Reflections on Growing Food and Relationships at Hacienda Market Garden During COVID
By Adam Kramer
Published in December 2020
Hacienda Market Garden is a place where the work of growing food enables relationship building. Relationships are formed between gardeners; between gardeners and the work and ecology of growing food; between our garden and a broad network of farms and farmers, retailers and customers, supporters and colleagues.
The work of growing food and the work of building relationships are interwoven in our day to day work. Both require significant energy and commitment, and the balance struck at our garden tends to set us apart from other small-scale growers in the region. Our ability to focus on hands-on community-based learning, on friendships, and on individual hopes and needs, comes from our accessibility (mere kilometers from downtown), our capacity (2 staff, 3-4 interns, 5-10 committed volunteers, 100+ less-regular volunteers), and The Working Centre’s organizational commitment to the concept of engaging people in the work of growing food sustainably as a social good.
And then came COVID. In April, the city still in lockdown, we made the decision to “close” the garden to volunteers. Two additional staff were hired for the season. The four of us, along with just a handful of committed volunteers, put our heads down and got to work. Our CSA program took off – for the first time we reached and surpassed our target number of share members (160 members) and even had a wait list! Food security seemed top of people’s minds.
But how could the garden succeed in growing for 160+ households on a skeleton staff? In previous years it took 150 people to make the garden work! The balance had shifted. The breadth of relationships fomented at the garden had been reduced by the necessity of having fewer bodies in the space. Our capacity to hold relationships had been impaired by the necessity of putting our heads down and just getting the work done. And it did get done. Weeds were kept at bay, planting was kept on schedule, harvests came in and went out into kitchens throughout the city.
Shifting our energy so heavily towards production was a tremendous learning experience. It was a test of our ability to sustain the garden as a tool of regenerative food production – more akin to a “typical” small-scale organic vegetable farm. The sense now is that we passed this test with flying colours. We fed more people with fewer hands.
But who are we serving? The amount and quality of food produced and sold is not our only measure of success. The uncertainty we faced in the spring has given way to confidence in our ability to host volunteer gardeners and re-engage with the relationships that add depth to our work and give breadth to the benefits the garden provides the community. These central pillars of our work are being re-imagined within our present COVID environment. The safety protocols that once felt overwhelming are now routine. The fear we once felt upon welcoming a new face into our workplace is giving way to clear communication and trust. We feel able to lift our heads up from the work of producing food and get back to the work of relationship building.
The season ahead feels like a new beginning, full of opportunities! There is still lots of figuring out to do, and many limitations, but there is a sense that so much is do-able! We are excited to extend an invitation to you, as well as to our colleagues at The Working Centre, to help us find practical ways the garden can be used as a purposeful tool for providing access to healthy sustainably produced food (and the skills required to grow it), while holding the relationships that help develop resilience in the individuals interacting with the garden and in the broader community.
