Gilfillan’s Garden to Table—Grow, Gather, and Give Mary Lynne Spazok
Gilfillan’s “Grow, Gather, and Give” partners with Common Ground, an eco-friendly nonprofit group founded to increase fresh food donations to local food pantries. Volunteers endorse recycling, composting, growing of organic food, and safeguarding wildlife areas. Master gardener Susan Myers concurs that “few spaces are more calming and Zen-inducing than a bountiful garden. It’s hard not to feel at peace when you’re surrounded by flowers, vegetables, and the sounds of nature. Farming is messy and imperfect, but in the end, it is fulfilling in the truest sense of the word.” Food is at the center of existence, and, therefore, everyone should have access to a healthy, garden-fresh diet. Using only sustainable and organic agricultural ways, Common Ground grows nutritionally-dense crops on local farms while providing instructive programming through volunteerism and social outreach. Paramount to cultivation is developing and maintaining healthy soils by applying practices that balance crop rotation, green manures, composting and reduced tillage (decreases erosion), and destructive runoff. Soil health is fostered by eliminating synthetics such as insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and fertilizers, which are all toxic materials. Common Ground rejects the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and chemically treated seeds. Natural, composted “aged” manure boosts soils microbial activity. A crumbly, black, odor-free soil amendment, it is a perfect combination of nitrogen and carbon. Expanding biodiversity and reducing pollution of air, soil, and water through responsible agronomy, wildlife population is sustained and promoted through quality-controlled habitats. Whether urban or suburban, wildlife will find the food, water, shelter, and space that it needs to survive. Pennsylvania’s ecosystems include forests, agronomic lands, wetlands, and streams. Within this broad spectrum, wildlife differs by habitat classification and quality. To encourage a specific group, territory management involves manipulating diet variety and amount or arrangement of food, water, and cover for the purpose of making the locale more suitable for specific species. Residential courtyard gardens, window boxes, or simple patio planters attract bees, birds, butterflies, ladybugs, and a myriad of beneficial anthropods. Consider home-based gardening to lower your food budget. Whether it is a plot of earth or containers from salvaged materials, improve self-reliance and certify nutritional food security (no chemicals!). Garden-fresh is not a diet, it’s a sustainable lifestyle! To grow, gather, and give, community farming delivers opportunities for social get-togethers, setting in motion the
development of support networks to strengthen neighborhoods. Flora cultivation at outdoor learning venues has been known to motivate challenged individuals and disaffected young people. Instilling a sense of accountability affords the option of further education and employment. Realized as well is the delivery of government agendas related to social inclusion, health, climate change, education, and regeneration of communities and their fiscal well-being. Individually, you may wish to diminish your carbon footprint and lessen your personal waste and renew, reuse, recycle. Each is a stepping-stone to a sustainable society. Some past and present Common Ground activities include: • The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank coordinates volunteer groups of ten to 20 persons twice each week to assist with harvesting produce and farm chores. • Fresh Farm Stands. Five Thursdays throughout the summer they set up a farmers’ market booth in the hilltop section of Mt. Washington and distribute free produce to the community. The 2014 partnership was with the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. • Farm to Family (F2F) allows ten families to pick their own produce in the summer and fall and support a strong local food system while learning about sustainable agriculture practices. • The Barn Owl Recovery Network is a conservation service learning program that monitors barn owl nest boxes in Western Pennsylvania to help reestablish a breeding population in our region for this near extinct bird. • In August 2014, Common Grounds rescued the 96-year-old granary barn from Bedner’s Farm. Relocated to Gilfillan Farm, it serves as Common Ground’s visitor and volunteer welcome center. • Total produce donations as of September 30, 2014, were 2512 pounds. The goal for 2015 is 3655 pounds.
Bedner Farm’s log cabin was relocated to Gilfillan Farm in 2014.
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UPPER ST. CLAIR TODAY
Fall 2015