ISSUED: 19 July 2023
MEDIA CONTACT: Dana Costa
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Growing season is in full swing at the Shepherd University Agricultural Innovation Center at Tabler Farm, with a variety of crops being harvested each week.
Madison Hale, farm coordinator, and Samuel Swift, a biology major from Hedgesville, West Virginia, discuss crops growing in the Tabler Farm greenhouse.
“We’re in that transitional period between late spring crops and early summer so we have kale, chard, beets, and carrots,” said Madison Hale, farm coordinator. “Those are all things we planted in early spring and we’re heading into more summer harvest, which would be tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, and beans. We’re about to do a big potato harvest. We also have onions and just a little bit of everything.”
Meredith Snyder, Hagerstown, Maryland, harvests carrots.
For three seasons, Tabler Farm has partnered with the Shepherdstown Shares food pantry to deliver fresh local produce to the pantry. Shepherdstown Shares provides funding to support the farm and allows it to hire seasonal workers. The farm delivers food to Shepherdstown Shares every week for 10 months out of the year.
Harvested produce ready to be distributed.
Tabler Farm is also part of a new WVU Medicine Farm to You program, which provides patients access to fresh, locally grown produce through free, pop-up produce stands at each clinic twice per month from May through November. Tabler Farm provides produce to the WVU medical facility in Inwood, West Virginia.
More farm photos are available at our Flickr page.
— 30 —