Nov
24
Friends have been on my mind a lot in the last nine months. I think often of the great friends I left behind when I moved here from Fuquay-Varina. I had anticipated the sad parts of not living in close proximity to the people who were a dear and integral part of my life in Fuquay-Varina. I do miss my friends – I knew I would. I am blessed that those friendships have taken on a new form, but they remain.
Friendship is also on my mind as I try to make new friends in a new place, both here at Chestnut Ridge and in my new home town of Hillsborough. I have been working to forge relationships of trust and respect, caring and support with my new co-workers and new neighbors. Chestnut Ridge is a big place, not in terms of numbers of staff but in terms of acreage, and a busy place, especially in the summer. Sometimes finding time and space for building relationships with co-workers is a challenge. I’m grateful for the efforts they have made to welcome me and my family.
I haven’t just had to work on human friendships though. I didn’t really expect it, but I have had to work on making friends with a place too: the Community Farm at Chestnut Ridge. In order to bring out the best from the community garden, I have had to work on building an intimate relationship with the land there, to know it as I know my friends. Just like with people, this place has its particular characteristics, needs, and even dislikes. I’m still learning them. It’s exciting, challenging, and interesting work!
My friend Debra Murphy has written in her blog, “Getting to know a place (as with getting to know a person) is about the art of paying attention, of learning to receive hospitality, of acknowledging needs not your own.” My experience has been that the rewards of practicing this art are tremendous. It is in the “paying attention” and in the receipt of hospitality that we can find God in a place and in people. When we can acknowledge and respond to “needs not our own” we are participating in God’s work in the world and creating community. This is what faith-based community gardening is all about!
Molly Kacal, one of our wonderful Duke Divinity interns, has been working with me in the community garden two days a week. Recently, she commented to me that she had noticed how the plants in the garden had grown and changed. I had to smile. Ah, Molly, you are becoming friends with this place too!
Nov
11
Chestnut Ridge Camp and Retreat Center is a unique place, of that I was certain even before I took the job of Garden Manager here nine months ago. One of the things that make Chestnut Ridge so unusual and special is The Community Farm. How many summer camps and retreat centers do you know that have their own working farm and raise a portion of their own food? Better still, at The Community Farm and at the Camp and Retreat Center, one of the missions is to connect people more closely with the food they eat and with each other: a passion I share! Food, faith, and farming have been the theme, and the mission, here for the last several years.
I was privileged to witness this mission in action last weekend when a tribe of YMCA Princesses, their dads, and one little brother visited The Community Farm for a service project. It was a picture-perfect fall day, clear skies, warm sunshine, colorful leaves. Six first grade girls with “Indian” names like Laughing Bug and Little Flower came with their fathers to feed the livestock and work in the Community Garden.
The first order of business was to harvest lettuce in the Community Garden for lunch at the Morris Center. Anyone who has been around six or seven year old kids knows how hard it can be to get them motivated to do a chore, but somehow in the garden, work isn’t so, well, work-ish. It’s fun. Three tubs and 2 bags were filled with green and red lettuce leaves in no time…and everyone was smiling!
As the animals were grazing the fields, the Princesses, their dads, and I grazed in the garden. We tasted fresh broccoli right off the stem. We hunted the last of the raspberries, tucked away in tangled vines. We braved (and some liked) raw kale and Swiss Chard. We noshed Austrian Winter Pea. What’s that you say?
Austrian Winter Pea is planted at The Community Garden as a cover crop to help protect and enrich the soil over the winter, but a side benefit is that the leaves and stems are delicious and nutritious too. The Princesses loved the Peas! They sat in the sunshine and pulled out handfuls of leaves to munch! Happy kids!
Petting and feeding the livestock was also fun for the girls. After all, The Community Farm is home to Ham, Bacon, and Sausage, the pigs; Cows 3, 4, and 5, the beef steers; and Lucy, Sky, and Star, the dairy goats. But can you believe it? Even with all the animals around, the girls wanted to go back to the garden to eat more peas! Gardens and kids, they just grow best together…
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