Crops for a Closer Community: A New Entry

F.U.N

I tell them I am gardening

''F.u.n'' they respond

as they imagine

me walking up to the aroma of blooming flowers

red and yellow

roses

daffodils

turn on the sprinklers and watch them blossom... all summer long.

Little do they know.

Little do they know what it takes

to grow squash from seeds

beans while bunnies

devour on our efforts

and raise toasts of our sweat

Little do they know

the taste of drought

the feel of burning soil

and of losing lettuce to land

I tell my friends that I am gardening

and that it is s.o m.u.c.h f.u.n

But little do they know.

After two hours of driving to Dracut and one hour of wondering up and down a Bridge Street, we finally figured our way out to New Entry. We made it to our first farm visit last Thursday. Thanx to Adu who looked after our tent in the Framer's Market and sold almost everything we had and Ruby who pushed us to leave South Hadley for good.
New Entry is a sustainable farming project that began in 1998 to help immigrants and refugees to develop commercial farming opportunities. The project entails providing local farmers with information, recourses, training and technical assistance so that they can grow local healthy food and sell them to consumers though the Community Supported Agriculture Program (CSA).
Unfortunately, we missed the tour to a water spinach farm owned and tended by an immigrant from Combodia. We visited three farms. The owners were all full time workers and grew produce as a side business. You dont have to be a farmer to grow a garden! It was encouraging to see how the farmers were so supportive of each other in terms of sharing each others issues and learning from one another to avoid the same problems. They emphasized on the need to plan early on time along with the need to make strategical marketing or business decisions. We also learned a couple of ways to improve our garden. Rule one. Wash your hands before starting. Who knew we had to sanitize our hands before working with dirt. Well..now we know. For the most part, they used tarps over the soil in order to keep the weed down and it seemed to work very well. This also requires a drip irrigation system. So it is might have to stick with mulching with hay. Besides, considering it is relatively small garden, hay only seems like a better option for us. Tim, who is having a hard time dealing with weeds at this point, suggested that the paths be reasonably wide and that the weeds should be knocked down while small. We can't agree more.
Lobsang liked the fact that they have someone (Matt) who regularly checks on the farms on a scientific basis, analyses the situation and suggests ways to improve. Matt is their speaker of trees, like Russ is ours.
Allison seemed interested in how New Entry Sustainable Farming Project differs from the Student Garden Project here at Mount Holyoke, in that the farmers there work for years, which gives them the chance to learn from their previous years and make changes in the coming years.