Nominate your favorite Maine businesses for Best of Maine!

Gather Ye Zucchinis

Zucchini
istock | German-skydiver
[cs_drop_cap letter=”P” color=”#99cc00″ size=”5em” ]erhaps, like us, you’ve reached that late-summer threshold where you’re swamped by squash, deluged with daikons, overcome by onions, and cursing your past self’s overzealous garden planning. Don’t let that plot go to seed! Load up your wheelbarrow and head to Gather, Yarmouth’s farm-to-table neighborhood café, where you can trade your surplus bounty for a few bucks on a gift card — bucks that accumulate whenever you show up with another armload of zucchinis. Since owner Matt Chappell launched the Garden Barter program four years ago, Gather has swapped restaurant credit for some 1,000 pounds of produce, one neighbor’s bushel at a time. Proffered veggies make it into nightly specials, which Chappell says not only boosts the restaurant’s community cred, but also helps bring in more diners. “People love to say, ‘Hey, my tomatoes are on the menu at Gather tonight,’ ” he explains, “so the program works on multiple levels.” Just what the kitchen accepts depends on what’s already in the larder, so call before lugging that 20-pound kohlrabi.

Gather celebrates its five-year anniversary with a block party on Sept. 24. 4–7 p.m. 89 Main St., Yarmouth. 207-847-3250.