Harvest House Community Center
Who we are
The Harvest House Community Center at St. Peter's is a new ministry for the Lebanon and Greater Boone County Area. Its purpose is to teach people of all ages, but especially young people, how to:
Plant gardens
Prepare the food from the gardens for use in our meals, and
Preserve the food for use later through a variety of food preservation techniques.
In our 800 square foot teaching kitchen, cohorts of youth from the community spend 90 minutes (more or less) involved in an activity based off the Junior Master Gardeners Curriculum (JMG). We teach the basics of gardening, the need for pollinators, and basic canning and food preparation techniques. The food we grow is either used by the youth themselves, or donated to local food pantries.
The Harvest House Community Center (HHCC) was made possible by a matching grant from the Indiana Center for Congregations, Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis, and over $14,000 in contributions from the members of St. Peter's Episcopal Church.
HHCC is led by Chuck and Sandy Dailey, members of St. Peter's, and Valerie Jasper, member of the Boone County Master Gardeners. In February 2018, Sandy and Valerie travelled to Texas A&M University and became certified to teach the Junior Master Gardeners Curriculum (JMG) which is the model on which HHCC is based.
To learn more about HHCC and the Youth program, please contact us below.
Why Harvest House?
After conducting neighborhood interviews, meeting with community leaders, we discovered drugs are a big problem in Lebanon and Boone County. However, we do not possess the skill set or size of congregation to tackle that issue. However, we did hear the issue of food insecurity amongst many in our communities and we knew this was something we could tackle. St. Peter's Episcopal Church sits on nearly 8 acres of land at the corner of E. Washington and John Bart Road in Lebanon.
St. Peter's campus is the perfect location for the teaching of "Care for Creation" principles. We feature 2- 100x25' gardens for corn and beans, and 4-50x25' gardens for variety of other crops (many of which are grown by members of the community in plots they rent). We have three raised beds for strawberries, blueberries, and perennial flowers pollinated by our bees. Additional garden spaces are anticipated in the future.
Our apiary, located in the NW corner of the grounds, houses up to 10 hives of bees that pollinate our gardens and the gardens of many of our neighbors. Each year, around Labor Day, we harvest honey and make it available for donations to our Gardens and Apiary program. Learn more by clicking on "Bees" at the top of this page.
A labyrinth on the east side of the grounds, and walking paths in the meadow along the swale on the north side of the property complement the many dimensions of wellness (healthy eating, exercise, meditation, spiritual) that we tend to at St. Peter's. In the winter of 2018, a fire ring was installed by a Boy Scout completing his Eagle Rank Service Project.
St. Peter's campus has also been the focus of Purdue University and its Landscape Architecture program students. In 2016 and 2017, students developed Master Plans and Planting Plans for our property that we hope to incorporate in the next five to seven years. We recently presented at a conference about the educational benefits to the students and benefits to the church from this partnership.
Other Uses
The Harvest House Community Center at St. Peter's is a 800 square foot facility that features movable tables and seating for 24 people. A television screen and HDMI and wireless connections are also available. The facility is available for meeting space for community meetings, bridal showers, baby showers, and other events. To inquire about our Building Use policy and reserve space, please contact us using the form below.