall on Townhouse Road, is grown specifically for the Waterboro Community Pantry, just next door.
The gardening season may be winding down, but there were still cherry tomatoes and peppers in the pantry garden at Waterboro Community Garden. Gardener Oxsana Sigleski dropped off a cooler of fresh-picked vegetables to Cleo Smith, director of Waterboro Community Pantry on Tuesday, just before customers were to arrive. TAMMY WELLS/Journal Tribune
And while the official count is not yet in, Sigleski said she believes the total is close to 500 pounds this year, up from 350 pounds in the 2018 growing season.
Most of the produce comes from the pantry garden, but some comes from others who have rented plots in the community garden, and find their gardens have produced more than they need. It is produce that the Waterboro Community Pantry is glad to have, said director Cleo Smith.
“They’ve been so fantastic,” said Smith of the gardeners.
Waterboro Community Pantry opened its doors three years ago, and sees between 100 and 125 families each month, spread over four Tuesdays.
The produce helps fill a need and customers welcome the fresh taste.
Out in the garden, Sigleski and McCallum pick the cherry tomatoes and talk about the garden.
Both are board members of Waterboro Community Garden. McCallum rents raised beds in the garden, and Sigleski, who said her husband takes care of their vegetable garden at home, is happy to work in the pantry plot.
The Sigleski’s moved to town five years ago from Connecticut, when they retired.
Waterboro, she said, seemed to be a good fit.
The gardening season is winding down, but there was a bounty of cherry tomatoes in the pantry garden section of Waterboro Community Garden on Tuesday. The tomatoes, like all the other produce grown in the plot, is given to the Waterboro Community Pantry. TAMMY WELLS/Journal Tribune
Sigleski is an enthusiastic gardener. She said she knew help was needed for the community garden’s white-fenced pantry section, and she wanted to contribute, so she so dug in – literally.
“I can spend 10 hours a day digging in the dirt,” she said with a smile.
This year, with help from fellow gardeners in the form of plants, watering, pitching in to care for the garden when Sigleski was away, plus community donations of loam, compost and wood chips – and more, there was lots growing.
The gardener approached the pantry folks at the beginning of the season and asked what they’d like to have.
The pantry garden produced cucumbers, peppers, broccoli, tomatoes, onions, carrots, herbs, winter squash, kale and zucchini.
Over at the pantry, Smith on Tuesday was readying for the afternoon, when customers were to arrive for the 1 p.m. opening. This month, besides the vegetables, bread products, cereals, soups, and other household staples, each individual was to receive three pounds of meat. That day, the meat was pork, and so a pantry volunteer had copied a recipe for those wishing to try it, and there is an array of recipe books for customers looking for cooking ideas.
As fall approaches. Smith is thinking about Thanksgiving, and making sure 125 families have a turkey or a chicken and all the fixings. Last year, the pantry was able to add apple or pumpkin pie or apple crisp, “all homemade,” she said.
Waterboro Community Pantry is open 4 to 7 p.m. on the first Tuesday of the month and 1 to 4 p.m. om the remaining Tuesdays.
Back at the garden, McCallum, also an enthusiastic gardener, stooped to help pick cherry tomatoes. All the bending and stretching, she said, gives her a workout – and is very therapeutic.
Sigleski said the pantry garden contributes to a community need – and she said it is good for her, too satisfying her need to weed and “dig in the dirt.”
— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 780-9016 or twells@journaltribune.com.
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