Lexington Interfaith Garden

By: Barbara Munkres

Four volunteers from Pilgrim Church joined  Carla under a blue sky and BIG puffy clouds.  In spite of all the rain we had in March and early April, the garden had been dry for several weeks.  After a tour of the garden plots, Carla explained what an unusual year this is:  the planting and sprouting is well ahead of most years.  Then she showed us where to weed and water.

Carla had harvested a few stalks of asparagus in the morning; by afternoon, a few more had grown enough to be harvested, which amazed us.  Tiny slender corn shoots were showing here and there in the corn plot, and strawberries were blooming along the edge of the garden.   They made a beautiful border…

After about an hour of watering and weeding, the beautiful clouds that had been building up began unleashing huge drops of water, which soon seemed like a downpour!  We scurried to the barn and ended our
work for the day.  The rain was welcome, but didn’t last very long.

By: Meg Muckenhoupt

Good morning, everyone. I am speaking to you as a representative of the Lexington Interfaith Garden.

The Interfaith Garden is a 40×40 garden plot in Carla Fortmann’s back yard. It was started last fall and is maintained by volunteers from a dozen different faith communities, the garden will supply produce to the Lexington Food Pantry and other local hunger relief organizations. We’ve already sent some spring
onions and asparagus over to the Food Pantry, and we expect to send much more.

Isn’t that wonderful? I know if I were sitting in the pews right now, I’d ask myself, “Why bother?”

I mean, what’s the point? You can buy onions for 75 cents a pound at Market Basket, asparagus goes for $1.99 a pound in season. If all you professionals work for an hour and net $35, you could buy $175 pounds of potatoes for the Food Pantry. Heck, if Carla just sells her garden at going Lexington real estate prices – let’s see, the Busa land sold for half a million dollars and acre – she’d net about $18,000, after legal fees. That would sure help the
65 families who visit the Food Pantry every week nowadays.

So what’s the point? I’ll tell you.

The Lexington Interfaith Garden is reaching some of the people who need it most: you.

We are creatures; we are animals. We eat food– that is, the roots, seeds, stems, and fruits of plants, or the very flesh of animals. Sometimes we eat blue-green algae and fungus too. We are life, and we eat life.

Yet when was the last time you touched food when it was still alive? Our current system of growing and distributing food consists of growing crops that can thrive on petroleum-based fertilizers in states and countries so far away that you will never see the soil they grow in. This system is unsustainable without enormous quantities of oil.

So why bother with this little tiny garden? Because it’s a start.

It’s a start at reconnecting with our food, the life we eat, and sharing that food with people who need it. It’s a start at reclaiming who we are as living beings in a world filled with living beings, instead of pretending that we are just dots on a screen inside a building made of plastic and stone. It is a way to remember that we are part of that interconnected web, which extends from worms and soil bacteria to lettuce, to the rabbits that nibble that lettuce (darn them!), to our neighbors who do not have enough money to both pay rent and buy food, and to God.

I want this garden to grow. I want it to find a larger plot of land – maybe at the Busa farm? – and make more food, and bring more people out into the sunshine to touch the earth, and each other.

By: Dana Allen Walsh

Hi Interfaith Gardeners,

What beautiful day it is!  I walked over to the Garden today with some co-workers and it’s looking so beautiful and abundant!

*Mark your calendars – May 23rd, 2:30 – 3:30pm at the Garden

Here is a rough outline for the Interfaith Blessing at the Garden.

