It may not be a wheatfield waving, but all across the Capital District, people are dreaming of late summer bounty as they put their own personal crop into their backyard, a community garden or a big pot on the deck.
Across the nation, gardeners spent $1.154 billion in 2005 on vegetable gardening, according to a 2006 national gardening survey conducted by the National Gardening Association in Burlington, Vt.
What’s the appeal?
It’s rewarding, don’t you think? said Dean Plummer of Delmar’s nursery and gardening supply shop Price-Greenleaf. `Also, the taste and the freshness.`
As if to pay testament to Plummer’s words, Eunice and Josh Peacetree paced up and down by the table of young vegetable plants, not unlike kids in a candy store.
`Tomatoes, eggplants, cukes, peppers,` Josh Peacetree, groundskeeper at Siena College, said as he walked.
`We’re getting some 4×4 railroad ties and making raised beds,` Eunice Peacetree said. `It’s our second year in the house, so it’s our second garden.`
Why do they do it?
`It’s better than buying produce,` Josh Peacetree said. `You feel more connected to the earth and it’s more environmentally friendly.`
`People have a desire to know what they’re eating,` said Bill Giniecki of The Country Garden on Consaul Road in Niskayuna. `Especially vegetables that come from overseas, could have pesticides that we don’t use any more in this country.`
Like the Peacetrees, Giniecki rattles off the names of vegetables ` most of them started from seed in his hoop house. The favorites? Tomatoes, cukes, summer squash and peppers.
`Vegetables are a big product this time of year,` Giniecki said as a quick summer storm started hitting his plants. `Years ago, families living in two-family houses in Schenectady would turn their whole, small yard into a vegetable garden. It was amazing what they could grow. A lot of young people are trying vegetables again.`
For people without a yard ` or who want a large, sun-drenched piece of land with good organic soil ` community gardens are the way to go.
Capital District Community Gardens has 45 locations and a total of 3,000 gardeners.
`We’re mostly serving folks in the inner city, who have no backyard,` said Amy Klein, executive director of CDCG. There are some plots in some suburban towns, and some are on the edges of towns and draw suburban gardeners.
`The community gardens are different things for different people,` Klein said.
`Some sustain families `we estimate that most of our gardeners grow $1,000 worth of produce in their plots.`
Klein echoed Giniecki’s sentiments.
`People are interested in growing their own food,` she said. `There’s a health issue with produce grown close together, with chemicals and pesticides applied. Community gardens are organic, so you’re not creating toxic waste.
Also, produce itself is healthy and people are concerned with eating healthy food. You can deal with the scares associated with produce that comes from other countries by growing your own.`
In Guilderland, the community gardens located at Tawasentha Park provide more than food.
`People keep their plots from year to year,` said Guilderland’s Parks and Recreation Director Dennis Moore, who started the community garden about 10 years ago.
`A lot of Guilderland residents don’t own their own homes and this lets them garden. We have about 50 gardeners, and it’s as much a social thing as gardening.`
In the Guilderland gardens, transplanting, protecting and planting anew was the order of the day during the Memorial Day weekend.
`I like being outside with nature,` said Eve Gannon as she pointed out her asparagus plants and talked about the tomatoes, the cukes and the squash she’d grow that summer in her Tawasentha plot.
Margaret and Albert Rusch tucked landscape fabric around their plants.
`Corn is probably my favorite,` Margaret Rusch said. `I also like being outside, working in the sun.`
`It’s so beautiful here,` said Fan Chen. `When the sun goes down behind those trees in the evening, it’s such a beautiful place.`
Chen has already harvested some Chinese greens that don’t mind the frost.
`These last few days,` she said, `I’m here almost daily. After the garden gets established, it’s just watering and weeding.`
Getting it established can be tricky. The most important things to do?
`You need good sun; fertilize; keep the weeds out; at first, water a lot,` said Plummer. `Once the garden takes hold, you’re OK.`
`Keep the ground fluffed up,` Giniecki said. `Weed. When you see farm fields, you don’t see weeds. A lot of people throw their plants in the ground and walk away. If you don’t weed, you’re wasting your money. You have to have a love for it.`
`Disease-resistant plants and a healthy garden soil,` said Larry Sombke, who has the Web site beautifuleasygardens.com and is WAMC’s natural gardener.
`A lot of compost is the No. 1 solution,` said Sombke, who goes weekly with his wife, his two blue barrels and his little dog to collect compost from his town’s transfer station.
`Compost is free in a lot of towns,` he said. `It’s worth a phone call. Most soils need decomposed plant material. Adding organic matter aerates the soil, retains moisture and encourages deep root growth.`
The benefits to gardening?
`It’s good exercise,` Sombke said. `It gets you out, and it gets you thinking about the environment.`
Oh, yeah, after all that work, there’s the fresh produce.
`Tremendous, superior flavor,` Sombke said of homegrown produce.
