This article on community farming appeared in the December 1999 issue
of AFIELD. If interest demands it, it will be published in its
entirety at the Gardening for the Future pages. Let me know
([EMAIL PROTECTED]) if you are interested. thanks -Allan
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The Flowering of the Suburbs: Common Land and Community Farming
by Brian Donahue
Summer evenings, I bike to Land's Sake to hoe flowers. Although no
longer on the farm staff, I still enjoy farming. I enjoy the
exercise, the light and air, and the ritual of laboring over this
piece of ground.
I hoe for an hour or two as the light lengthens, and the
commuter tide surging through the adjoining intersection crests, and
begins to ebb. I talk to friends who stop to buy produce at the
farmstand or pick flowers and berries from the fields scattered among
the specimen trees of an old arboretum. Hoeing keeps me in touch with
my home town as much as with my home soil.
The ground I help cultivate is at the heart of Land's Sake, a
community farm in Weston, Massachusetts, that cares for most of the
town's 2,000 acres of conservation land. Besides growing organic
fruits, flowers, and vegetables, Land's Sake harvests firewood and
timber in the town forest, makes maple syrup and apple cider, and
runs a variety of environmental education projects. The farm employs
a full-time staff of three, along with dozens of young people from
middle school to graduate school, and a few volunteers. Land's Sake
is supported by some 400 members who contribute about $40,000 every
year. Another $60,000 comes from Weston's Conservation Commission for
services such as mowing fields and clearing trails. But the bulk of
the annual budget of $250,000 is supplied by the sale of fresh
produce and forest products.
To take good care of land and provide natural products for
local consumption is one object of this enterprise. Another, just as
important, is to enable young people to make a vital contribution to
the community. Still another is to make Weston a more beautiful place
to live. Engagement with the land has been moved back toward the
center of community life, where it belongs. This is community
farming, and it has the power to save suburbia from itself.
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Watch for the rest of this article at
http://www.gardeningforthefuture.com in the near future.
