It's hard work. It is the most rewarding work I have ever done in my life. It has made
my retirement a true blessing. I'm making a difference. You've got to start somewhere.
Start local. As the poet Gary Snyder once said, pick your spot on earth and dig in.
Well, we are literally digging in with this garden. My name is Susan Clare. I'm a
Norwood resident and I'm retired. I run a community garden in our small town
because I'm trying to save the world.
About six years ago, three of us got together in Norwood concluding after
lunch study, which still continues, that it is time for humanity to recognize
that it is not superior to nature but part of it. So we decided one of the
things we would do is start a community garden, though none of us knew anything
about farming food. We got the land from the town of Norwood to use. They own it.
The conservation commission oversees it and agreed that if we remain organic, we
could have this half acre to set up a community garden. When we started the
community garden, I had hoped we might get a dozen gardeners for our first year.
I expected an uphill climb to get people interested. Within two months, every plot
was full. And since then have acquired gardeners originally from India, Portugal,
Spain, Bulgaria, Italy, Ireland, many other countries. Some don't even speak
fluent English yet, but the language of a garden is pretty universal. We welcome
these people. In fact, our gardeners pay us $25 a year, and that is for the
entire year. We aren't interested in only having gardeners who happen to have
good jobs. We want anybody to be able to grow food. We have 72 household plots
now, meaning that there are 72 households who grow food for themselves all
summer long, first feeding themselves and their families from it, then feeding
other gardeners and their neighbors, and then donating to the food pantry.
Teresa and Marisa Petrucci first joined the garden a couple of years ago, taking
a very small plot. They wanted to grow for the Norwood food pantry as part of a
Girl Scout project. It was immensely successful, and they concluded that what
they should do is actually take care of a food pantry pickup every Saturday
morning. Those are strawberries, these are pumpkins, more tomatoes, and that's
amaranth. These are cucumbers, and these two are Brussels sprouts. Those are
marigolds. I'm Marisa Petrucci. I'm in eighth grade, and I've been working at the
garden for three years. My mom got me started, and she taught me to like help
out the less fortunate, because I didn't really think about that when I was in
fifth grade, but now I do. My favorite vegetable would probably be tomatoes. I
just picked a few yesterday. I think we have about four plants, so that's probably
about like 15 tomatoes so far, because they're still not done growing. I just
enjoy like even the smallest thing picking weeds with my mom, or bringing my
friends to show them what I'm doing. One of my really close best friends that I've
known forever, she helps me go to the store, pick out vegetables, and helps to
grow them too. When I tell people that I work at the garden, they're pretty
impressed since I'm so young, and I tell them that it's a good idea to do
something for the less fortunate if it's not growing vegetables, anything really,
but I'm helping people who can't afford to grow their own vegetables, or go out
and buy their own vegetables.
One of the nicest things about the garden is the education of young people. The
children, and grandchildren, and nieces, and nephews, and friends that we bring to
the garden with us learn how food is grown. The first word in community
garden is community, and we focus on that first, because we have concluded that
without communities working together, sustainability will not be achieved.
People are learning by watching the garden in Norwood, being inspired by what
we do. We have people from town who are not gardeners, who come out and visit us,
and ask questions, and wander around, and let us offer them a cucumber or
something. This needs to grow now beyond this garden. This garden will continue, I
hope, for a long time, but this is all I can manage. I need for other people in
the community of Norwood to step up and say, I'll start a neighborhood garden,
there's a vacant lot next to me. I've got a huge backyard, I'm going to find
another four people, and we're going to farm food together. And if they don't need
the food, they can grow it and give it to the food pantry, because there are
hungry people in Norwood.
