Crops of Love

CROPS OF LOVE Alabaster farmer shares vegetables with the community

Harrison Moore loves to garden and loves to help others. For the last several years he has combined these two loves into something for the community around him to enjoy.

“Me and my wife are Christians and we just love to do for people when we can,” Harrison, who recently turned 80, said. “We try to help people out whenever we can, and we figured the best way to do that was by giving them fresh vegetables to enjoy.”

Harrison and Darthy Moore have lived on Wilderness Lane since the mid-1970s. For 43 years, the Moore family has grown a large garden, often freezing much of their produce or giving it away when they could. About five years ago, the Moore’s moved into a different home on Wilderness Lane and began letting neighbors share in the fruits of their labor.

“We started telling people they could come and take whatever they wanted,” Harrison said. “People usually come and get what they want, and we always hear that they really enjoy it.”

This year, Moore created an addition to the garden, which serves as a memorial to his father, Robert Moore, who was also a gardener. “My father loved growing tomatoes, so we decided to plant some things in this area and let the neighbors have fresh vegetables for their suppers at night,” Moore said. “I think everyone has really appreciated that this year.”

When the Covid-19 outbreak occurred, Moore said many neighbors told him it was a blessing to be able to have fresh vegetables to eat. Harrison and Darthy often pick the vegetables and will place them in containers by the road near their home for neighbors to come and select what they would like to have.

In previous years Harrison said they took a lot of produce to their church to share, but this year it was harder to do that, so they kept it locally with their neighbors. “We get a real kick out of seeing our neighbors come and pick what they want,” Harrison said. “It really warms our heart and blesses us to see them enjoy what we grow. If we didn’t share it, a lot of it would go to waste so we are thrilled to be able to do it.”

The garden consists of four rows of peas, a row of squash, two rows of Irish potatoes, two rows of sweet potatoes, a row of okra, 246 tomato plants, green beans, butterbeans, five varieties of watermelons, cantaloupes, two additional rows of squash, cucumbers, peppers, and turnip greens. “I have always enjoyed planting things in the garden and watching it grow,” Harrison said. “There is nothing like fresh vegetables to eat during the summertime.” Harrison said he enjoys eating everything, but he particularly enjoys the fresh squash when they are young and tender.

“One year when we were still working in real estate, for about four or five days out of the week, we would have squash, potatoes and green beans for dinner,” Harrison said. “We would make some cornbread and that was what we ate every night.”

Harrison said the weather has been really good this year for his crops, with a lot of rain, which has helped many of the vegetables to grow in abundance.

Both Harrison and Darthy spend a lot of time together in the garden, with Harrison doing most of the prep work, and then both planting. As it begins producing, they both work on placing much of the produce in containers.

“We just feel blessed to be able to help our neighbors in whatever way we can,” Harrison said. “We feel like if they can enjoy fresh vegetables from our garden then we are happy to provide for them.” AC