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to the Organic Broadcaster: Renewal Gardens
keeps on growing: reintegrating culture and agriculture in Baraboo For special needs teenagers in Baraboo, Wisconsin, Renewal Gardens is a place to learn about vegetable gardening, taste a 'Lemon' cucumber for the first time, tease each other, laugh, and meet new friends. It's also practically a second home for coordinator Jay Salinas, a CSA farmer from Reedsburg. Renewal Gardens is a joint project between the Wormfarm Institute and Renewal Unlimited; Renewal Gardens has been partly successful by virtue of its ability to collaborate with other organizations and individuals. The program gets everybody on board, from program participants, to Master Gardeners, social service agencies, and private landowners. It's also a good example of how organic farmers can become involved with their local communities. Project Beginnings At the same time, Jay and Donna have remained close to their artistic interests. For several years after moving to Reedsburg, Jay taught sculpture at UW Stevens Point. Through his connection with the school, he came up with the idea of an artist-in-residence program for the farm. The farm hosts artists who would like to work part time on the farm (15-20 hours a week) in exchange for a place to live, food from the garden, and studio space. As part of the program, artists give back to the local community by sharing their art. Some projects they've been involved in are community murals and a giant puppet festival with a parade. In 2001, they decided that the program should become an official not-for-profit organization, which they named the Wormfarm Institute to keep it separate from the farm. The organization has a mission of "reintegrating culture and agriculture." Jay has been concerned with the loss of culture from rural areas in recent years. "It used to be that every small community had their own musical groups-barbershop quartets and string bands," he pointed out. "Now we have a kind of centralized, mass-produced culture in the cities. Young people are attracted to that, and leave their communities for jobs and cultural opportunities in the city." The Wormfarm Institute tries to stem the tide by providing cultural opportunities for rural audiences. The project called Renewal Gardens began in 2003 as collaboration between the Wormfarm Institute and Renewal Unlimited, a social service organization that oversees such programs as Headstart in Sauk County. Their Youth Services Program teaches job skills and life skills to special needs youth. Shirley Tollaksen of Renewal Unlimited felt that a gardening program would be a good fit for their goals. Vegetable gardening combines education about diet and nutrition with a knowledge of how to produce one's own food, and the entrepreneurial skills needed to sell the product. Jay and Donna were interested in the project for the same reasons. They had already built a relationship with Growing Power, a similar program in Milwaukee, and were interested in developing a program of their own, which would fit with the Wormfarm mission. The idea was simple: teenagers (high school aged and older) would learn about vegetable gardening in thrice weekly sessions of a couple hours each. They would learn how to perform simple gardening tasks like transplanting, direct seeding, weeding, harvesting, and so forth. They also helped to market their product, packing the vegetables into boxes, and helping to sell and deliver them to customers. The kids involved in the program have a variety of special needs, from low income to cognitive disabilities. Renewal Unlimited provides stipends for the teens so that they are compensated for their work. The project also received partial funding through Heifer Project International, who provided funding for tools, seeds and training. The teens learned more about agriculture through training sessions provided by Growing Power in Milwaukee. These consisted of weekend workshops from January through May, on such topics as vermicomposting, beekeeping, and aquaculture. In addition to the benefits from the workshops, Jay Salinas believes that there is an additional benefit to these sessions-diversity. "All kinds of people attend the workshops-Hmong, Native American, Thai, African American. It's wonderful for the kids to experience such diversity." 2003 Season Jay Salinas found three outlets for their produce-The Grainary (a natural foods store), the Java Café, and a senior public housing facility. An extension agent connected them with the Senior Nutrition Program, so that residents of the housing center could get vegetables from Renewal Gardens at no cost. The interactions between the teenagers and the seniors turned out to be one of the highlights of the year. Seniors at the center told the kids about experiences they'd had in their childhoods, when canning and pickling were a routine part of their lives. There were also lots of "hard work" stories, of the type well known to many. Both at the senior center and elsewhere, the teens learned how to sell their vegetables. Of course, to sell the vegetables they had to know how the vegetables tasted. At first, program participants weren't very interested in eating vegetables, but that changed as the summer went on. Starting with peas, and continuing with tomatoes, green beans, and even 'Lemon' cucumbers (a lemon-shaped variety), the participants gradually began to eat more vegetables-and enjoy them. 2004 Season Overall, Jay Salinas is pleased with the results from the past two years, which represent a "great start," according to him. The program met its entrepreneurial goals for both years, since they sold most of the vegetables they produced. The teens learned quite a bit about food and food systems from the training sessions and hands-on gardening experiences. Some social goals were also met, including intergenerational connections, and connecting with urban youth at Growing Power. Through the garden project, youth develop job and life skills, interact with adult mentors and improve nutrition. Perhaps most valuable, the garden teaches the larger, widely applicable lessons of agriculture; perseverance, patience, adaptability, close observation and timely action - providing a solid base from which to take one's place in the culture of work, school, family and community. Plans for the Future Erika Jensen is a farmer and freelance writer living in Waupun, Wisconsin.
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