Growing Talents
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
by Karen Hendricks
If you’ve seen woodcarver Gerry Boltz and his intricately-carved birds at any of the past 50 Mount Greta Outdoor Art Shows, it might be hard to believe the 81-year-old Lebanon County native has a long list of additional talents.
One of those talents is gardening, which connects quite naturally to cooking, baking, canning, and freezing home-grown produce and homemade goodies. Homemade ketchup, pickles, red beets, and spaghetti sauce are just a few of the fruits of last summer’s labor, stashed in the Boltz family pantry.
“I also freeze zucchini bread, and we have that throughout the offseason,” Boltz adds. “I did a Penn State Extension course on canning and freezing, which provided a lot of information.”
For more than a dozen years, Boltz has served as the volunteer garden plot coordinator for Cornwall Manor. That means he connects residents interested in gardening with two community garden sites offering a total of 60 garden plots. But his responsibilities don’t end there. Throughout the growing season, he advises gardeners on tools at their disposal, how to keep weeds under control, and one additional important reminder.
“We have to keep the garden gates closed, because we have groundhogs and rabbits nearby,” Boltz says knowingly.
Last year, he personally maintained 10 garden plots. His crops include a rainbow of produce from onions and tomatoes to sweet potatoes and butternut squash—but sugar snap peas and carrots are among his and wife Jeanne’s favorites. He’s also known for giving away produce, via a box by Cornwall Manor’s mailboxes.
His gardens even nurture the very creatures he honors through his woodcarvings.
“I planted sunflowers last year, and come fall, we had goldfinches eating the sunflower seeds,” Boltz says. “You can often see geese and snow geese, even bald eagles flying above the gardens.”
After Cornwall Manor hosted a workshop where residents crafted bluebird boxes, Boltz installed 15 of the wooden boxes around the gardens.
“Gardening,” Boltz says, “gives you the satisfaction that your plants are going to produce food, and it gets you outside for a chance to enjoy nature.”
Karen Hendricks is a lifelong journalist based in Central Pa. whose work has garnered more than 20 journalism awards. She enjoys helping Central Pa. wake up and prepare for the day, as host of WITF’s Morning Edition. Karen is also writing her first book, a memoir about running. Learn more at writerkarenhendricks.com.
