For 16-year-old Armen Caravantes, the love of gardening started a few years ago with the community garden program at the Parkesburg Library. He and his mother used the raised bed gardening program to get outside and spend some time together. Like his grandparents before him, he and his mother enjoyed the gardening. So, the next year, they planted in even more of the beds.

Caravantes became so interested in growing vegetables, he enrolled in the Seeds to Supper educational program offered by the Chester County Food Bank (CCFB). At the same time, seeing the health issues facing his family Caravantes decided to focus on organic methods of raising produce. When COVID-19 restrictions were put in place in the spring of 2020, the Wagontown resident rented a plot of land in Lancaster County, and he and his mother began raising vegetables in earnest. His family eats some of the produce, sells some of it, and donates some of it.

This year, Caravantes rented a 30-by-240-foot plot in Kinzers, where he grows a variety of vegetables using organic methods, which means no pesticides, herbicides, or chemicals. The land was prepared for planting before Caravantes put down weed barrier and put in his plants. He grows many of his vegetables, including all the tomatoes, from seed.

He travels about 20 minutes to tend heirloom tomatoes, including indigo apple tomatoes that have a bluish hue when they begin to grow. He also grows Asian eggplant, black beauty eggplant, and little finger-size eggplants, along with a few ghost peppers and bell peppers. Squash, Swiss and rainbow chard, pink celery, ground cherries, zucchini, radishes, beets, and lettuce are also growing in the garden. Weekly, Caravantes takes his crops to Philadelphia, where he sets up a stand near the Please Touch Museum and reaps some of the benefits of his harvest.

But generosity is in Caravantes' blood, and he and his mother said they are impressed with the hearts of those in Lancaster and Chester counties who seek to help others. To that end, Caravantes has donated tomatoes to The Factory Ministries, and other produce to the Octorara Food Cupboard, Mision Santa Maria in Avondale, and the Community Youth and Women's Alliance (CYWA) in Coatesville. Caravantes is also generous in person, offering this interviewer a tasty tomato as we began to chat. "I love Chadwick cherry tomatoes," he said. "They're delicious."

The Plain community has been welcoming of Caravantes and helpful to him on his farming journey. "I have been learning a lot from Amish farmers we know," he said, adding that Plain community members and other area growers have given him tips on when to start certain vegetables. Likewise, Caravantes is eager to share his own knowledge, starting a garden club with fellow students at Delaware Valley Friends School, where the group has studied aeroponic growing and sustainable agriculture.

Readers who would like to learn more about Caravantes' growing operation may email quakerfarmerorganicproduce@gmail.com.