Thursday, October 3, 2013

Ye been the salt of the erthe and the savour.


At around 8:30 every Saturday morning from Easter to Thanksgiving, a volunteer unlocks the gate at the front entrance to the garden, turns on the water, and sets out buckets of gloves and hand tools. Eventually, other volunteers join her: sometimes, they trickle in individually, quietly stowing their backpacks under the shed before immersing themselves in the tomato bushes; other times, large groups bustle in, bearing coffee and sign-up sheets, wearing matching T-shirts.

 
April 13 2013 - Chicago Cares


May 5 2013 - DePaul Vincentian Day of Service

May 5 2013 - with Second City

We never know what kind of help we’ll get on a Saturday. Each workday is an aleatoric composition of community gardening, performed with Cobraheads and rakes instead of detuned pianos. A workday may involve a handful of poncho-clad folks hunched over muddy beds, or it could be swirl of the summer-besotted, clamoring for task assignments. We have had as few as three volunteers and as many as thirty.
June 1 2013 - with Second City

June 8 2013 - with Chicago Cares and Second City

June 15 2013 - with Second City

June 22 2013 - with Chicago Cares and Buena Park neighbors

June 29 2013 - with Buena Park neighbors


The tasks we complete depend on the people who choose to join us. When our ranks are small, we focus on getting the harvest ready for delivery; when flush with willing workers, we expand to tackling bindweed and cutting up branches for compost.


July 6 2013


July 20 2013 - with Chicago Cares and Buena Park neighbors
 
The elements common to our horticultural jam sessions are energy and compassion. I continue to be surprised by how hard so many people work to grow and harvest food that they will never themselves consume, but give freely to people who they may never meet. 

August 3 2013 - with Second City

August 10 2013 - with Chicago Cares and Second City

August 24 2013 - with Chicago Cares

August 31 2013 - with John (center), an Irishman who stopped by during his travels around the world, volunteering with organic gardens

September 7 2013 - with Americorps

September 14 2013 - with Chicago Cares, Loyola, UIC, and Second City


September 21 2013 - with Entertainment Cruises

 
October 5 2013 - with Chicago Collegiate Scholars

October 12 2013 - with Chicago Cares

October 19 2013 - with Chicago Collegiate Scholars