Shanel, the scotch bonnet pepper and “This came from us.”
How does someone look at an empty yard and go from “How are we going to do this?” to eating a Scotch Bonnet pepper and thinking “That came from us.”? Having moved to this area from Brooklyn with her family, Shanel had heard of urban gardens but had never gotten too up close and personal. Before she began, her biggest questions were where to find the time and where to start. Shanel heard about the Build a Garden program during the pandemic. Thinking of self-care, Shanel spoke of wanting to feel more grounded; “being in nature, hands in the soil…to watch something grow you’ve done with your own hands…” The Build a Garden program became the way she would find a way into that space.
She spoke of the awareness of living in a food desert and feeling the daunting “fear of not knowing how to grow anything”; a fear she thinks many people share. She was curious and opted into the Build A Garden program, where VINES’ Grow Binghamton youth employees constructed a raised bed in her yard. With her introduction to growing her own food, there came a shift in confidence of her abilities. She began to actively see the process and recalled thinking, “Oh, this is actually not that hard…you do got to know what you’re doing. But it’s not that hard to see. You know how they did it.”
Shanel reflected on the quiet time she found in the morning tending her garden, and described a sense of meditation in the process. She spoke of the endeavor as “an experiment.” By beginning this process herself, she could share aspects of this with her friends and family. Her daughter would help her with weeding, and her mother would delight in the shifting colors of the Scotch Bonnet Pepper. They began looking at some of the produce they usually bought and thought, “We could grow this”; like the scallions that now live in the kitchen year-round. As a family, she said they were all “amazed by some really simple things…And that made us more curious.”
Shanel said her journey through gardening showed her “the lack of variety and quality in the produce she’d been used to …and the difference in taste.” Like all gardeners, Shanel commented on a few incidental lessons, like an accidental tomato surplus’ and newfound caution for mint. She reflected on the changed relationship with food she was sharing with her daughter; “Everybody should learn how to grow their own food. I think it’s definitely a liberating experience to be able to do that.”
STORYTELLING ARCHIVE
October 2021 – Celebrating the 1st Full Year of Grow Binghamton Youth Program
September 2021- Community Gardens – A Dream Come True
July 2021 – Unexpected Sunshine & Other Side Effects of Build a Garden
November 2020 – Raising Spirits & Creating Joy through Cooking
October 2020 – Farm Share Supports Healthy Families
August 2020 – Grow Binghamton Crew 2020: Small but Mighty
July 2020 – Growing Food, Growing Community – Together with Binghamton Food Rescue
June 2020 – Jessica & Leta: Two Urban Farm Volunteers
April 2020 – Laurel Community Garden’s Peg Johnston
March 2020 – Nolan’s Reflection on Grow Binghamton Youth Program