The Lucknow Sentinel, 1996-03-13, Page 76Farm Pr
`064040.10A
More to community garden.
concept than meets the e
by .Shelley McPhee Hoist
The first inkling of spring is
.in the air and Bob Budd is anx-
ious to get on the lard, ne pulls'
on his :rubber bootsand walks ..
his Goderich Township farm to
get a good look at the soil that
will grow this year's crops,
• Ile thinks about planting.
tune,weed control, harvesting
and about, the people who are
counting on him to. �:.roduce a
portio their food supply,.
�
It c apt take long for Bob
to y the small;, four acre
sial._ ra land, but he knows that.
it's no small responsibility to ....
produce organically vegetables
for 90 families :who have mem-
berships in the • Huron
Community Garden
Since '1990,:' Bob and Bev
Budd have been developing this
shareholder based garden on
their 80 -acre farin, few miles
southeast of Goderich..
• " They moved to ,this hilly,
piece of -Property seven years
ago afterr;. decidinglo to change
their way of life,'
Bob says, "I was ,shoving
horses we were doing well,
financially. But we were finding
that we weren't",really satisfie(i.
It was work, work, work. When
we had .time' off wet were look.
ing to get 'away from it all with
holidaysand dinners out toget.
away from it all. You end up
" spending more money . to make
yourself relax. Then you'd get
all keyed up again on Sunday
night because you ~knew you,,
had to do this thing all over
again:
Bev adds, "We 'recognized
thatwe were looking down a
long road of doing this 'and we
wondered what changes we
could make."
Bob Says, questioned
, "We
,
what we really needed and.. what
we were willing to pay for it.
We wanted to know how we
could survive without salary.
Bob has a few customers
from his horse shoeing business.
and Bev works part-time at the
Ooderich Municipal Day. Care,
but for the iuost part, they make
a small living fro,the land,
Bob .says that they now, " ub
stitute real hard dollars for real
hard work."
They live simply and comp
fortably, There ..are no hydro
lines to the 1,500 square foot
story-and-aahalf ;house that they
built, There is no furnace. The
hnrue costs. about $100 a•year to
heat with a wood stove.
Solar energy provides` news -
spy power andthere's back-up
generator and propane for the
stove and the refrigerator.
"Most people wouldn't be in
a big`rush toe jump into our situ-
ation, After living here a :couple,'
of weeks they -would get:tired• of
not being. able to turn on 'light
when they wanted to or not
always, having hot water, but we
balance that'witk the fact that
we don't have to go out and earn
the money to. work off-site to
pay the bills. So it's kind of nice
to sit here with. one light on to
read a book by.'" .•
They have been called
eccentrics and Bob , admits,
"We're not typical of agriculture
,sir this area. We're a real alihora:
tion. `I feel uncomfortable talk-
ing about how we operate. So
many farmers operate on' such,
huge scales of agriculture.
Whenwe say that we'refarmers
some peo le.disaigr
The Huron Community
Garden is described in`their-
brochure as, "a community
shared agriculture project. It
grew .out of, the realization that
the 'pore distance people get
from where and how theirfood
is grown, the worse the prob-
lems of our agriculture beconie.
In essence it's group of people
who `live and work inthe same
area, sharing the responsibility
of growing food well."
Colin unity Sponsored
For all your plumbing fid.
• ,il
Dawson's Pu .�
Agriculture (CSA) is not a new
idea. It had existed for many
years in Europe, Australia and
Japans, more recently to the
United States and to Canada
the Huron County Garden being
the first'such, project to be regis-
tered in Canada.
The Budds are caretakers. of
the successful . kluron:
Community Garden, a project
which involves 45 shares,' and
some 90 families. Shares are
sold for $450, or, in half -shares,.:
The fees,payfor seed supplies,
equipment, lease ,:of the land and
an agreed upon wage for the
grower.
Shareholders are provided
with a wide variety of,in-season
vegetables,grown. organically
*turn to page 20;;
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