Community Gardens

It has been a busy month. Winery tours, carriage rides, an Open House, and plowing. Lots of plowing. Community Gardens are sprouting up everywhere. People want to feel connected to the earth. They want to know where their food comes from and, if possible, get dirt under their nails and grow their own vegetables. Ron Gluck, who feeds many of the elderly in his town; Wilbraham, whose citizens plant three acres of wholesome goodness; and now Lebanon's Community Garden, sponsored by the Indigenous Cultural Education Center.

Lebanon's garden is, to say the least, "special"! What a great group of people organizing it. This is the first time we have been blessed with a gift of thanks that consisted of sage, sweet grass and tobacco, symbolic of the land's Native American roots. Three other teams helped us that day: Karl Lado, Al Cyr, and Red Clements. The garden itself will be remembered for years to come, as the acreage which harbored many hidden dangers. Turning the thick sod on this ground broke many pins (the thick pins which hold the eveners to the plow), tripped moldboards, and bucked plowmen off their plows, bruising bodies but not spirits. Blood dripped into the earth that day, and so it should be. This is how our forefathers struggled. What sustains us should not be taken for granted.

Photo: Terry plowing with Pete & Prince. Thank you for such a lovely photo, Posy Clements.