Building Community Food Systems in Times of Adversity: My Spring 2021 Food and Agriculture Internship in Evergreen's Community Garden

Another busy week! The weather seems to be warming-up and the rain has been slowing down a bit. Though I think we are in for a few more weeks of slightly lower temperatures and increased precipitation, I’m much less worried about putting seedlings in the ground. Even though the community garden has a few weeks before needing access to constant water, I took the opportunity to speak with Caleb Poppe about what will need to be done to supply the garden with irrigation. Because it has been raining so often, I will be pushing this project to week nine.

I also received access to the community garden google group (Thanks Henry!), so I will be scheduling a garden-wide meeting to discuss next steps in operations and leadership. I plan to create the event this week, but schedule the meeting for Week Ten; hopefully, with enough lead-up time, we gardeners will have the opportunity to meet as one and create a functional leadership structure before the end of my internship.

Monday afternoon, Zoe and I spent a couple of hours working on bed restoration in the herb garden. After finishing our weeding in the bed, we laid down brown paper and topped it with a thick layer of wood chips. We are hoping to continue this work on Monday afternoons going forward, at least mulching in half of the garden before the beginning of summer quarter.

On Tuesday evening, I met with my fellow SCARFers at the farmhouse to cook for our bake sale on Thursday. We baked cookies, dipped pretzels, and made cereal treats, all while enjoying each other’s company, singing, and watching movies.

Wednesday was volunteer day, and our group continued our work in the perennial rhubarb and asparagus bed. We are 80% complete with the project, but we are also entering the thickest, weediest part of the patch. The Canada Thistle, buttercup, and various other weeds have twisted themselves around the sprouting asparagus, making the work slow and painstaking. We are hoping to finish the work next week, when we will move on to the blueberry patch.

On Wednesday, Zoe and I attended the Food and Agriculture Pathway party and discussed our internship work with faculty and students. It was wonderful to touch on some of the exciting work we are doing this quarter, to talk about our student organization, and to generally celebrate the progress we’ve made towards our goals.

On Wednesday, I also met with Dr. Steve Scheuerell to briefly discuss his thoughts on rejuvenating Demeter’s Garden. One of his suggestions that should be put into play immediately is the occultation of at least some of the space. I will be following-up with Maleah Upah, the coordinator in charge of Demeter’s Garden, with hopes that we can use this cool, late spring as an opportunity to lay down tarping.

Thursday was SCARF’s first bake sale! We hope to make this sale a weekly event that coincides with the farm stand. This fundraising money will be used to print club merchandise, as well as provide financial support to some of our other event ideas (Film at the Farm, anyone?). Additionally, the bake sale provides an opportunity for our club members to interact with the community and student body. We signed up two new members of our organization this week alone! Our club is also learning the ins and outs of cash handling, as well as boosting our skills in market design and customer service.

This week has been a giant burst of activity, with my responsibilities truly seeming to blend at times: Student, Intern, Coordinator, Fellow, Volunteer, and Aide. They all support each other, with ebbs and flows in what is necessary for each position from week to week; I’m thrilled that I’ve been able to build win-win situations that connect the community garden, the medieval herb garden, Demeter’s Garden, the Organic Farm, the Taste program, the Ecological Agriculture program, the SURF Fellowship, and the Food and Agriculture Pathway as a whole.

Monday, while working with volunteers in the Taste program plot, I was able to meet with several community gardeners and talk through future projects and workdays. I still have not received access to the Google group, but I reached out to several gardeners again, hoping that someone will invite me to the link. If I can get the message out about the meeting, I think we’ll have the opportunity to narrow down our immediate goals and establish continuity of leadership at the end of my internship.

I was so happy to rejoin my cohort of food and ag volunteers at the farm this Wednesday, especially as it was such a GORGEOUS day. The group finished restoring the perennial flower bed last week and so Beth had us start a new and really exciting project: the rhubarb and asparagus patch that has been mostly neglected for the last two years. We started on the side of the rhubarb, specifically targeting an abundance of Canada thistle that was choking both plants and paths. We were joined by students from across the food and ag pathway, all seeking fellowship and an opportunity to take action with nature through agriculture. We could all be doing anything else, but we want to do nothing else.

After finishing the rhubarb, we carefully began moving into the asparagus gently loosening the thistle; the early stalks are coming up, and we had to be incredibly observant and sensitive not to damage the produce. It was a fantastic opportunity to train new volunteers on the proper techniques and tools for this sort of sensitive job, and I think they will all be more thoughtful about what they are doing on future projects.

