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Dear Friend,
“I come to the garden for peace, and I find it.”
That was the last sentence in an email I received over the summer from one of our community gardeners. In the midst of so much isolation and distance, fear, stress, and uncertainty, I heard similar sentiments from many gardeners. I also witnessed extraordinary kindness and generosity as gardeners pitched in to support the Community Food Distribution Project, to help keep Tuesday Market open and safe, and to perform many tasks that keep the Grow Food Northampton Organic Community Garden healthy and beautiful.
We welcomed over 80 new gardeners this year, adding a bunch of new plots for folks who suddenly found themselves with unexpected time on their hands, loss of income, and the need and desire to grow their own food. Many folks had the same idea, so for a while it was difficult to find seeds and plant starts. Then a late frost in June wiped out many tender new crops. The wonderful Western Mass Master Gardeners Association donated hundreds of seed packets, farmers made starts available at low cost, and gardeners shared with each other.
I’m not saying the garden is Utopia. We have disagreements, disappointments, tensions, just like any community. But that’s the key – we are a community.
One thing that gardening has taught me is that community means so much more than just the people. It also means the land, the creatures, the air and water. Living and working in community means cooperation with nature, weather, soil, and seasons, as well as with each other. It means honoring those who came before us on the land: the indigenous communities who farmed in that swoop of the Mill River for centuries before Europeans colonized it; the Abolitionists who demonstrated that textiles and sugar can be commercially produced without the labor of enslaved people; the farmers who raised generations of families on the land before it came under the stewardship of Grow Food Northampton. Each left their mark in our memories and on the land.
Now it’s our turn. How do we steward this rare and fertile resource in a way that honors the past and guides us to a future in which we can grow our community in ways that serve justice, equity and sustainability? As caretakers, how do we attend to the gifts of this land so that it remains open, healthy and productive for generations to come?
Some pundits are telling us to vote as if our lives depend on it. I suggest we should also vote as if our land depends on it. Our lives and land are part of a network that responds to every depredation, and also to every kindness. We gardeners have faith that each bucket of compost will enrich the soil and help our crops over time. We know that water is life. We know that the creatures we were taught by chemical companies to fear and loathe are the very creatures we depend on to aerate the ground and pollinate our food.
Recently I received an email from a new gardener wondering what to do with the millions of ants in their garden plot. “Celebrate!” was my answer. So here is my celebration of our garden community: We grew food, kindness, peace, and for me, a great deal of hope during a challenging season. Thank you all!
Warmly,
Pat James
Community Garden Manager
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Our newest team member is TerraCorps Youth Education and Community Engagement Coordinator Jules White. Jules will be with us for just under a year, tending the Giving Garden, running the 2020/21 Grow Food Kids programming and helping out with the CFDP and at Tuesday Market. Just a few weeks in, Jules is already a valued teammate in all of these varied roles!
The locust trees in the plaza behind Thornes have started to turn yellow and soon their leaves will rain down. The seasons are shifting and so are the crops coming into Tuesday Market. We're finishing up summer favorites like tomatoes and welcoming lots of varieties of squash, a bounty of wild mushrooms and many types of apples and pears. Make a trip to the market part of your week! We'll be there from 1:30-6:30 until November 10. If you're not receiving our weekly newsletter each Monday, change your settings at the bottom of this email.
The Grow Food Kids team is developing take-home cooking kits and other remote resources/curricula for students in the Northampton Public Schools to supplement their online learning and support teachers this fall.
