2016: Personal Glimpses

CommonWealth Urban Farms…I’ve seen CommonWealth grow and change a lot, but still stay tuned to its original values. Despite the changes, each time I come back feels like coming home.—Hannah Braden

CSA… I’ve never had an experience with a Community Supported Agriculture program with so much emphasis on community. Instead of just showing up to receive my weekly share each Saturday, I receive a friendly email each week highlighting what will be available to me as well as tips on how to use the produce I’ll be getting. I am invited to tour the farm to see what is growing and how it is grown. I walk up to the produce table and am greeted by name, asked how I am doing. Knowing the people who grow my food and being a part of that community is a gift that makes my veggies tastier and my life richer.—JoBeth Hamon

I love watching people see the garden for the first time— they are always so amazed. I also love the silence of the garden when no one else is there.—Sara Braden

Harvesting… Kneeling at a row of turnips in the early morning. The soil is cool and dampish. It will mark brown my garden jeans again. An empty red crate sits beside me. Robins and Doves and Mockingbirds sing their first songs of the day. I lean over the row of green scalloped leaves and look for the small white bulbs rising out of the dark soil. Each time, I try to judge whether that sweet turnip is the best size before I pull it from its home. Next, I will kneel and lean over a row of beautiful French Breakfast Radishes. The crates fill quickly, though I don’t rush. This is an aesthetic pleasure, a soulful practice, a moral act.—Pat Hoerth

Composting...I am amazed every time volunteers gather— twice a week!—to sort and compost discarded produce from Whole Foods. Can you imagine? Every week, people who care about the planet and growing food come to sort “garbage!”—Allen Parleir

Every week I look forward to composting.—David Braden

What really got to me at CommonWealth were the rows of food. I’d never seen so many crops in the ground at one time in the city. That’s when I knew something good was here. Working with Closer To Earth with the compost is really cool because each person there wants to be there and wants to help out. That’s the energy I want to be around.—Isaias Santillan

Pollinator Garden and Tour…It was a joy to see the many pollinators in our newly-planted pollinator garden this year. It’s true, if you plant, they will come. Most rewarding is to see the insects use the garden as shelter from the rain and cold. I like the thought that we have provided a safe haven from the elements for them. It will be very exciting to see the pollinators that show up in the spring.—Jody Lesch

Special Thanks…
To Kyle Singler, who gifted CommonWealth with $10,000 to build the Hoop House.
To all our volunteers and supporters! It’s a dream-come-true to be in community growing food together!
To Melissa Howell for her wonderful article about CommonWealth —“CommonWealth Urban Farms unites community with food, goodwill”—in The Daily Oklahoman!