LOCAL
AND REGIONAL SUPPORT
SUPPORT FOR THE ELLENVILLE GARDEN VILLAGE PROJECT INVOLVING LOCAL TRADERS
John has presented the “Ellenville Garden Village” initiative to Dr. Mark Craft, President of Ellenville-Wawarsing Chamber of Commerce (EWCOC), who, with EWCOC Secretary William Gettel of Sterling National Bank, is seeking to gain support for the project among Ellenville’s trading community. John accepted Dr. Craft’s invitation to speak before EWCOC on March 18, 2015, to the approval of all local traders present.
Diane Turner (“Mother Blueberry”), manager of the EWCOC Center and Ellenville Blueberry Festival Coordinator, was delighted to help promote the Praise Dominion pick-your-own vegetables events and the “Ellenville Garden Village” project at the Ellenville Blueberry Festival in August, 2015.
Brian Culwell of Ellenville’s Ace Hardware has given most generous support for the project, supplying a donation of 800 ft of deer-proof fencing required to protect the Praise Dominion garden. The correspondingly necessary 70 fence posts were donated by Stoeckeler Realty of Ellenville.
Ami Harbig of Ellenville florists Christian’s Greenhouse (now Flowers by Lynn) supplied seeds for the 2015 Praise Dominion garden, and Kerhonkson seed library is also helping the “Ellenville Garden Village” project’.
Dick Peters is interested in advancing Peters Market’s “Think Local First” initiative by selling surplus of the “Ellenville Garden Village” project’s harvest of vegetables and herbs. Trading profits will be returned to places of worship participating in the project and to support community groups operating in Ellenville.
Although the Walmart store in neighboring Napanoch could not oblige, the Ellenville branch of ShopRite may agree to provide shelf space to promote and sell surplus of the “Ellenville Garden Village” project’s 2016 harvest of fresh organic produce.
Ellenville’s Barthel’s Farm Market and Rusty Plough Farm will also be approached to discuss the sale of surplus of the “Ellenville Garden Village” project’s 2016 harvest.
Places of worship participating in the project are invited to become retailers themselves, as John will waive the stall fee for them at the re-launched Ellenville Farmers’ Market. The June through October weekly market events will further help the local economy by attracting traveling customers to existing retailers in the village.
THE INVOLVEMENT OF
ELLENVILLE SUPPORT GROUPS IN THE PROJECT
News of the “Ellenville Garden Village” project has been well-received by the Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), who have advised regarding placement of local work-experience trainees, and through whom John Clark, a University Professor in England, has designed an eighteen-session course in Organic Vegetable Gardening (BOCES, Ellenville, March 30-June 15, 2016).
The course is targeted toward beginners in organic vegetable gardening aged 18+, for whom the Praise Dominion vegetable garden will be provided as a teaching garden. Cornell Cooperative Extension has committed Master Gardeners to assist John at the Ellenville teaching garden.
John is preparing proposals to involve local people in the project through the support groups Ulster County Community Action (Ellenville) and Family of Ellenville, each of whom will receive fresh organic vegetables to be distributed in their food pantries (including Community Action’s Friday farm stand).
John is further working with Family of Ellenville’s Dominic Pisone to develop a 1,200 sq ft area of their land for organic fruit and vegetable cultivation in spring 2016.
Family of Ellenville’s James Rios, stalwart of Ellenville’s Aiyana (“forever flowering”) Community Garden, a raised bed vegetable garden, planted and worked by youth and adult volunteers, is participating in the “Ellenville Garden Village” project as community events advisor.
The Village of Ellenville, to whom Aiyana Community Garden belongs, has expressed an interest in passing on the garden’s management to John in the fall of 2015, and they are accordingly reviewing the management proposal requested of John.
Following the recommendation of Cornell University Cooperative Extension and Ulster County Community Action (Ellenville), in 2015 John presented an outline of the “Ellenville Garden Village” and Ellenville Farmers’ Market projects to the Wawarsing Council of Agencies. The news was well-received, and John is now accepted into the Council. This collaboration represents a wide foundation of support to improve the economic, social, cultural and environmental wellbeing of several locations in the Ellenville-Wawarsing area of New York State. In particular, John has invited the Council to freely use Ellenville Farmers’ Market as an events venue to promote their great work.
An “Ellenville Garden Village” project presentation will be given to Sam Bugna of the Town of Wawarsing and coordinator of Ellenville Wawarsing Youth Commission, with a view to determining the extent to which the project meets their mission statement “to promote stable, safe, peaceful, environmentally friendly and attractive neighborhoods”.
Naturally, the children of Ellenville will be welcomed through their schools to participate hands-on in springtime sowing and in plant care either side of the summer vacation, and horticultural projects are being designed for classroom studies. Ellenville Central School District’s Superintendent, Lisa Wiles, will be reviewing the project, which may also link in with an environmental awareness initiative.
Working in partnership with Ellenville Central School District, young people earned school community service credits under John’s supervision at the Praise Dominion garden in August, 2015. This program will be developed from 2016 onward, involving student volunteer placement at several vegetable garden locations across the village.
The story of the “Ellenville Garden Village” project is now actively supported by the local media, including Alan Buckler of Ellenville radio and TV station WELV, and Lisa Carroll of the Shawangunk Journal.
REGIONAL SUPPORT FOR THE ELLENVILLE GARDEN VILLAGE PROJECT
It is anticipated that retailing giants Lowes, Walmart and ShopRite (and possibly others) will approve the “Ellenville Garden Village” project for donations of the seeds, tools and materials necessary for setting up several new organic vegetable gardens in 2016 and for maintaining the Praise Dominion garden. Although John submitted applications for such support in March, 2015, a reluctance to help set up the project suggested that the larger corporations will not associate their name with the likely failure inherent with new community initiatives, especially as coordinated by somebody unproven in this country.
Rondout Valley Growers Association will hopefully consider partnership in the “Ellenville Garden Village” project, with the objective of advancing their commitment to supporting local farming and preserving active agricultural open space for future generations.
Cornell University, a world top ten authority in horticulture, has now given its advocacy for the “Ellenville Garden Village” project through its Cooperative Extension in Ulster County, New York. Master Gardeners will be provided both to the Ellenville teaching garden, and to teaching elements of the project's regeneration through horticulture.
Commencing in 2016, the Cooperative Extension will provide Eat Smart New York (ESNY) nutrition education to support the “Ellenville Garden Village” project's supply of fresh organic vegetables to several food pantries. John Clark has allocated a booth at Ellenville Farmers’ Market for the Cooperative Extension’s ESNY program.
Although Ulster County Department of Social Services cannot supply unemployed people seeking to gain work experience or work training for the “Ellenville Garden Village” project, it is hoped that Ulster Works may place people ages 14-20 as paid trainees in the project, according to their Summer Youth Employment Program.
Ulster County Community Service Program will review the suitability of job placement in the “Ellenville Garden Village” project for 2016, including assistance and supervision.
An invitation is open to all prospective project backers in Ulster County (and beyond) to contact John in order that we may together secure the future success of the “Ellenville Garden Village” project, and so improve the wellbeing of the village through horticulture.
John Clark can be contacted by email: EllenvilleOrgVeg@aol.com