Sheriff: Vegetable Garden Saves County Bushels - Greeneville Sun
It's harvest time at gardens overseen by the Greene County Sheriff's Department that provide nutritious meals to jail and workhouse inmates, along with an appetizer of big savings for taxpayers. With the recent acquisition of two large military surplus refrigerated containers, Sheriff Pat Hankins' goal is for vegetables grown by inmates to be available until the next growing season, he said. It looks to be a bumper crop this growing season, Hankins said, despite earlier concerns about lack of precipitation. One workhouse gardening crew was busy Monday loading cabbage into bins that will be stored in one of the refrigerated containers and freezers at the jail. "We've got all of our freezers full inside the detention center," Hankins said. Potatoes, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, squash, peppers and zucchini are grown in the gardens. We normally run out of (vegetables) in January," Hankins said. "Now we've got these other two freezers and we've hopefully got enough stored to last from season to season. Darrell Stills, sheriff's department maintenance supervisor, is in charge of the workhouse gardening crews. "We've already got over 200 bushels of beans," along with bumper crops of cabbage and tomatoes, Stills said. Source: www.greenevillesun.com