Prior to our volunteer hours, the coordinators of SCARF met for a planning meeting to discuss our future fundraising plans. We’ve agreed to a weekly continuing bake sale that will be held at the same time as the organic farm stand on Thursdays, functionally creating a farmer’s market with our own stall at the farm. We will have our own table, canopy, and signage. We will be offering baked goods donated by SCARF members and homemade lemonade with lemon balm.

Additionally, we will be supporting a campus wide art contest to benefit the club, the farm, and the food and agriculture pathway as a whole. Last year I created a cookbook with another student in the POF program, which is already almost sold out of stock at the farm; I’ve decided to lead the charge in creating a ‘Volume 2’ of the cookbook, with more recipes and new artwork. We also want to create T-shirts for the club, both to raise awareness of our organization and as a fundraising opportunity.

In order to support all these interconnected goals, SCARF will sponsor an art contest with three category winners: Best Cover Art, Best Art Overall, and best SCARF logo design. We will offer a small prize for each category and will hopefully be able to gather our target number of illustrations for the cookbook and club merchandise. SCARF will then join the food and agriculture pathway party, helping to create graduation bouquets for the farm, and will join the organic farm stand on red square to sell baked goods and t-shirts on the day of graduation. Quite festive!

I will be planning our next two community garden work parties this weekend, one for an upcoming Monday afternoon and another for a Saturday Barbeque at the end of the month. I hope that with our next Monday meeting we can tackle the east compost pile, so I will be doing research on proper compost maintenance and turning in preparation for leading volunteers. Additionally, the irrigation pump that connects to the community garden is down again and awaiting repair, so we will be running hoses from the farm out to the east fence; from there we can connect our own hoses to use until the pump is fixed. I hope to take care of it by the beginning of Week Eight.

I’m also beginning the work for my upcoming fellowship, working with Dr. Steve Scheuerell in spring quarter, Dr. Angelos Katsanis through summer quarter, and finishing-up with Dr. Sarah Williams in the fall. I’m interested in growing radicchio and late storage cabbages, so I’ve been researching interesting varieties from certified organic producers like Uprising Seeds, Adaptive Seeds, and High Mowing Seeds. Our field was formerly a strawberry patch, so I will also be researching possible amendments.

This week was extremely taxing, beginning with an illness and subsequent trip to the emergency room on Monday. I returned to school on Wednesday but found myself still so physically and mentally exhausted that I could not commit to joining the farm for volunteer hours. Instead, I spent Wednesday afternoon in the community garden, sitting on the ground, weeding, seeding, and enjoying the company of friends who joined me for my light labor.

My fellow intern Zoe Dewitt, as well as students Laura Reusche and Ali Bailey met in the garden at 2:30pm and spent a few moments catching up and making a plan. We dove into weeding one of the most overgrown beds, creating space for seeding intercropped carrots and onions, as well as an endcap of colorful, spicy nasturtiums. As we worked, we discussed a little of everything: our classes, SCARF, herbalism, the tool shed, tree trimming, Ukraine, TEK, family, the housing crisis, our cats, and summer plans. By the end of our session, I realized that the work had cleared some of my mental fog and warmed-up my muscles, allowing me to walk into the rest of the week feeling much refreshed. Sticking my hands deep in the soil at the community garden is such a centering experience, and I am coming to crave my time there.

In addition to my limited physical labor time this week, I’ve been assisting faculty in the food and agriculture pathway with a project: planning a food and agriculture pathway party for the end of spring quarter. To that end, I met with F&A faculty and staff this week for the purpose of organizing a graduation bouquet building party on Thursday, June 9th, followed by a fundraising sale of the bouquets to graduates on Friday, June 10th. It would be an opportunity to draw attention to the pathway, the farm, and SCARF, who has offered to support the party for a share of the fundraising profits.

On the front of SCARF this week, we are beginning to see increased student interest in membership, leadership, and volunteerism. We gained 4 new members this week and elected to enlist a fourth coordinator for our group. This solidifies our leadership structure and allows each coordinator to play to their strengths. As I lead the community garden, Zoe represents the Medieval Herb Garden, and Maleah has domain over projects in Demeter’s Garden (mirroring our internship goals); our newest coordinator Gabriel Vesenka will coordinate our club marketing and events, freeing the other coordinators to focus on accomplishing labor, like the volunteer work hours supported by the club, special maintenance, administration, etc.

We held our first official coordinator meeting on Friday and discussed SCARF’s involvement in the food and agriculture pathway party, as well as possible fundraising ideas. Additionally, Zoe and Maleah presented our budget to Student Activities on Monday afternoon, bringing us one step closer to bringing Demeter’s Garden back to life!

