EVERETT — People should be able to grow enough food to feed their families and support the food bank — all on city land.
By next week, plots of ground in the Snohomish River valley will be available to farm as part of an initiative called the Red Barn Community Farm.
A local community group is preparing 10 acres of river bottom land one mile south of the Lowell Neighborhood on the Lowell- Larimer Road.
The community group behind it, Transition Port Gardner, aims to prepare Snohomish County for what an organizer called the challenges of the 21st century: diminishing fossil fuel and climate change.
Eventually, the land should provide fresh produce for local food banks and those who want to do subsistence farming but don’t have the acreage.
“We’re determined to make this work this summer,” said project manager Dean Smith.
It’s going to take some time to get off the ground, Smith said. He wanted the land to be tilled and planted last month but the wet, cold spring has pushed back the start date.
Smith, a semi-retired mathematician, grew up on a 240-acre subsistence farm in the Midwest in the 1950s. He’s been involved with community gardens most of his life.
He knew the city owned land in the Snohomish River Valley outside the city limits. While the land was being leased to farmers, Smith thought some of that land could be turned into large plots for serious gardeners who want grow much of what they eat.
Don’t call this a P-patch, Smith said.
“They’re fine for what I call a taste of sustainability,” he said. “People could eat off a P-patch for a month in the summer but it’s not big enough to grow food year round.”
The group is offering 20- by 40-foot plots for $100 year, 40-by-40 foot plots for $150 and a quarter acre plots for $300. The money goes into a fund that pays for general improvements to the land.
The group worked out an agreement with Volunteers of America, which runs a food bank in Everett and a warehouse that distributes food to more than a dozen other local food banks. Volunteers will farm four acres and all of those veggies will go to the food bank.
“Our goal is to not just provide emergency food, but to provide nutritious emergency food,” said Bill Humphreys of Volunteers of America Western Washington.
His organization already receives donations from local grocers but much of that produce — while edible and safe — is approaching its pull date.
The produce from this venture should raise the bar for fresh vegetables and provide things like cilantro and scallions that make other dry goods offered by the food bank taste better, he said.
The venture has cost virtually nothing. The city signed a licensing agreement with Volunteers of America to lease the land for free.
An antique tractor club from Monroe is doing the plowing for the cost of gas. The group is working on securing grant funding to improve the land and is asking local businesses to donate equipment and seeds.
Eventually, Smith would like to see the community farm expand enough to support a small army of micro-farmers.
Debra Smith: 425-339-3197; dsmith@heraldnet.com.
Learn more
For more information, contact Red Barn Community Farm organizer Dean Smith at 425-328-9979 or go online to www.transitionportgardner.org.
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