RAYMOND – Much to the delight of those who planted them, the sugar peas and early lettuce are ready to harvest, and the crops planted a month ago are beginning to sprout, all positive signs for the many gardeners who have worked tirelessly to keep bugs at bay and crops watered at the blossoming Raymond Community Garden.

In its second year of operation, the garden, which received start-up funding from federal stimulus money administered through the People’s Regional Opportunity Program’s Communities Putting Prevention to Work campaign, has grown from four 30-foot rows last year to several dozen similarly sized rows this year. All that square footage has allowed more crops to be planted with much of it going to the 14 families or individuals who purchased the right to grow vegetables on the rows for $10 a piece.

As part of the bargain, the community gardeners are also required to help tend four 30-foot sharecropper rows, food from which goes to the Raymond Food Pantry.

The Rev. Elmer Young, who oversees the pantry, which operates out of the newly renovated basement at Lake Region Baptist Church on Route 302 in Raymond, is grateful for the locally produced vegetables. The garden reminds him, he said, of the practice of gleaning in the Bible in which Jewish farmers would set aside a certain percentage of their harvest for the indigent.

“It was a standard practice every year, the tradition of gleaning,” Young said. “What we get from the garden is very minimal, but I give it out to whoever wants it.”

It was organizer Leigh Walker who convinced selectmen in November 2009 to allow her to start the garden on town-owned property behind the Raymond Village Library off Route 121. While the yield may have started off small last year, Walker says, the harvest will be much bigger this season.

“We could use some volunteers, people who could give an hour or two a month, especially at harvest time in August and September,” Walker said, adding that help is needed watering and weeding throughout the summer, as well.

The garden is organized by a small board overseen by Walker. Key contributors include Carl Plummer, the owner of the abutting Echo Lodge who provides manure in the spring that help add nutrients to the soil. Gardeners have access to water from the spigot at the Raymond Village Library next door. The library also manages the garden’s finances, and local stores, such as the Good Life Market, bring their kitchen scraps to add to the compost pile. The market, located on Route 302, provides nutritional recipes for use by community gardeners, as well.

Good eats

But the main purpose of the garden is to grow local, tasty food.

“You get spoiled,” said one of the community gardeners, Nate Rand, who lives just down the street, of the vegetables that he harvests straight from the ground. That love of local food led Walker to push for the garden, especially with food pantry usage up in recent years.

“For me, it was about better access to healthier foods for people who access the food pantry,” Walker said. “And I think there’s a huge importance in not only giving them access to fresh organic vegetables but also to give them some ideas on how to use those vegetables.”

The garden has its own blog, RaymondCommunityGarden.blogspot.com, which is written by community gardener Sandra Cerino. One of the purposes of the blog is to help new gardeners learn the basics of gardening, identifying pesky bugs and offering recipes.

“We have some new members and they haven’t gardened before, and I know when I was a newbie, any help I could get was great,” Cerino said. “But the philosophy behind it is to help feed people, to save gas, and to put better food on our table. It definitely helps the grocery bill.”

The other big draw is that the garden is completely chemical-free. Organic vegetables can be costly to buy, but with a little effort, namely staying on top of of bugs, the gardeners can enjoy organic vegetables at low cost.

“We’re all about no chemicals, so we’re health conscious,” Cerino said, “and conscious of the purse strings at the same time.”

Community gardeners Betsy Turner, Nate Rand and Leigh Walker
plant squash seeds at the Raymond Community Garden located behind
the Raymond Village Library. (Staff photo by John Balentine)

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