Dieu-Veille Bouesso

Montclair Community Farms (MCF) was formed in 2011, by Home Corps United Way and the Montclair Health Department of Health and Human Services as a program: to offer youth the opportunity to grow and sell vegetables and to increase access to affordable fresh produce in local neighborhoods. The project expanded in 2012 to include Montclair State University (MSU) and Essex 4-H (4-H), adding greater educational and service learning components to the project. In the fall of 2012, Montclair History Center and the Rutgers Master Gardeners joined the coalition increasing the food production and farming capacity. In 2013, this partnership of organizations formed the Montclair Community Farms Coalition to serve as the advisory of the Montclair Community Farms project. Since then MCF expanded efforts to provide healthy foods to the senior residents in Montclair through the introduction of their mobile farm stand project in 2016.

On Saturday, March 14, 2018, our group volunteered to help farmers clean up their crops in order to plant new products on the following days. We met at the Wilkins Theater Trolley Stop at 10:15AM and left at 10:30AM sharp, and we came back to the campus at around 2:00 PM. Once we arrived at the site, we checked in as part of Jersey Cares volunteers because other groups were there to help as well. After the owners informed us on the history of the farm and all the work is done, we were given the choice of a tool in order to start cleaning the crops where they would plant tomatoes in few days. Once the section cleaned, boys would start charging manure on wheelbarrows from the truck to the crops, and then we would all spread it over the entire portion of the soil. Then, after the fertilizer was spread out, the owners taught us how to put some wired cables as markers and add a piper all around because it would help with the watering process. Here attached is a picture of the result. I forgot to take one before we started working on it.

Since we had finished sooner than expected, the farmers told us to go across the street to the other piece of land they had in order to clean it as well. Those crops had accumulated leaves in and dead branches, so we had to clean and pile them up on the side outside the crop. Once piled up, another volunteer would come with a wheelbarrow, pick up the trash, and put it into a compost area of the farm.

 Once we finished cleaning those crops, we were then putting fences all around them in order to protect them in some way. In order to do so, we used wooden sticks as well as plastic ones and planted them all around the crops, on every corner as well as two in the middle of each crop. We then proceeded on enrolling the fences to put them in places. Some were longer than others and some shorter as well. We find a way to work around that little issue and the farmers taught us a way to kind of roll the fence on itself where there is too much of it.

 

That activity in sum was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun! It allowed me to take a closer and more sustainable look at food: how it is grown and how we can help our local community by providing natural products with even more natural methods. Even the disposal method was sustainable because they do not burn the compost ever but reuse it as a natural fertilizer. It was a great experience, and I would go back to not only learn more about farming and sustainable methods but also to have a closer look on how products really grow, how much water they need and more. Here is a picture of the entire group as well the two farmers in the back.