Hi New Haveners! It’s a week before the news syndicate for which I work, the New Haven Independent, launches its new low power radio station. I’m pretty excited to share photos of that with you as we go live … but not quite yet. In the meantime, but I wanted to share a pretty cool experience I had last weekend.
On Saturday morning, New Haven Farms’ Executive Director James Jenkins invited me out to the organization’s Ferry Street Garden in Fair Haven. If you’ve walked or driven out that way, you probably know the property I’m talking about: a once-vacant lot just beyond Erector Square, now brimming with gorgeous row of kale and beet greens, eggplant, cucumbers, squash and more.
He didn’t have to say more than “garden” and “sunlight” for me to be there. When I showed up with a camera, tape recorder and my reporters’ notepad I was so deeply and pleasantly surprised by what I saw: 30 or 35 people ready to dance around in the dirt for two hours, all celebrating Fair Haven’s Green Thumb Community Challenge.
Gardens are beautiful. Gardeners are too. And the GTCC, which New Haven Farms is social media-ing about with the hashtag NHVGTC is even more so. The #NHVGTC, which is taking place in the Hill and Fair Haven through September, dovetails with the Mayor’s recent anti-obesity initiative in encouraging healthy eating and local food.
But it’s also about community, and the folks that come out to farm together.
Which made Saturday pretty darn special. I’m looking forward to following the #NHVGTC as it continues!