St. Edward Parish

GARDEN OF HOPE
The Mission Statement of our St Edward Parish states “We gather in Charity to provide social outreach in our Works of Mercy.” The Garden of Hope is our tangible expression of that outreach to the members of our North Plains community.

The very wet spring of 2022 was no deterrent to The Bobs—Vanderzanden and Gutmann—as they started nearly all the vegetables in the Gutman’s greenhouse. They were given amazing assistance in seed variety selection by Scott Latham. The remaining summer and fall were hot
and dry, perfect vegetable-growing weather.

The garden expanded this year to 125,000 sq feet, with 2 kinds each of beans, eggplant, cucumber, and zucchini squash; 3 kinds each of onions and squash, 4 kinds of tomatoes; carrots, beets, celery, cabbage, broccoli, swiss chard, turnips, leeks, scallions, kale, radishes, and 4 kinds of lettuce. Corn was planted 10 rows at a time, in 4 plantings.

Each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday Bob’s pickup bed was filled with crates and bags and delivered to the North Plains Senior Center at 10 am where it was quickly (and thankfully) selected by the residents and neighbors of nearby multifamily buildings.

Beginning in May the volunteers planted the vegetable starts, hoed weeds, and harvested all summer, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning at 8 am. Some days it was just Bob and Crystal and one or two others; other days there would be 4-5 helpers--a totally open volunteer opportunity as schedules allowed. Volunteers this summer were Dian Duyck, Bob & Carol Gutmann, Judy Hall, Leah, Isaac & Emma Nussbaumer, Becky Phillips, John & Jane Reding, Mary Spiering, and of course, Bob and Crystal Vanderzanden.

This Ministry is open to parishioners of all ages from early spring to the middle of October. It qualifies for Service Hours for students and includes a snack and drink after the harvest is done each day. Signup is not necessary—just show up when you are able and work as long as you can. The Garden is located at 8065 NW Jackson School Rd. Hillsboro, OR 97124, south of the Sunset Highway, across from the State Highway Dept. Road Maintenance Facility. 503-647- 2405 vandz@msn.com

St. Edward/St. Francis of Assisi/Visitation is live streaming the 10 am Sunday Mass in Verboort every week.  Download Zoom.us, enter
Meeting ID: 993 4497 4746
Password: HolyMass

The Archdiocese of Portland will continue to live stream the 11:00 AM Sunday Mass from The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception every week until the gathering restrictions have been lifted.  

To View, Click HERE