A benefit
of our move from Virginia to Swampscott that I hadn’t anticipated is the
opportunity to volunteer at Revision Farm, the Dorchester urban farm where
Jolie serves as Farm Manager. I’ve helped out several times over the year we
have been here, most recently spending several hours breaking up impacted soil beds
with a pitchfork and planting sweet potato seedlings.
For those of you loyal readers who haven’t seen an urban
farm, or who have been puzzled when Trudi or I talk about Jolie’s chosen
profession, urban farmer, here are some photos to help you get a better sense
of what Jolie is up to.
Jolie has put in a couple of years at Revision Farm, first
as seasonal grower, and then as Manager.
I think this move into management has been a mixed blessing for her as
so much of her day now is taken up with administrative work, dealing with city
departments, vendors, and personnel matters that she laments not having much
time to get her hands in the soil.
Fortunately, she has two excellent assistant growers, and enthusiastic volunteers
to help keep the crops progressing more or less on schedule. Jolie and her team coax bountiful quantities
of bok choy, collard greens, carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli, string beans,
flowers and herbs, a wide variety of tomatoes and more from what formerly were
abandoned city lots. She even has some
honey bee hives at a satellite location.
This fresh produce is sold through a CSA and a nearby farmstand, and is
consumed by women and children who are residents of shelter housing adjacent to
the farm.
Revision Urban Farm operates in the context of Boston Mayor
Menino’s recently announced Urban Agriculture Initiative, which has as its
overarching goal to insure that Boston’s residents “– particularly the most
underserved--have direct access to locally produced fresh food, the ability to
produce food for themselves, and access to education and knowledge about
healthy eating.”
As I surveyed what Jolie and her associates have
accomplished at the farm in the midst of densely populated inner city
neighborhood, I was struck by their courage and unbridled optimism to maintain faith
that if they do the right things with care, persistence and hard physical work,
and if mother nature, city inspectors and the utility companies don’t throw them
too many curve balls, the urban oasis they created can provide a bounty of
fresh vegetables for their community as the tangible outcome of their efforts. I’m reminded of Joni Mitchell’s words
entreating us more than 40 years ago: “We’ve
got to get ourselves back to the garden.”
