by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

Not long after the ground was lovingly broken and tilled in May of 2007, the Carrboro Community Garden is flourishing! I stopped by last weekend and met Jay Hamm and April MacGregor, the founders and farmers of a project producing more than food for the community. In fact, when asked about where the harvest would end up, Jay scratched his head - that was part of the plan still in the making. The important part seemed to be the reaping, building and growing of relationship - to both the earth and people. In the meantime, they have planted and sowed much more than food.

Jay and April brought their idea to town officials, after noticing a future urban park site sitting idle. Jay said finding volunteer gardeners was easy - all he did was ask. Connections were made and motivated supporters soon showed up.

Jay, April and other volunteers obviously know an abundance about growing vegetables and flowers organically, though inexperienced gardeners are warmly welcomed. Jay talked tirelessly to everyone about the project’s story and April showed me around, enthusiastically describing the organic growing process and pointing out the many edible flowers. April also owns and runs Farmers Daughter brand of Carrboro (919-259-3946), offering baked goods and fermented foods at the local Farmer’s Market. I especially like her homemade sauerkraut with juniper berries .

People of all ages were stopping by in cars, on bicycles and on foot, some to don garden gloves, some just pleasantly curious. Many of the regulars were working steadily and quietly while some newbies - like me - hung about, waiting to get our hands in the dirt and share this communal experience.

One young man had a video camera. When I asked him about his filming, he told me he wanted to post a YouTube video so that more people would possibly take the idea into their own communities. He interviewed a few of us and seemed very taken with the scene.

After all, what existed previous to this piece of Eden, was a typical “lawn”, in need of mowing and otherwise unused - similar to the sad story in most residential and business areas. Is there a spot like this in your neighborhood or city that you could turn into an abundant harvest? Try planting some seeds in your own community, bringing people together in awareness and love for the earth and each other. You could be starting something big.

For more information about community garden projects across the U.S., start here. For news about Carrboro Community Garden Coalition, go here.

Tags: community, culture, food, health

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 29th, 2007 at 2:14 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.