Hilltop Hanover Farm in Yorktown Heights, NY, is taking orders now through March 19 for its online plant sale, which includes locally grown vegetable, herb, flower and native plant transplants. Pickup will be in late April or May.

All seedlings and transplants are grown in a compost-based organic potting mix. The four-packs have extra-deep cells to give small seedlings a more robust root system, and the three-inch pots are sized for planting into the garden. As with Hilltop Hanover’s produce, the plants are not certified organic, but they are grown using all-organic practices.

“We hope our plant sale will support the thousands of gardeners in our local community, and we encourage all gardeners to donate any extra produce they grow,” says Shanyn Siegel, director of Hilltop Hanover Farm. “Last year, with the help of many volunteers, we donated almost six tons of fresh local produce to multiple food pantries throughout Westchester and Putnam counties. This year we are calling on home gardeners to join us in our efforts to address food insecurity community-wide.”

At the onset on the Covid-19 pandemic, fears about food insecurity surfaced even within typically food secure communities, Siegel says. The limitations of a global, industrialized food system were brought into sharp focus by recurrent empty shelves in grocery stores.

“Last spring and summer, we witnessed a resurgence of home victory gardens and edible landscapes, plus a new or renewed realization of why local farms are essential to a sustainable food system,” she says. “But with an unprecedented surge in demand from farmers and gardeners, seed companies sold out and distribution backlogs caused shipping delays of over a month.”

These limitations in the seed industry are again apparent in 2021.

“Many seed varieties are sold out, and many seed companies have stopped accepting orders until they can catch up on order fulfillment,” Siegel says. “In response, the farmers at Hilltop Hanover have increased their 2021 seedling production and launched this online plant sale.”

Location: Hilltop Hanover Farm and Environmental Center, 1271 Hanover St., Yorktown Heights, NY. For more info, call 914.962.2368 or visit HilltopHanoverFarm.org.