Waynedale Green Alliance Interviews Mary Gazetas of The Sharing Farm
A Brewster Smythe
July 11, 2008
Today, 'green' is everywhere. From cable TV shows, books, articles, and online websites it seems that the whole world has 'gone green'! But, reading and thinking about going green is one thing. Actually getting your hands dirty is quite another. That's where The Sharing Farm, also known as The Richmond Fruit Tree Sharing Project becomes a beacon to light the way towards sustainable food, one of the main ingredients in 'going green'. Local, sustainable food concepts are nothing new. Here, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the Three Rivers Food Co-op has been a going concern for over 20 years.
And the communal concept of growing your own and living off the land is as American as our founding fathers, and Betsy Ross
In the past several months I have founded the Waynedale Green Alliance. This alliance is between the citizens, businesses and community organizations in the Waynedale area. This alliance is aimed towards the objective of raising environmental awareness, by tying together the needs to recycle, reuse, seek alternative methods of transportation, and preserve our natural habitats and historical monuments. In the framework of these concepts is growing and eating local foods.
In an effort to form a template for growth in this regard I located the ten principles of greener living that can be found at Cool Towns Studios. One of the principles is sustainable foods grown locally. I wanted to talk to someone who had actually put this theory into action. The Richmond Fruit Tree Project was such an action and Mary Gazetas is one of the founding members of what is also known as the Sharing Farm.
A short time ago, I was able to ask a few questions about the Richmond Fruit Tree Project of Mary Gazetas. I hope you will take away the necessary ingredients from this short interview to foster your own ideas about greener living, and growing your own.
ABS) How did the idea of The Sharing Farm come to be?
MG) It all started 8 years ago when a small group of us in a community allotment garden
saw a newspaper article about volunteers rescuing surplus fruit out of people's gardens.
We started picking fruit to give to the food bank in Richmond.
And we also did some gleaning in farmer's fields. Then we said in our 2nd year "let's
grow some food too."
We started very small in 2002. Then in 2003 somebody gave us half an acre
behind a dog kennel.
ABS) What were the initial steps you took towards developing The Sharing Farm?
MG) In 2002, 2003 we worked to produce a vision for a community farm.
The City of Richmond liked the idea and let us occupy two different
pieces of their property. These areas were the South Dyke and Terra Nova.
We then began to build a volunteer base. Many of our volunteers return each year.
ABS) What resources did you rely on for help? Were there other groups or literature that helped?
MG) As far as our financial arm, we have had to rely a lot on grants. So far we have been fortunate to get funding from government sources, foundations, corporations, and significant in-kind goods and services.
We have a project algologist and a volunteer who has been in horticulture for 25 years. This is where we have accumulated most of our knowledge.
We have seen a significant trend in volunteers, especially corporate volunteerism in the past few years. Last Saturday we had over 70 volunteers working.
We have also formed partnerships with the City of Richmond, Food Bank, Local Food Security Task Force, Microsoft and local rotary clubs.
We researched other community farms on the internet and learned a lot by
going to conferences and buying resource books. We're always learning.
Likely Page BreakWe just created a beautiful 1 acre orchard on one of the sites where we used
to grow vegetable crops. All of this is very exciting.
ABS) What would you say were some of the biggest obstacles in the beginning. Are there still obstacles and what are they?
MG) In the beginning, we had several challenges. First we had a drought with zilch irrigation. We a rabbit invasion and we had to keep motivating the volunteers to weed, this was funny.
In some ways, we have grown too fast, the project took on a momentum of its own. I didn't mind that, but some of the other society directors are burnt out.
Today one of our biggest obstacles is a 'tired' board of directors. We need new faces and we also need to take a more sustainable approach to funding with less reliance on grants. We also need to start some social enterprises.
ABS) How many farm locations are there?
MG) The Richmond Fruit Tree Project has two. You can download our farm brochure on our web site and there is a map. The south dyke location is now an orchard.
ABS) Tell me about your future plans for the Sharing Farm? What is the vision for the future?
Now that there is a huge interest in local food, is seems people need all the information in this area that is available, so we need to increase programming. People want to know how to grow local food. We can serve as a model.
The orchard will be a teaching and research orchard. We have partnered
with a university here - The Institute of Sustainable Horticulture at Kwantlen University.
We are also looking at expanding the 1.5 acres we currently occupy at Terra Nova and expand the orchard as there are large acreages that the city owns.
