Vegetable starters available Saturday

‘ELE‘ELE — Carmila Udarbe, now a sixth-grade student at Waimea Canyon Middle School, will be joined by her coach and mentor Basilio “Bunga” Fuertes and Roy Miyashiro in distributing vegetable seedlings Saturday starting at 9 a.m. at the ‘Ele‘ele Shopping Center.

Available seedlings include the Filipino long beans, the Nitta variety of purple eggplant, grape tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, okra, sequa or long kabatiti or ridge squash, cucumbers, Filipino sticky flesh pumpkin, the Gordon Harada variety of sweet peppers and lemongrass.

This is the first distribution of seedlings since school started, and includes varieties suited to fall and early winter planting. Shoppers are encouraged to arrive early for best selections due to the popularity of the distribution.

Proceeds from the distribution are used to continue the program by replenishing planting supplies needed by the vegetable-starting program. Any surplus will be added to Udarbe’s college fund.