nothin Don’t Look Now: City’s Becoming A Farm | New Haven Independent

Don’t Look Now: City’s Becoming A Farm

3-year-old Fabian Ostorba clutches a fresh carrot.

Kline points out a patch of papalo, an herb from Mexico.

With an overflowing vegetable patch on James Street and work underway at three vacant city lots, Rebecca Kline’s Fair Haven garden empire is taking root as she plots to see New Haven cross the line between urban and rural.”

Last year, Kline organized a community garden in a small section of land belonging to the Chabaso bakery on James Street. The participants in a diabetes prevention program at the Fair Haven Community Health Center (FHCHC) — mostly Spanish speaking women from Latin America — work in the garden and reap the benefits of exercise and healthy produce.

As that program continues to thrive, Kline has begun to realize a larger vision. She founded an organization called New Haven Farms with the mission of spreading urban agriculture in the city. With the help of New Haven government’s Livable City Initiative (LCI), she has secured three sliver lots for new gardens, one of which is already planted with new vegetable crops. She’s working with the parks department to find another spot to plant.

Ultimately, Kline said, she’d like to find a plot as big as an acre within the city where New Haven Farms could have a larger-scale vegetable operation along with ongoing satellite gardens at various locations. The produce would be available at a subsidized cost to certain groups, like FHCHC patients, while others could earn veggies by helping to grow them.

Seeing that plan from seed to fruit will take an infusion of money, land, and labor. It’s a lot to ask for. But so far those resources have rained down almost magically for New Haven Farms, the latest of several official and unofficial grassroots take-back-the-land efforts in town. (Click here, here and here to read about some others.)

Seeding

On Tuesday evening, as a couple of dozen women and children program participants harvested basil, beans, and tomatoes at the James Street garden, an ebullient Kline spoke about how her new organization came together.

Six months ago, Kline was fired up about the garden aspect of the FHCHC diabetes prevention program and ready to take it further. The clinic was understandably not interested in getting into the farming business,” Kline said. So she called a meeting of local people interested in farming and food security in New haven.

Georgina Castelon (right) picks green beans.

Thirty people showed up and hashed out the idea for New Haven Farms. Who wants to get their hands dirty?” Kline asked the group at the end of the meeting. Six people came forward, formed an executive committee,” and set about making the idea a reality.

New Haven Farms is in the process of getting its 501(c)3 approval to become a recognized not-for-profit. In the meantime, with FHCHC as the fiscal agent, the organization has been able to accept donations including a grant from the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.

10-year-old Bryan Tlatempa examines a new tomato.

The first step for New Haven Farms was finding more land. Kline talked to the parks department about using a quarter-acre section of the Quinnipiac River park on Front Street, near where City Seed holds its weekly Fair Haven farmers market. With the help of a University of Connecticut expert, she had the soil tested at Penn State and found it was ready for planting.

Approval for the planting has been slow to come. Kline said she’s waiting for the parks commission to vote on the proposal.

Kline directs planting at the new garden.

Meanwhile, Kline was anxious to plant in new land this year rather than wait until next summer, she said. I was committed to having farms this season.”

She approached LCI and managed to secure two sliver lots nearby the James Street garden and another one in the Hill. LCI is leasing the lots to New Haven farms for free. Not even a dollar,” she said. Very sweet!”

Ruziye Yeroz, from Turkey, shares fragrant lemon balm with her daughter.

Her organization then had the land. But the dirt turned out to be contaminated. It needed to be capped with plastic and then topped with tons of healthy soil and compost. And we didn’t have any money at that point,” Kline said.

She put out the call to her group.

You know when something feels like the heavens parted to make something happen?” Kline said. It was like that.”

Wanda Albandoz (center) weighs the afternoon’s haul.

The Fleming Farm in West Simsbury donated 100 yards of compost, which usually goes for $25 a yard, Kline said. The container company that works with Chabaso picked up the compost for free.

Kline sent out a spreadsheet with a wish list of all the tools and equipment the new gardens would need. She said she thought it would take weeks and dozens of donations to get close to collecting all the items. Then Colony Hardware offered to donate the whole lot.

New Haven Farms has also received spontaneous donations of rain barrels, necessary because the new sliver lot sites don’t have water sources.

Georgina Castelon (left) instructs other on how to pick basil.

On July 17, 75 Global Health Corps volunteers, in town for an event at Yale, came to donate their labor to getting a new garden started. In one day, with over 100 people, New Haven Farms was able to cap, cover, and plant a lot at the corner of Market and James streets.

LCI put up a chain link fence around the new garden. The agency has been so impressed with New Haven Farms that a staffer recently took Kline around town to look at other spots where gardens could go.

It was amazing,” she said.

Georgina Castelon plants radishes.

Bigger

The next thing,” Kline said. Is a big piece of land.”

She said she wants to find an acre or two acres in New Haven to establish a decent-sized farm, plus funding to hire a full-time farmer and executive director.

In the meantime, Kline is working days as the communications manager at FHCHC and running her organization by night. New Haven Farms is like a second job.”

The organization’s urban farming will be more than simply community gardens. Kline said she intends to maintain the public-health aspect of the original FHCHC garden.

This is a health intervention,” Kline said, pointing to the garden full of women picking fresh vegetables. Similarly, new urban agriculture would be in service of promoting health and healthy living in the city, she said. More than half of New Haven kids are obese, she said. So New Haven is primed for a health intervention.”

2-year-old Duha Yeroz in the garden.

Previous Gardeners Of The Week:

Adeli DeArce
Sherill Baldwin, Matthew & Phoebe Browning, Kimball Cartwright, Emily Gallagher
Jeannette Thomas
Maria Meneses
Katie MacRae
Christopher Schaefer
Xiaoping Li and Yonggui Diao
Rebecca Kline and Wanda Albandoz
Ginny and Ken Nelson

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