Gardening Co-op -- a Keen & Green Idea

Even though our garden is small, sometimes it's a race against time to eat everything that we grow before it rots. We do try to freeze and can things (we canned our own marinara sauce with homegrown tomatoes for the first time this week -- but that's for another blog post!) but wouldn't it be great to enjoy it fresh and share it with friends?  Have a "gardening swap!"  

I'd love to meet with local gardeners in our neighborhood at the end of the winter, and form a co-op.  Each gardener can plan to grow different things, and then meet a few times a month to swap their fruits and veggies.  This year we had raspberries galore...wouldn't it have been fun for us to share those raspberries and get some, say, blueberries in return?  With all the talk about the importance of eating locally, you can't get more local than stuff grown in your yard, or your neighbor's yard.  By sharing your harvests with fellow gardeners, everyone can enjoy fresh, local produce.  

Might be something fun, tasty, keen, and green to consider for next year's gardening season.  

[side note:  That pumpkin in the picture is from a pumpkin patch we had a few years ago.  This year we haven't had much luck with squash.]