FARMINGTON – Under winter’s ice-white landscape, a garden like no other is in the works.
Imagine, if you will, a large, fertile-rich plot under the blue warming sky of spring as an outdoor classroom, where its students learn to till the soil, plant seeds and nurture their garden. For those students, the lessons of how to grow their own food is something that will last a lifetime.
These are the vital lessons of self-sustainability that need to be taught, said Maurice Martin, University of Maine at Farmington assistant professor of community health education.
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With those lessons and more, students and faculty at UMF in the Community Health Education program, together with administration and staff at Life Enrichment Advancing People, LEAP, Inc, a private non-profit organization devoted to supporting people with cognitive and intellectual disabilities, have embarked on a program to develop a 40-acre parcel land to serve as an educational and interactive resource for the greater Farmington community.
The idea for “Stone Soup Garden” is one in which students and community members alike come together to learn about the nutritional and environmental benefits of eating local food through gardening and food preservation.
Martin, who also serves as president of the board of directors for LEAP, and Rick Dorian, executive director of LEAP, Inc. collaborated on ideas about how to bring Stone Soup Garden to the community.
“When I joined the board in 2006 Rick brought me to this parcel of land near Oliver Hill House, only 2 or 3 miles from the Farmington campus; I was blown away by the vast amount of unused farmland,” Martin said. “It sparked ideas about how UMF’s Community Health Education Program could play an integral role in creating a place where LEAP clients, UMF students and the community could learn about food security and sustainable agriculture, while also focusing on nutrition and physical activity to combat the growing obesity epidemic.”
Learning by doing is the keystone of UMF’s Community Health Education Program. For example, UMF Community Health instructor, Denise Higgins’ environmental health class has been to Stone Soup Garden to learn how to take soil samples. Her nutrition and obesity class has tilled soil, planted garlic bulbs and learned to make cheese, butter and preserve food.
“There are young people, 18 to 22 years old, who literally have no idea about sustainable agriculture; to know what it means to grow something,” Martin said. A healthy practical side to all of this is the physical labor it takes to grow your own food, along with the nutritional benefits that come with homegrown and home-prepared foods.
A big piece of the program is to involve the greater community in the project. Martin has been consulting with the University of Maine Extension Service and wants to involve the local 4-H, Grange and other interested groups.
“This isn’t just about growing things,” Martin said. “It’s about people helping people and learning things.” Organizers are interested in offering classes, for instance, in canning or cheesemaking, that would be open to students and community members.
“The ideal is everybody working together in education and service,” he said.
For more information, contact Martin at 207-778-7181, or maurice.martin@maine.edu