As a volunteer project, I have offered to assist the farm in creating a Volume II for the cookbook I wrote last year. My partner for that project is currently on a study abroad, with very little bandwidth for anything else. As opposed to waiting for her return to reprint the first book, I suggested to Beth that we add more recipes, develop new art, and reprint at a slightly more standardized size. I’m very excited for this project, as the first print is a rousing success and has not only paid for itself, but also produced profit for the farm. My current plan to elicit illustrations, the main missing component in our new enterprise, is to hold an art contest with prizes: one for best drawing and one for cover art. I’m looking forward to working on this goal over the late spring and early summer, hopefully receiving our new book in time for fall quarter and the Harvest Festival!

The weather has continued to be unseasonably cold, which has placed a temporary hold on what we can do as farmer and gardeners. Of particular concern are the pollinators who should be working to fertilize tree fruit crops like apples and pears; because of the chill and rain, fruit set appears to be low this year. Transplanting and seeding are delayed, so this was a week of other tasks: weeding, bed preparation, and repair.

My first “repair” action this week was to treat the community greenhouse with a non-toxic rodent repellent. After a bit of research, I landed on a product safe for animals and people called Tomcat Rodent Repellent Spray, a liquid composed of mint oil, clove oil, cinnamon oil, and Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. The incredibly strong (but weirdly pleasant) scent delivers a smell and taste those rats and mice naturally hate, preventing rodent entry, nesting and foraging in treated spaces. The product lasts for 4-6 weeks, but I’m going to retreat often and early to get a handle on the pest problem ASAP. Losing the seeds that were planted at the Equity Symposium during our April 13th seeding workshop was a real blow, but the silver lining is that we were made aware of our unwelcome guests quickly and we are able to repel them as opposed to killing them.

I also began envisioning our future garden volunteer hours and work parties, and after discussing options with my fellow interns, I settled on afternoon volunteer hours every other Monday from 2pm-5pm and a longer community work party on the third Saturday of every month. I’m especially looking forward to our once-a-month weekend day, which I hope will draw a larger crowd of volunteers and bring a festive, party-like atmosphere into the space.

Volunteers met at the farm on Wednesday to assist Beth with our biggest project yet! As a group of 10 volunteers, we mulched the entire 2022 strawberry patch with wood chips, both in the rows and around the muddy, weedy edges. It took 3 hours and dozens of wheelbarrows full of chips, but we finished our task beautifully. After looking at what we had accomplished, we were inspired to go further, and continued on to restore the main path and to lay a new wood chip path down to the strawberries.

After completing volunteer hours, we held a short meeting of SCARF to discuss our upcoming budget hearing with the Student Activities Board. I was in charge of assembling our proposal, which can be viewed in full below. Our greatest hope is to receive enough funding to make Demeter’s Garden usable again; it would be AMAZING if by the Harvest Festival we were able to present a reclaimed space to the student body.

While no new gardeners approached me looking for space this week, I did have an opportunity to communicate with several returning community gardeners about their plans for the season and how I can support them in their goals.

I met Sylvi Baldwin and Clarissa Dirks, two faculty who work with another partner as a trio in a few adjacent plots. They are excited by the momentum in the garden and are looking forward to seeing more progress. Sylvi offered their excess starts to Taste: What We Hunger For and will be collaborating with the program to plant a large, compact squash patch. Additionally, when advised that donations rather than fees are being accepted this year, the pair committed to procuring compost enriched garden soil for use by the entire community. So generous!

Clarissa and I also spoke for a bit about the repairs needed around the garden and started developing a list of projects that can easily be accomplished by a small group with basic hand tools. On our list are items such as repairing the door jamb of the storage shed, building shelves in the newly organized space, creating a “corral” for wheelbarrows and trellising, and repairing/repurposing the composting toilet for use as a second shed. Clarissa is also willing to lead a few workshops on basic hand tool use and small carpentry repairs, offering students an opportunity to learn a new and valuable skill.

I was also in contact with John Fortugno, one of our most senior gardeners (of John’ Green Dream fame). He is abroad in Romania working with Ukrainian refugee women and children at the Bucharest train station and on the border. I’m excited to meet with him and gain his perspective on the direction of the community garden in the coming weeks. Either way, it was good to link a person to a plot.

What a week! We accomplished so much at our community garden work party on Monday, April 11th. A group of six student and alumni volunteers completely overhauled the greenhouse; eight wheelbarrows of trash were either recycled or thrown away and we organized the space into something usable and community focused. I was so grateful for our small but mighty volunteer force; not only did they provide the necessary physical labor, but also much needed perspective on my plans for the greenhouse. The project was more successful because of our collaboration.

