By Katie Farrell Lovett
NEWBURYPORT — With a new focus on growing one's own food and soaring popularity at neighboring towns' community gardens, the Greater Newburyport Local Food Network is asking the City Council to agree to community garden space in Newburyport.
The city is dense, and not everyone has enough property for garden space, said Ron Martino, a member of the Local Food Network, a group that formed about five months ago.
Martino said numerous people have been commenting about the need for more community garden space in the area, as interest climbs in initiatives like the 'slow food' concept, farmers markets and community gardens.
"I'm not aware of one in Newburyport," Martino said yesterday.
There are numerous potential sites around the city where a community garden could go, such as park land, schoolyards, elderly housing complexes, or on land owned by the city, such as near the Rail Trail, Martino said.
Martino said the feedback he's hearing is that "people would like a place where they can walk to."
Several of the surrounding towns offer community gardens that are hugely popular and over-subscribed. On High Road in Newbury, there is an area behind the First Parish Church of Newbury, and in Amesbury, there are community gardens at Battis Farm. There is a fee required to join those gardens to cover expenses related to the plots.
Martino said he expects the number of plots in Newburyport will be small at any spaces that are designated for the gardens.
In Amesbury, the community garden program began about a decade ago and draws a large following. There are 72 plots available. Every year, all are taken, and a waiting list forms. It is run by volunteers on the town-owned Battis Farm land, in a large open field heading toward South Hampton, N.H.
In Newbury, Erin Stack, the leader of the Missions at First Parish Church, said the New Eden Organic Community Gardens are expanding from the first year last season. This year, they had 35 plots, of all which were taken, as well as one large food pantry garden. Next year, organizers plan to add more so the number reaches 40.
"We always have a waiting list," she said.
With awareness increasing about growing one's own food, there are also other reasons why the community gardens are so popular, Stack said. People enjoy fresh produce as tastes become more sophisticated and the sense of community the garden offers There are monthly garden parties and garden and cooking classes offered each year, she said.
"It's more economical, and it tastes really delicious," Stack said.
The City Council will receive the request during its meeting on Monday at City Hall and will vote on the matter at an upcoming session.
