Seton Harvest Welcomes Growing Season With Mass, Blessing

Those attending the April 24 Mass and blessing that formally opened the eleventh season of the Daughters of Charity Seton Harvest community-supported agricultural initiative had a chance to sample strawberries picked that morning. They were sweet, firm and delicious – tasty and hopeful signs of the growing season to come.

After offering Mass in the chapel at Seton Residence on Evansville’s West Side, Vincentian Father Stephen Gallegos, Seton Residence Chaplain, joined attendees for a quick trip across New Harmony Road to the farm, where he blessed the fields and the new Seton Harvest Veggie Van. The Veggie Van will travel throughout the Evansville area this spring and summer to encourage healthy eating, and share recipes and fresh produce.

The Daughters donated a passenger van, and a local individual modified it for Seton Harvest. The van will bring more fresh naturally grown produce and education to the community through farmers markets and education to schools, and by enabling Seton Harvest to provide cooking demonstrations for those entities that receive its fresh-produce donations. 

Sharing fresh produce is nothing new to Seton Harvest, which is sponsored by the Daughters of Charity Province of St. Louise. Over the past 10 years, it has donated approximately 103,000 pounds of produce to families living in poverty.

As a community-supported agriculture initiative, Seton Harvest divides up all of the produce it does not donate among a committed group of supporters who share with the farmer the risks and benefits of farming. Throughout the growing season, the farm harvests fresh ripe crops that are divided equally among the shareholders.

The shareholders are community members who pay the farmer an annual membership fee to cover the production costs of the farm. In turn, shareholders receive a weekly “share” of the harvest. A share is generally enough for a family of four.

The organization harvested more than 45,400 pounds of produce in 2016 and donated more than 9,400 pounds of it to those in need. Seton Harvest plans to use the Veggie Van as a pick-up for shareholders who live on Evansville’s far eastside, Newburgh, Lynnville and Boonville. That pick-up will be at St Vincent’s Epworth Crossing, at the intersection of Epworth Road and the Lloyd Expressway.

Seton Harvest will hold Twilight Farm-to-Table Dinners at the facility on May 13, June 10 and October 14. All proceeds from the dinners will go directly toward the farm's weekly donation of fresh produce to the food pantry systems and homeless shelters in the area.

For more information on Seton Harvest, or to purchase a full or partial produce share or tickets to the Twilight Dinners, visit www.setonharvest.org.