`Nothing’s as good as a freshly picked tomato,` Plummer said.
`You can taste the difference in the tomatoes and the greens. It may be psychological,` Chen said.
`Homegrown tastes better,` said Giniecki. `Taste is the primary product. You can’t beat going to the garden and picking a fresh tomato.`
For information:
Capital District Community Gardens: www.cdcg.org or 274-8685
National Gardening Association: www.garden.org or 802-863-5251
Guilderland Community Gardens: townofguilderland.org
Larry Sombke: www.beautifuleasygardens.com
SIDEBAR: Sharing in a farm’s bounty
Agricultural concept connects consumers with food’s origins
By JIM CUOZZO, Spotlight Staff
German-raised farmer Trauger Groh founded the Temple-Wilton Community Farm in New Hampshire in 1985 and is now recognized as the pioneer of community supported agricultural, or CSA, farms in the United States.
Temple-Wilton still exists and continues to grow organic products financially supported by the individuals who sustain the operation. They share in both the risks and profits.
With CSA’s, members or `share-holders` of the farm pledge a fee in advance to cover the anticipated costs of the farm operation and farmer’s salary. With that fee comes the bounty of the harvest.
`The CSA concept represents a completely different relationship between farmers and eaters,` said Steve Gilman of Stillwater, who for many years owned a CSA farm in Quaker Springs between Stillwater and Schuylerville. Gillman’s farm was once supported by more than 100 people and several restaurants in the Capital District.
`The history of CSA’s began in Europe and Japan, and Groh is credited with staring the first CSA in this country,` Gillman said.
In 2004, more than 1,700 CSA farms were registered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the list continues to grow with more than 40 in New York.
`CSA is a real response to industrialization and is local agriculture, or food with a face,` said Gilman.
The reason for a CSA is so a farmer can grow his crops early without having to worry about startup costs from a bank.
`Farmers would go over their farm budget and members would pledge to offset certain expenses to receive what is produced,` said Gillman. `They are getting money upfront at the beginning of the season, and in return CSA shareholders are getting food at a wholesale price.`
In the Capital District, Chris von Bulow is the site coordinator for Roxbury Farms, a large, 225-acre CSA in Kinderhook in Columbia County. As site coordinator, von Bulow finds locations throughout the area, including Delmar, where workers drop the food off weekly to the farm’s 800 members.
`The Delmar region has 55 members that pick up their produce beginning in June every Tuesday,` von Bulow said.
Salad greens, spinach, sugar snap peas, and turnips are some of the early
summer crops. As the harvest continues into late summer and fall, the variety becomes more plentiful.
`Tomatoes of every size, from heritage to juliette tomatoes, oriental eggplant, fava beans, kale and bok choy,` said von Bulow.
Members of Roxbury Farms can also participate in farm events held annually, including strawberry picking, garlic planting and sweet potato picking.
`Every age group comes to the farm,` said von Bulow.
Gilman said the connection between member to farmer and farm in a CSA is very real and more direct. When the weather is good, everyone reaps the benefits of the harvest, and when the weather takes a turn for the worse, members are affected as well.
`Shareholders learned after one hail storm that my lettuce crop was ruined for a month,` said Gilman, who said members have a vested interest in the farm and farming.
`When frost occurred I would get calls from members asking how my tomatoes were doing,` Gilman added.
Roxbury Farms is one of the largest CSA’s in the country. It was formed in 1990 as a partnership between Jonathan Hilton and Jean-Paul Courtens.
Courtens operates the farm with Jody Bolluyt and a crew of 10. The Roxbury Farm membership that began in New York City branched out to the Capital District in 1991 and continues to grow. Food grown at the farm is organic and biodynamic, meaning no pesticides are used and genetic manipulation does not occur.
`Instead of meat-centered meals, my meals are now centered around the vegetables,` said von Bulow.
Membership at Roxbury Farms is at its peak, and most of the customers hear about the farm from word of mouth.
`I was a member in Albany many years ago when Roxbury first started,` said Delmar resident Deborah Reichler, who rejoined the CSA when a local pickup site was formed.
`The fruits and vegetables are incredibly fresh and much better than anything you find in a store,` Reichler said.
A full membership can cost $465 for a season, and for those participating in the fruit bounty, there is an extra charge.
`My favorite items are the fresh tomato and basil,` said Reichler. `We eat tomato, basil and pasta all summer long.`
Gilman said the CSA phenomena is not a fad and what was once a concept strictly found in rural communities and small towns has branched out to different cities across the country.
`CSA’s really raised awareness about where our food is coming from,` Gilman said.
Roxbury Farms CSA supplies food to the upper west side of Manhattan and to community kitchens in the Big Apple. Roxbury Farms also has local CSA pickup sites in the city of Albany and Glenville in Schenectady County.
`You really need to learn how to eat seasonally,` said von Bulow.
More information on Roxbury Farms can be found online at www.roxburyfarm.com.
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