Just Call Me Farmer Melissa

This week I became a farmer!

One of my dreams is to become a farmer (see my blog post from a couple of years ago: Dream #4) and while there are still many ways in which I can become more of a farmer, at the basic level I’m a farmer!

Here’s how I became a farmer:

I’ve been a pretty serious gardener for a few years now and I’ve learned a whole lot by reading and by trial and error in my own garden and in the community garden at my church. 

The community garden at my church was started three years ago- we started with 2500 square feet of garden.  The first year we grew about 900 pounds of produce that was donated to the local food pantries and last year we grew 1350 pounds of veggies for the food pantries.  This spring with the amazing help of a boy scout from my church, we expanded the gardening area to about 7000 square feet.  He added an awesome compost bin, put up some sturdy fences and gates, made a whole bunch of heavy duty tomato cages and put up trellises for beans, cucumbers and peas, and we planted some perennial plants- rhubarb, raspberries, and asparagus.

Just part of the garden...

Back when we only had the 20 x 125 foot garden we struggled to get enough volunteers from the congregation to care for the garden.  Caring for the garden is very labor intensive- planting, weeding, picking hundreds of pounds of tomatoes and other veggies, watering for hours, etc.  We wanted to be able to grow more fresh veggies to donate to the local food pantries, but without more volunteers we just couldn’t do it.  As we were thinking about this my church was becoming more aware of the needs of people who are homeless in our community.  One of the greatest needs is for employment.  Many people who are homeless do have a job (they might have only a part-time position or aren’t making enough to make ends meets), but many people who are homeless face many barriers when trying to get a job.  

So, then we thought why not hire people who are homeless to work in the community garden?!?  We could provide jobs for people who are homeless AND we could provide more fresh veggies to the food pantries!   But then there was the whole obstacle of “So, how will we get money to actually pay people to work in the garden?”  This is where the wonderful folks at Wheat Ridge Ministries came in.  I applied for a Burst Grant for to be able to hire the homeless and they gave us a grant!

This spring we accepted applications, interviewed people, and hired two people who are homeless to work in the garden.  They have been working part-time in the garden since May.  They have planted, weeded, watered, and harvested.  The garden workers along with volunteers from the congregation and community have done a phenomenal job of caring for the garden.  It is a gorgeous garden and it is producing so much!  The vegetables are amazing, but the most beautiful part of this has been the blessings that the garden workers have experienced and been a part of.  I hope to share more soon about the positive impact and transformation I have seen in garden worker’s lives.

Now back to becoming a farmer….

The thing that separates a gardener from a farmer is a farmer sells what he or she grows.  Last week we set up a little farm stand at my church and sold some of the produce that we grew in the garden!  We’re farmers!

The money we make from the farm stand will allow us to take a step toward the garden becoming a self-sustaining ministry.  The grant money will run out, so if we want to continue to provide employment for the homeless and fresh produce for the food pantries we will need to raise money.  We are piloting the farm stand idea this summer to see if it’s a viable way to raise the funds we need.  We had quite a few people stop by the stand last week, hopefully more people will come this week!

Stop by if you’re in the area (my church is at 1244 W Army Trail Road in Carol Stream, right now we will have our farm stand on Wednesdays 5:00-7:00 pm)!