Volunteering at the Guelph Centre for Urban Organic Farming
With the recent news of my personal work for the Guelph Centre for Urban Organic Farming being destroyed, I am disheartened. It is hard to process how others do not understand the urban organic farm to be more than land with food crops, because the farm is truly a place of learning like any other classroom on the University of Guelph campus.
During the fall semester, amidst the stresses of midterms and term papers, I was invited to volunteer at the organic farm on campus. Being interested in working outdoors, I decided that I could spare a few hours between classes to help plant garlic for next year. Little did I know that this experience would have a large impact on me.
Did you know garlic needs almost one full year to be ready for harvest? I didn’t. In October 2018, I worked with a few other volunteers to plant thousands of garlic cloves to be harvested in late summer 2019. At the beginning of our time together, everyone was chatting either to get to know one another or to catch up. As time passed, we fell into a rhythm. Some deep in thought, others discussing interesting environmental topics or philosophical theory.
When I first starting planting garlic cloves, I was on my knees in an uncomfortable position bending down as I put garlic into the soil. I soon realized I could use the soft soil to my advantage to support my knees by making piles of soil and resting on them as I moved down the trench. I was thankful for the soil that has been maintained for the last 10 years by Martha Scroggins, who manages farm operations, along with a few other passionate individuals involved in operating the urban organic farm, including U of G philosophy professor Karen Houle.
We had a few people come to volunteer after we had starting planting, which provided me with the opportunity to be a teacher in a one-on-one setting. I relayed the information that I had been taught an hour earlier to a volunteer who had never planted garlic. In exchange, I learned about her involvement on campus, her studies and passions, and we even spoke about traveling and shared memories of similar places.
I enjoyed ‘getting dirty’ because it allowed me to de-stress, triggering nostalgic memories of when I used to play outside as a child. As I planted garlic, I realized that this easy-going environment was the perfect medicine to help reduce the stress that was building up as my school workload increased. In addition, I went home with knowledge about growing plants, the harvesting processes, proper planting techniques, as well as the role of compost and weeding on organic farms. While being covered in soil and looking at the work I had done, I learned that farming is so much more than the food: farming is community. I also learned there are multiple benefits for any person who studies or works on campus. Our urban organic farm provides three major benefits:
- A quiet space for de-stressing and being removed from an academic environment
- A place that does not revolve around technology, but rather is more task-oriented
- No stress to complete the tasks, rather you do as much as you are able
Through this experience, I realized that it’s more than ‘getting dirty.’ Volunteering at the Guelph Centre for Urban Organic Farming cultivates character and provides accessible quiet space for students as they help grow and harvest food.
Photo obtained via Unsplash