Fremont Township community garden has become education center
A chilly breeze and leaden sky foreshadowed winter Tuesday, but the conditions didn't temper the enthusiasm of volunteers who helped with the final harvest at the Fremont Township community garden.
Recent frosts made the leaves of the kale and other vegetables sag but as it has been since April, the organic produce grown for the township food pantry and low-income seniors provided a bountiful mix. Late-season varieties of rutabaga, celery root, parsnips and chard were among the last crops to be taken from what has become an attraction next to the township office on Route 60 near Mundelein.
"I grow a lot of things people have never heard of," caretaker Alicia Dodd said. "I want to provide food for the food pantry, but I also want to provide food for education."
With the offerings changing by season, the garden offers a staggering variety of locally grown produce.
Harvests have occurred every Tuesday since spring and made available at the township office.
"It's gone in two days," said Nancy Lech, general assistance caseworker. "It's also gotten people to try something new."
About 70 types of fruits and vegetables are grown but some, like tomatoes, may have 30 varieties of all shapes, sizes, colors and tastes.
"I have an insatiable desire to learn," said Dodd, a former commercial airline pilot. "If you want to eat locally, you'll have to expand your taste buds," she added.
Amy Jamison of Wauconda has volunteered in the garden every Tuesday since she drove by and stopped out of curiosity. Because of that experience, she has incorporated new offerings, such as celery root, in her own garden. On Tuesday, she brought her husband, Ed, to help out.
"That's what I like about it," he said. "People can come by and volunteer but also learn."
Since she became involved more than two years ago, Dodd has been the architect of a series of improvements and additions that have transformed the garden from a weedy patch to an incubator for locally grown food and a place for students, Scouts, community and corporate groups and others to learn and focus their skills.
This season, Dodd led volunteers on a monthslong project to build a kids shelter made of an age-old mix of clay and sand known as cob as an example of sustainable building. She also has been working with Mundelein High School students on a solar project that proved to be a real-life lesson in problem solving and teamwork.
"This garden, it really is community," Township Supervisor Diana O'Kelly said.
Planting by season means the last harvest becomes more of a respite than an end for Dodd.
"Realistically, I've got only two months off because I'll start (growing) the onions in my basement," she said.