Back when Gary was still segregated during the “Great Migration,” its Midtown section — where Blacks were allowed to live — boasted a 300-acre community garden, the largest in the nation at the time.
Gardens in the city aren’t as large anymore — yet — but they are proliferating thanks to several programs around the city that aim to reach and teach kids the value of farming and increase access to fresh foods in food deserts. The Brothers Keeper Community Farm in the 2100 block of Broadway, put its best plants forward during a tour presented by the Gary Food Council and the Purdue Lake County Extension on July 31.
Some of the Food Council’s Junior Master Gardeners — a program the council started in 2019 via a grant but had to put on ice during the pandemic before starting up again in 2022 — demonstrated their knowledge by showing people how to build a low tunnel, or a shallow trench in the ground above which a four-foot tunnel will be installed. Low tunnels help farmers extend their growing seasons as well as keep bugs out of the plants, said Rebecca Koetz, Urban Agriculture Educator with Purdue Extension.
After sharing shiso mint tea and some fresh grape tomatoes off the vine with attendees, parents and students alike were asked to take part in a focus group giving feedback to the Extension, which will share the findings with the farm community, Extension community wellness coordinator Amber Zimmer said.
“All of (the extensions) around the state have partnered with the Indiana Department of Health to gain feedback from the communities about growing and eating food. What does it take to get food from the farm to the fork?” she said. “We’re collecting the data from surveys and focus groups to create a ‘food vision.’”
Donna Jack and Alma Wilkes, members of the Gary Food Council, didn’t know each other before the Brothers Keeper Garden, where they tend the fenced-off community garden with Junior Master Gardeners between the ages of 12 to 15 while a so-called food forest — where pecan, plum and other trees and perennials are taking root — grows on its west side. Now, the two don’t know how they’d do it without the other.
“My husband died, so I was looking for something to do outside of myself,” Jack said. “When COVID hit, I became interested in the sustainability of our earth, and we have to teach people how to grow food,” Jack said. “You can start veggies in a bucket, and with the price of food, it’s more economically feasible to grow your own.
“I mean, we use gas stations as grocery stores, and that’s the most unhealthy things we can do. But grants should be seed money, and I have a lot of ideas.”
“I learned about gardening off the Internet during COVID,” Wilkes added. “Afterward, I wanted to create a place for love and hope, and I couldn’t do it without Donna.”
Fumiko Minami and her boys traveled a long way from Japan to see urban gardening in action, but it was worth the trip. Minami, who was a foreign exchange student at the former Gary Roosevelt High School, is visiting longtime friend Maya Wilkes, so they came with Wilkes to see what it was all about.
“We don’t have a lot of (community gardens), but we do have gardening classes,” Minami said through Wilkes. “My kids do like it here, though.”
Food eaters, growers and sellers are encouraged to take the Purdue Extension survey at https://tinyurl.com/33xczra7.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
