[/caption]Bob Ewing - The freshest food you can eat is food that you have harvested yourself. The closer the food is located to your kitchen, the fresher it is. A front or back yard food garden is the
best guarantee that the food consumed is as fresh as it gets.
However, not everyone has a yard in which to grow the fruits, herbs and vegetables they enjoy. Fortunately, space of your own is not required to grow you own. A community garden provides the opportunity to obtain that freshest of food, the food you harvest from a plot you tended, and then transported a few short blocks to home.
When I help start a community garden in Thunder Bay, my first thoughts were on the extra food I could grow. As the summer days passed I began to understand there was much more growing in that garden than food.
First, the site was located on the edge of a green space and was surrounded by trees, as well as serviceberry and raspberry bushes. There were fruits to eat that we did not even have to grow. The free food and the view added value to the time spent walking to and from the garden. A small bench was built at the back of the plots, and I often found myself sitting there just listening and watching the birds, and a myriad of creatures scurrying about the garden, all helping it grow.
Second and perhaps, the most important benefit the gardeners derived from the site was the friendships that grew along with the plants. On the first day, we all gathered to prepare the garden and clear the site, as well as divide it into the 12 plots. The second weekend we held a seed swap and a short lesson on organic gardening which I offered. The expertise of the gardeners varied from novice to seasoned pro and the exchange was lively. Halfway through the season we met again to have a picnic and talk about our plots.
In addition to these formal gatherings, we met each other in the garden and always had time to chat, usually about the garden but now and then about other issues. Our conversations spread beyond the garden, and on walks through the neighborhood, we would stop and have a short chat on the sidewalk and or wave from the car as we passed by. The neighbourhood became friendlier and felt safer as people who were once strangers, and who we may have passed without so much as a nod, now either stopped to talk or waved.
Over the three years we were a part of the Regent Street Community Garden we experienced the growth of a community, a community of interest, based in the community garden, but one that stretched into the neighbouring streets as well.
Community gardens properly tended not only provide fresh foods but good neighbours and even friends.
