Anathoth Community Garden Newsletter
September 2007
Greetings,
There is just the beginnings of a cool breeze blowing today, enough to make
me wish for fall. Actually, I’ve been wishing for fall since mid-summer, and
not just because it’s been so hot and dry. Mid-summer is when we start
germinating our fall crops. This week I’ve been planting the result of such
autumnal thoughts: carrots, beets, radishes, lettuce, broccoli, cabbage,
brussel sprouts. We’re in a lull right now as far as harvesting goes, but
there is still much to be done. Fall planting means a very busy couple of
weeks. Our trusty intern Kate has flown south for the winter (about 10 miles
south, to Hillsborough), and my wife Elizabeth will soon deliver our second
child. This translates into a mid-week labor shortage in the garden. We have
several volunteers that come on weekday mornings, but we need more. Please
let me know if you’re available any mornings between 8-11am Monday-Friday.
New Fall Workday Schedule:
• Tues. 4-7pm with pot-luck following. Wed. 9-12noon. Thurs. 4-7pm. Saturday
9-12noon, pot-luck following. Please bring a dish and your own plates and
utensils.
News:
• September harvest—Purple-hulled peas, tomatoes, basil, cut flowers
(cosmos, zinnias, sunflowers), sugar baby melons, peppers, and eggplant.
Calendar:
• Anathoth Garden Food and Music Fest—September 15. Pot-luck starting at
noon, (bring your own plates and chair). Music will include Stacey Kurelop’s
Red Rhythm, Lee Chapel Chorale, and a special “interpretive dance” troop led
by ballet masters Shane Jernigan and Tony Hackney. 12-3pm.
• Land-Bread-Body—A two day gathering on Food and the Lord’s Supper, jointly
sponsored by the Valparaiso Project and Caring Communities, Oct. 5-6. This
two-day gathering, hosted by Cedar Grove United Methodist Church and
Anathoth Community Garden will explore Christian practices of eating,
growing, and sharing food. Through lectures, discussions, workshops, and
all-local meals, you will be invited to think about how the Lord’s table
transforms food practices at our own tables, and how the rural church has a
unique ministry in helping urban churches embody these practices. To
register go to:
http://www.divinity.duke.edu/cc/lbb/index.html
This month’s personal narrative comes to us from Peter Kramer, long-time
garden supporter, carpenter, and writer. Peter recently wrote this article
for the Chapel Hill Herald on our meditation garden:
Preserving Plants, Preserving
Heritage—
An Oasis Within an Oasis
by Peter Kramer
Charlotte Hughes walks past the shelter and rows of crops at the Anathoth
community garden in Cedar Grove, heads down a winding path into the woods
and across a creek that forms the headwaters of the Eno River, and tends to
the native plant garden she established earlier this year. With the soaring
temperatures, even the hardiest plants need her help and the water she
totes.
“Exploring creeks and woods has been a pleasure for me since childhood,” she
says. “The idea for this space came when I wandered the fringes of the area
to see what might be growing. I remembered the times that Ms. Kathrine had
shared her love and knowledge of wildflowers with me and thought it
appropriate to honor those memories with a small area for native plants, a
place removed from the busy work of food production. I thought that a
quieter area that encouraged prayer, reflection, or meditation also seemed
to fit with memories of Ms. Kathrine, my friend.”
“Ms. Kathrine” McDade (1914-2001) was the daughter of S.F. Nicks, who was
the pastor of a four-church charge that included the Cedar Grove United
Methodist Church from 1934-1940. She graduated from Duke in 1935 with a
masters in education and taught elementary school in Orange County for
thirty-two years. She is said to have loved history, geneaology, art,
wildflowers, and poetry. She taught Sunday school for many years, worked
beside her husband Puckett (1910-1988) in the fields, raised two children,
and “manged to have a full meal on the table when they returned home”, says
Hughes.
“Mother was unassuming but accomplished a lot,” says her daughter Jo
Westbrook, an Efland resident. “She would ask her friends to go on walks and
take her classes into the woods. She’d keep notebooks full of information
about birds, trees, and flowers, things she was eager to introduce to other
folks. I still run into people who say that Mother taught them things they
still value. My brother Mac McDade and I are so pleased that Charlotte
proposed the plant garden in memory of her.”
Pastor Grace Hackney of the Cedar Grove United Methodist Church, which
administers Anathoth, describes its functions as many. “It is a place to
gather; a place to receive good, healthy food; a place to dig in the dirt; a
place to forge friendships with persons you may not have had a chance to
cross paths with. It is holy ground and re-connects us in a very tangible
way to the soil from which we came and to which we will return.”
Charlotte Hughes agrees that with the preservation of native plants the
garden fits well into the overall philosophy of Anathoth. “I hope that it
will be a place where anyone can come for a short walk or a quiet rest on
one of the benches. The vegetable volunteers find refreshment in the cooler
temperatures in the woods and some of the youth have shown interest in the
folk history about some of the plants. The children have discovered the home
of the ‘world’s largest crayfish’ and a resident turtle with very orange
front legs who is often the greeter near the bridge.”
Hughes sought out Thomas Harville, the president of the N.C. Native Plant
Society and an expert in “rescue plants”, or those that are removed and
replanted when threatened by development or other loss. “I hadn’t known
Charlotte but figured she was good folks. Our society promotes the enjoyment
and conservation of native plants through education, protection, advocacy,
and propagation. Every native garden holds part of our heritage, the green
stuff we ran through as a kid, the plants our ancestors used before modern
medicine. Maybe such a garden will keep some species alive. We can enjoy
lush green retreats, enjoy a connection with nature, and enjoy the fleeting
beauty of the spring ephemerals.”
Hughes credits Harville with donations of rescue plants and with
identification of those already growing there. She rescued ferns, pink lady
slippers, and Jack in the pulpits from a pre-development site in Chapel
Hill. A cardinal flower, a favorite of Ms. Kathrine’s, blooms at the garden
entrance ( it’s showy and bright and demands your attention”, says Hughes).
Jo Westbrook notes the “breathtaking” Spring Beauties, a natural plant
growing at the site which formed a carpet-like cover of pink and white. Both
she and Hughes appreciate that every month plants are in and out of bloom.
They and other volunteers are figuring out what the site will offer in each
season, such as fall plants that will develop a deeper root system to make
it through the summer.
Hughes says that “bloodroot was easy to identify when I received a bag of
roots and tubers from Tom Harville. If you break it there is a red/orange
sticky liquid. I’ve heard it was used for face paint, insect repellant, and
fabric dye but we won’t dig the roots because we enjoy the fleeting white
flowers and the interesting rounded leaves that pop throught the ground in a
tightly curled position.”
She says that “the peace that I find in the breezes that blow through the
ferns as I have watered this summer have been especially refreshing. I love
finding a gray tree frog enjoying the bench beside me and a red mushroom
popping up beside the mayapples. One of the youth who took a break with me
in the plant garden commented about how it felt like we were in a different
time here- a quiet, peaceful time.”
Jo Westbrook appreciates that the garden is the legacy of Kathrine McDade
and her enthusiasm for nature and people. “I know Mother is looking down and
feeling blessed and touched that this is here, that Charlotte has honored
her for her gifts and love.”