The entire space got weeded, though we did preserve a beautiful pink columbine near the door. We covered the floor in a thick layer of wood chips, leaving a single indoor winter bed open for future planting. We collected and organized all of the hoses and irrigation supplies, arranged our generous supply of pots into easy to find stacks, and made room on the planting table for seedlings. We were also able to move the seed cabinet from the garden shed into the greenhouse space. Not only does this open-up much-needed space in the shed, but it also makes seeds and seeding materials available to be used by everyone.

On Wednesday, April 13th from 1pm-2:30pm, I facilitated a food and agriculture directed presentation for the 2022 Equity Symposium titled “Tending Seeds Tends People: Regenerative Agriculture as Community Regeneration at the Evergreen State College”. We began with presenters sharing their stories of liberation, community, and hope that grew from the figurative seeds of agricultural participation and education. Afterwards we moved to the farm, where participants planted literal seeds for the farm and community garden. Beth Leimbach gave a short overview of the components of good potting mix and preferred seeding tools and techniques. By the end of our workshop, we were able to plant twenty-four large trays of seeds, label them appropriately, and move them into protected greenhouse space. As a parting gift to our participants, we provided supplies for each of them to plant flowers to take home to their own garden spaces.

Immediately after our workshop came weekly farm volunteer hours. This week we had over ten participants, and we were able to weed a significant portion of the perennial flower bed. And then it started to snow. When it began to hail, we all sought shelter in the nearest high tunnel, where we shifted gears and started smothering the weeds in about 400 square feet of space. The unseasonably cold weather, along with the late snow, lead our group to worries about our own gardens and the consequences for fruit pollination and crop survival. Climate change became the topic of our afternoon, with forays into subjects like topsoil erosion, ocean acidification, and social justice in the context of campus dining. As usual, I was humbled by the knowledge brought to the table by my peers and grateful for the informal seminar.

I met with another three new community gardeners this week and got them moved into assigned plots. It is good to see so much activity in the space, especially after so many years of minimal use. The vibe is happy, productive, determined, and hopeful.

Rodent Alert!

Mice found all of our seeds planted for the community garden and have eaten the better portion of them. I can’t help but tie this event a bit to Chapoter 1 of Where our Food Comes From by Gary Paul Nabhan, in which seed potatoes had to be protected from rats by seed breeders standing gaurd with rifles. I have devoted time to researching pest management methods, and I will be purchasing a mint-based rodent repellent to try first. I’m also using the opportunity for long term solutions, like the seeding box at the farm, to protect our newly planted seeds.

The second week of the quarter has been challenging, but also a lot of fun. I’ve spent hours meeting with new gardeners and scouring the space for empty plots to assign, darting sown to the garden between classes and on the weekends to make it easier to connect with people. I purchased markers for new members to stake their claims, which I hope will prevent confusion as the season progresses. The process of scoping-out unused plots has been beneficial in a number of ways.

By examining unused plots, I am definitely reminded of the weed pressures at play in the space. Comfrey and buttercup continue to be our biggest offenders, followed by bindweed, grasses, and kale. I am hoping to book our garden completely this summer, as I hypothesize that human pressure can counter our weed pressure problems.

I’ve also been looking at our spaces in terms of equity and have been splitting some plots and joining others to ensure that no one gardener has more space than another. COVID prevented so many people from participation in the garden in 2020 but provided some others with unprecedented space to expand their plots; the challenge from this point forward will be to appoint spaces equitably while honoring the long-term work of those who stewarded the garden during COVID.

Managing the needs of students, faculty, and community members has been a study in balance, and those relationships will require as much regeneration as the space itself. I am planning a community meeting at the end of week four to create a forum for all the gardeners to help create our community goals for the future.

We held our second volunteer workday on Wednesday from 2pm-5pm. This week we had nine volunteers and managed to finish the sides and ends of the high tunnel we started weeding last week. Beth and I discussed a list of rules and recommendations for volunteers, for safety and efficiency. Additionally, we spoke about the point at which we might begin splitting our volunteer force into different work groups. We also planned our next project: weeding out the perennial flower beds. The buttercup is so thick there that the flowers are being choked out, and we will have to carefully go through the row without harming the crops.

Finally, I’ve planned a “Spring-Cleaning Work Party” for Monday afternoon. We hope to clean and organize the greenhouse space and toolshed, rotate the compost, and possibly spread some wood chips in the garden path. The hope is that we can have an easier growing season if our spaces are clean, usable, and free of clutter. I have advertised at the garden, as well as through professors, friends, and my fellow food and agriculture interns.