2:30 – 2:40 Welcome & Introductions – Dana

2:40 – 3:00 Clergy Blessings – Rabbi Jaffe (Temple Isaiah), Arline Sutherland (First Parish), Paul Shupe (Hancock Church), Dilip Mathur (Hindu Tradition), Beverly Good (Lex. Catholic), Kate Ekrem (Church of our
Redeemer), David Lerner (Temple Emunah)

3:00 – 3:10 What’s growing in our Garden? – Carla Fortmann

3:10 – 3:30 What have we learned in the Garden?  Amy Swanson, Joyce Greif, Meg Muckenrupt, Tahir Chaundhry

3:30  Closing Words & Refreshments

Interfaith Garden Blessing – Announcement

Interfaith Garden Blessing Press Release

PRESS RELEASE*

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:  Rev. Dana Allen Walsh 781.862.4220
*For Immediate Release:*
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*
*                          Blessing of the Interfaith Garden in Lexington on May 23rd
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The Blessing of the Lexington Interfaith Garden will take place on Sunday, May 23rd, from 2:30 – 3:30 PM, at 5 Harrington Road in Lexingon.  Carla Fortmann has generously offered the use her garden plot for the first year of the interfaith garden. The Interfaith Garden grows with the support of many religious institutions in the Lexington area, including churches, temples, mosques and meetinghouses. Produce from the Garden goes to the Lexington Food Pantry.

The Interfaith Garden is an offshoot of the efforts of Reverend Dana Allen Walsh,  co-president of Lexington Interfaith Clergy Association (LICA) and  Associate Minister of the Hancock United Church of Christ.   “The Lexington Interfaith Garden is a place for people for all faiths tocome together, get our hands dirty and feed our hungry neighbors,” said Reverend Walsh.  “It’s easier for those in need to find cookies than fruit and vegetables for their children. This effort helps fill that gap and unites so many of us in the process.”

Reverend Allen Walsh had begun a project at Hancock Church called Feeding 5,000. Through the LICA, she asked other faith communities to participate.  Participating organizations include Church of Our Redeemer, First Parish Unitarian Universalist, Follen Church Society, Grace Chapel, Hancock United Church of Christ, Islamic Center of Boston in Wayland, Pilgrim United Church of Christ, Religious Society of Friends, Sacred Heart Parish, Saint Brigid Parish, Temple Isaiah, Temple Emunah and the Trinity Covenant Church.

“Working in the garden achieves two vital goals – feeding those in need and bringing the diverse faith communities of Lexington closer together,” says Rabbi David Lerner of Temple Emunah and  co-president of the LICA.

LICA comprises clergy and religious leaders from most of the faith communities in the Lexington area, including Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam and Unitarian Universalism. The group’s main focus is promoting fellowship, interfaith cooperation and tolerance among the religious leaders.  LICA has led the fight against hate groups and takes an active role in helping those in need.

From: Marilyn Lund

This was the week that Trinity Covenant Church teamed up with Temple Emunah.   We were a good team and we had fun together.   A lot has happened in the Garden since our previous work session.

Plant life is alive and evident very early this spring.  Some of the plants are perennials that Carla has cultivated for years when this garden was her own.  Now she is sharing it with the much wider community.  Carla’s generosity and leadership of volunteers from the faith communities in Lexington is evidence that we are waking up to the economic realities of 2010.  And this garden is a study in  organic. What magnificent soil!

The earliest perennial that is now being harvested in small amounts is asparagus and  Carla’ s own strawberries are blooming.   The plants are sturdy and beautiful.   Carla’s rhubarb is coming and we planted a new rhubarb plant this week.

Planting several rows of beans and more beets to fill in a beet row that did not seem to have taken from week 2.

What’s up?           Leaf lettuce is thriving—in bright colors.  Head lettuce is quietly  filling out.  Cauliflower and broccoli are up.  Peas are about 2 to 3  inches high—all varieties.  They will soon send tendrils reaching for the netting to climb and produce.  A few potato plants are in sight.  Others will be there next week.  Swiss chard isthere but not prolific yet.  We may need to replant some seeds along that row.  Onions, of course, are thriving. The weeds are not thriving.

Some of us are persistent in holding them at bay.  No rabbit damage yet.  The fence has done its job so far.

From: Diane Rondeau

This post provides a diagram of the interfaith garden layout and corresponding pictures of the garden. Click here to see the diagram and pictures.