By Rachael Chong
Published in March 2018
In The Working Centre’s year of Wendell Berry, we too are taking time to reflect on the Urban Agriculture Projects as places of rootedness and meaningful work. In a world beset with seemingly overwhelming crises, these modest projects take on a sense of sanctuary, where a community of growers care deeply for this piece of land and work together in a spirit of co-operation to help it thrive.
The Hacienda Sarria Market Garden has turned a neglected urban area into productive greenspace with astounding ecological diversity. Soil ecosystems hum away beneath our feet – sequestering carbon, supporting healthy crops.
Food is grown without the use of pesticides, using organic practices including crop-rotations, low-till bed preparation, and pollinator-friendly planting. Working in the gardens, volunteer gardeners learn about the complexity of these ecosystems and how we interact with them, while contributing their own experiences, knowledge, and energy.
As we work alongside one another, a sense of shared responsibility and interconnectedness is easily felt. Together, in place, our roots run deep.
The gardens are a place of belonging and work for over 100 volunteers who come to work the land, but there are many ways this place interacts with the wider Kitchener-Waterloo community.
Through it we are able to provide sustainably-grown, local food to well over 100 households in the region. As we work together to produce this food, knowledge exchange is inherent in the work. Social ties are strengthened, cultural identities are expressed, and our community becomes more resilient.
“For a society to be sustainable it needs people who care for their places, for people to care for their places they have to know their places and for people to know their places they have to learn to stay, to be rooted, to be ‘placed.’”
