Gardening for Food Security and Social Connection

Gardening season is here, and with the pandemic, it arrives with a new urgency and focus. Because of the pandemic, many people are out of work, and some are facing serious food insecurity. Food banks are under enormous strain. It’s not surprising that seeds and gardening supplies have been selling briskly these past weeks.

But if you’ve never grown food before, you could be facing a steep learning curve, especially here in our crazy Zone 5b mountain climate. There’s a lot to learn about gardening, especially if you hope to feed your family. Planting seeds doesn’t guarantee a harvest. 

My mother’s parents fed six kids almost entirely out of their backyard garden. My father’s parents fed four. But gardening to feed one’s family is a skill that many of us have sadly lost.

Four years ago, I began re-skilling myself, growing as much of my own food as possible in my average city backyard. I felt called to learn how to do this in part so that I could teach others one day. I was certain that there would come a time when these skills were needed.

My son and I planted 13 fruit trees, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries, and began the long process of transforming useless lawn into growing space for vegetables. To support our effort, I took certified gardener classes through CSU to learn as much as I could. I also made lots of mistakes, which is perhaps the best way to learn.

Pastor Susan suggested in her recent homily that we think of the church not as being empty, but “deployed.” I loved that. I took it to mean that each of us has a mission to share our gifts with our St. John’s community and the world to bring healing and improve wellbeing. In this current crisis, I would like to help as many people as I can to create successful gardens in their urban backyards or on their decks or patios, gardens that can take the edge off food scarcity and provide stress relief and exercise that isn’t hampered by social distancing. 

Helping others is a huge part of the reason I tried to educate myself. I have a new Facebook group — Living Prepared with Pamela — where we discuss gardening in great detail, along with frugality, food preservation, baking bread, and other largely lost skills. We have members of all ages and abilities from across the US. Anyone who is interested is welcome to join. 

Also, I would like to offer my help and support to anyone in my St. John’s family who has questions or concerns about growing food. I can be reached at pamelaclare@earthlink.net and am happy to speak with people over the phone. Obviously, I can’t visit anyone in person right now, but we can accomplish much using the Internet.

Here’s one example of what we as a church community can do: Seeds are proving scarce at the moment as people panic about an uncertain future. We as a church community can organize—in some socially distanced way—to share seeds and extra plant starts with those who want to grow food but can’t find or afford them. Seed swapping is also a great way to expand what’s growing in our gardens. 

I still have canned peaches and peach jam from last summer on my pantry shelves, along with one last precious jar of raspberry jam that smells like summer. In a few months, I won’t need the grocery store to meet my fruit and veggie needs. By fall, I’ll be canning all that goodness for next winter. I am excited to join with those of you who are interested in improving your food security and enjoying the outdoors and the joys of growing food.

Happy Easter!

Pamela Clare
pamelaclare@earthlink.net
720-272-2024