By JOHN EBY
Edwardsburg Argus

CASSOPOLIS – Cass County Sheriff Joe Underwood hasn’t taken to wearing bib overalls with a four-acre garden to cultivate.

Of course, he’s not personally pulling weeds, planting or watering the corn, green beans and other vegetables growing in his name in Jefferson Township.

There are three jail inmates who take care of that about three times a week, overseen by Larry Malsch, former Dowagiac councilman, county commissioner and Porter Township supervisor.

The sheriff is growing another connection rooted in the community along with rows of onions, potatoes, zucchini and yellow squash, tomatoes, cucumbers and three plantings of sweet corn.

This year the Sheriff’s Office planted three acres of the four available.

The ground belongs to Bernie Williamson, former county emergency management coordinator and Jefferson Township supervisor.

“They do a lot of weeding,” Underwood said.

“This helps reduce the cost of food service and provides a more nutritious meal and also provides more involvement with the community,” including the Department of Human Services, Helping Hands or the Council on Aging.

The sheriff had mentioned not wanting to see any of the harvest wasted and perhaps giving bags of food to DHS to distribute to its client families.

“Our possibilities are endless of what we can do,” he said.

“This is our first year. Next year we plan on using all four acres. For the first year, to me they’ve done an outstanding job.”

Underwood has consulted Cass County’s Michigan State University Extension office for advice.

There has been no trouble yet from nibbling critters, but the Road Commission has offered some unused fencing.

“We wanted it to be big enough to not only handle some things in the jail, but to do some things with the community,” Underwood said.