It is never a waste of time to evaluate a potential garden space. We encourage anyone who might be interested in donating land to contact us. Unless there’s a building on the space, or the property is on a steep hillside, we wouldn’t rule it out without a visit.

In addition to providing multiple benefits to the community, there can be significant tax benefits for the donors themselves.  WestSide Farm Project is eager to open new gardens in virtually any area in Pittsfield.  We accept land transfers, easements, leases, and licenses.

Any landowners considering property donations to WestSide Farm Project should contact Thom Pecoraro at 413-329-1400.

In case you are wondering, Wyomanock Center is the parent organization of WestSide Farm Project. Its first annual Open House & Circle will be Saturday, December 4th:

1pm – Meet at the Geodesic dome (68 Wyomanock Rd., Stephentown, NY) for a guided walk on the nature trails

3pm – Tour a green renovation project (307 Newton Road, corner of Route 43), lead by Thom Pecoraro. This will be an opportunity for learning about reclaimed, natural, and non-toxic building materials and solar energy for home heating and electric.

(ALL EVENTS FROM 3:00 on WILL BE AT 307 Newton Road, corner of Rte 43, Stephentown, NY)

4pm – Potluck

5pm – Talk on Wyomanock Mission and Vision

6pm – Live Music and Dancing on the “Solar Stage”

Check http://wyocenter.org for more events to come including green building workshops, discussion groups based on the Northwest Earth Institute curriculum, and a recycled vegetable oil fuel workshop.

Where do our vegetables go?  Our cherry tomatoes, green beans and other vegetables that aren’t popped directly into the mouths of garden volunteers?  To date, with the help of Berkshire Food Net (http://co-act.org/category/food-net/), our vegetables are delivered to the First United Methodist Church, Christian Center, St Stephens, First Baptist Church, First Congregational, Lenox United Methodist Church, Barton’s Crossing, WIC, Salvation Army, and Lanesboro VFW.

According Paul Deslauriers of the Berkshire Food Net, an organization that channels fresh food to sites throughout the Berkshires, “The Food Net delivers up to 900 lbs of produce a week, so I see lots of vegetables. The Westside Farm Project is the most consistent high yield producer in the Food Net. The quality and variety of produce from their project is outstanding, and the cooks love the quality.”

We care deeply about what we grow, and about the people who eat what we grow.  We are always looking for community meal sites and pantries in and around the Westside in need of fresh food, so please contact us if you are aware of sites that could use an infusion of delicious vegetables!

Yesterday we took a break from the gardens and the neighborhood.  Ten kids and a handful of adults left the noise, traffic and concrete of Pittsfield.  We were transported to a new neighborhood, where we climbed into canoes for an adventure down the Housatonic River in Lenox.  We felt small as we paddled through the shadows of rolling hills and huge trees.  Our new neighbors?  Frogs, ducks, beavers, muskrats, spiders, snakes, and many other critters.

We also got to know each other in a different light.  Not at the playground, basketball court or street where we normally see each other.  We met in canoes, paddled together, observed wildlife together, encouraged each other to move to the ‘right’ or ‘left’, and shared an adventure.

We stepped away from the brawls that sometimes stifle our streets.  We momentarily forgot the bravado, and slipped into the magic of splashing water and turtles.

It was a good day.  Thank you Massachusetts Audubon Society!

Next workshop, “Canoe Safety” . . . in the garden.  Should be interesting.

Intelligent, Strong, Beautiful, Appreciators of carrots (with ranch) -

Carrot Party!

Bobbing for carrots.

These expert seed planters need water too.

“Jumper”, chillin’ with carrots, ranch and PB.

Thanks for the gate, Thom!  May it continue to open up to more good…

Garden at Silvio O. Conte Community School

More photos coming soon…

Yesterday Ramona stopped by, on her way to Love and Rain Church.  “Who puts flowers in pots around town and plants those trees on sidewalks?  I want one…”.  She was on her way to hand out baked and canned goods at Love and Rain.  “We serve a lot there . . . a lot of new people are coming in there.  There’s no fresh food!”

Ramona drove off, promising to weed with me soon, as I jotted down her ‘tree request’.

I continued planting – in my church of love and rain.  The clouds were in a giving mood.  Rain tumbled down, hand in hand with the sun.  It was the kind of weather that puts inches on plants.

My next visitor was the house-painter from across the street.  “Back in the day,” he lamented, “everyone around here had a garden in their backyard – it’s just what you did.  Nobody questioned it . . .I love to see this here.”

Then the phone rang about yet another place in town without fresh food.  Then Shauna stopped by . . . then Michelle  . . . then Carlos . . . then I lost count of all the folks who stopped by to say something positive or to ask for ‘more’.  As I grower, I like to hear all of this, because ‘more’ can always be made.

The clouds kept giving as I planted flowers, tomatoes, peppers, basil and cucumbers that were donated to the Westside Farm Project.  I stuck many of those plants in our plots, inching further beyond the fence with my trowel, eventually climbing into my car for a drive around the neighborhood in what has become a weekly plant give-away.  The block has erupted with gardens this past month.  And as my grandmother says, a garden is always asking for more.

If you’re ever in the neighborhood, check out Marie’s tomato patch, which has slowly adopted peppers, flowers and perhaps a few other things.  They’re all happily crammed in a little corner.

Check out Christopher‘s garden at the Francis Plaza housing for the elderly and disabled.  He’s a diligent volunteer who has unloaded armfuls of plant leftovers into his somewhat illegally-placed garden. “Maintenance hasn’t mowed it yet, and the neighbors love it!”   Christopher hopes his onions, broccoli, cabbage, peppers, pumpkins, kale, tomatoes, celeriac, etc., will slowly make their way into his friends’ kitchens.

Then there’s Ai’s garden, adjacent to the Robbins garden.  Ai speaks little English, and I know no Mandarin, but we’ve been speaking “plant” together since March.  Ai’s back yard is a terraced microcosm of the universe of Asian vegetables.  Not a spot has been overlooked – horizontally or vertically.  Ai saves her own seeds.   She grows huge quantities of produce.   I wish she’d let me take a photo!

Oh, I can’t forget Sil’s garden, down the road.  Sweet potatoes, collards, beans, hot peppers, two-year old kale plants, the whole gamut of veggies – growing up fences, out of tires and spiraling around his yard.

Yesterday, my Westside Farm Notebook overflowed with scribbles about all the giving that’s been going on.  There’s such abundance out there, and this neighborhood is part of that cornucopia.