We are also thinking of hiring a farm manager instead of small part-time contract workers. It would pull things together. Our present system works but sometimes it gets tricky.
ABS) Thanks, Mary for a birds-eye view of how a locally grown farm began and continues to prosper.
When communities come together to grow and eat local foods, there is nothing that can't be done. Local foods are healthier, more economical, and give every society a sense of kinship.
And the communal concept of growing your own and living off the land is as American as our founding fathers, and Betsy Ross
In the past several months I have founded the Waynedale Green Alliance. This alliance is between the citizens, businesses and community organizations in the Waynedale area. This alliance is aimed towards the objective of raising environmental awareness, by tying together the needs to recycle, reuse, seek alternative methods of transportation, and preserve our natural habitats and historical monuments. In the framework of these concepts is growing and eating local foods.
In an effort to form a template for growth in this regard I located the ten principles of greener living that can be found at Cool Towns Studios. One of the principles is sustainable foods grown locally. I wanted to talk to someone who had actually put this theory into action. The Richmond Fruit Tree Project was such an action and Mary Gazetas is one of the founding members of what is also known as the Sharing Farm.
A short time ago, I was able to ask a few questions about the Richmond Fruit Tree Project of Mary Gazetas. I hope you will take away the necessary ingredients from this short interview to foster your own ideas about greener living, and growing your own.
ABS) How did the idea of The Sharing Farm come to be?
MG) It all started 8 years ago when a small group of us in a community allotment garden
saw a newspaper article about volunteers rescuing surplus fruit out of people's gardens.
We started picking fruit to give to the food bank in Richmond.
And we also did some gleaning in farmer's fields. Then we said in our 2nd year "let's
grow some food too."
We started very small in 2002. Then in 2003 somebody gave us half an acre
behind a dog kennel.
ABS) What were the initial steps you took towards developing The Sharing Farm?
MG) In 2002, 2003 we worked to produce a vision for a community farm.
The City of Richmond liked the idea and let us occupy two different
pieces of their property. These areas were the South Dyke and Terra Nova.
We then began to build a volunteer base. Many of our volunteers return each year.
ABS) What resources did you rely on for help? Were there other groups or literature that helped?
MG) As far as our financial arm, we have had to rely a lot on grants. So far we have been fortunate to get funding from government sources, foundations, corporations, and significant in-kind goods and services.
We have a project algologist and a volunteer who has been in horticulture for 25 years. This is where we have accumulated most of our knowledge.
We have seen a significant trend in volunteers, especially corporate volunteerism in the past few years. Last Saturday we had over 70 volunteers working.
We have also formed partnerships with the City of Richmond, Food Bank, Local Food Security Task Force, Microsoft and local rotary clubs.
We researched other community farms on the internet and learned a lot by
going to conferences and buying resource books. We're always learning.
Likely Page BreakWe just created a beautiful 1 acre orchard on one of the sites where we used
to grow vegetable crops. All of this is very exciting.
ABS) What would you say were some of the biggest obstacles in the beginning. Are there still obstacles and what are they?
MG) In the beginning, we had several challenges. First we had a drought with zilch irrigation. We a rabbit invasion and we had to keep motivating the volunteers to weed, this was funny.
In some ways, we have grown too fast, the project took on a momentum of its own. I didn't mind that, but some of the other society directors are burnt out.
Today one of our biggest obstacles is a 'tired' board of directors. We need new faces and we also need to take a more sustainable approach to funding with less reliance on grants. We also need to start some social enterprises.
ABS) How many farm locations are there?
MG) The Richmond Fruit Tree Project has two. You can download our farm brochure on our web site and there is a map. The south dyke location is now an orchard.
ABS) Tell me about your future plans for the Sharing Farm? What is the vision for the future?
Now that there is a huge interest in local food, is seems people need all the information in this area that is available, so we need to increase programming. People want to know how to grow local food. We can serve as a model.
The orchard will be a teaching and research orchard. We have partnered
with a university here - The Institute of Sustainable Horticulture at Kwantlen University.
We are also looking at expanding the 1.5 acres we currently occupy at Terra Nova and expand the orchard as there are large acreages that the city owns.
We are also thinking of hiring a farm manager instead of small part-time contract workers. It would pull things together. Our present system works but sometimes it gets tricky.
ABS) Thanks, Mary for a birds-eye view of how a locally grown farm began and continues to prosper.
When communities come together to grow and eat local foods, there is nothing that can't be done. Local foods are healthier, more economical, and give every society a sense of kinship.
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