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GROW program ready to sell plants for spring

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From tomatoes to cabbage, plenty of young vegetable plants are ready to be moved from greenhouse to garden this weekend in La Crosse. 

The spring plant sale sponsored by GROW happens Saturday and Sunday at the former Hillview greenhouse downtown on Vine Street. 

GROW operations director Linda Vale says it’s important to encourage people to plant their own food, so they have a sense of “food sovereignty.”  

“When we take the power away from the people to grow their own food, and we put that reliability on someone else, we lose our connection to our food sources, and also how to grow things sustainably,” said Vale.

The GROW program teaches students about gardening at seven area schools, and also runs farming camps and summer school programs.  

Vale says the program is important to get kids to appreciate what they eat.

“When there’s a buy-in for students with eating their own food, they’re able to try new things. They build their palate, and then they’re consuming more vegetables, which we know proves to be beneficial in the classroom as well as just overall behavior in our young students,” said Vale.”    

The greenhouse was not able to grow plants for much of last year, because of the pandemic, so the 2020 plant sale had to be called off.  Hours of the sale are 9 to 3 on Saturday, and 10 am to 1 pm Sunday at the Vine Street greenhouse.     

A native of Prairie du Chien, Brad graduated from UW - La Crosse and has worked in radio news for more than 30 years, mostly in the La Crosse area. He regularly covers local courts and city and county government. Brad produces the features "Yesterday in La Crosse" and "What's Buried on Brad's Desk." He also writes the website "Triviazoids," which finds odd connections between events that happen on a certain date, and he writes and performs with the local comedy group Heart of La Crosse. Brad been featured on several national TV programs because of his memory skills.

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