Donna McEvoy looks over her garden, which is designed to attract insects such as bees and butterflies that are beneficial to the growing ecosystem at the East Brunswick Community Garden, on July 13.|There’s a reason it’s called a “community garden.” Now in its third year, the East Brunswick Community Garden is working to promote the community aspect of gardening with new, shared plots and donations to local charities.
Dave Moskowitz, president of the Friends of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission, said he is hopeful that this year the garden will donate 1,000 pounds of fresh produce to local charities.
“It’s very, very important for us to be giving back to the community,” Moskowitz said.
Local Girl Scouts, the Community of Hope and East Brunswick Senior Center are all growing produce for charity this year, Moskowitz said.
Shared plots of okra, strawberries and a thriving potato patch have been planted around the garden, with portions of the produce from each going to charity, Moskowitz said.
“There’s gonna be pounds and pounds of potatoes,” Moskowitz said.
Those leasing the 150 plots in the garden are all encouraged to donate some of their produce to charity as well. Over 300 pounds have already been donated, Moskowitz said.
“We are well ahead of where we were last year,” he said. “Gardeners have really embraced giving back to the community through donations.”
But the community spirit of the East Brunswick Community Garden extends well beyond the confines of the township. After forming a partnership last year with the Merri Corner Community Garden in Brunswick East, Australia, Moskowitz said members of the two gardens are now working to create a garden cookbook featuring recipes from gardeners in the states and in the “land down under.”
Ingrid Josephine, a committee member and plot-holder with the Merri Corner Community Garden, said that while gardeners have already shared recipes in their newsletters and websites over the past year, she thought the cookbook would help the two “East Brunswicks” on separate sides of the globe learn more about each other.
“[We] thought it was a wonderful idea and a perfect way to work together with our sister garden,” Josephine wrote in an email to Greater Media Newspapers. “It is also a greatway to involve more people at our garden and help with getting to know our fellow gardeners.” In addition to recipes, Josephine said they have discussed featuring mini-profiles of gardeners, growing tips, and the stories behind the recipes — whether they are old family traditions, new favorites or “just born from a glut of zucchini” — in the cookbook.
“We are all looking forward to getting more recipes and working on the production process,” she said. “It would be great to have the cookbook as a record of our sistergarden relationship.”
Growing, weeding and simply chatting in the garden has helped to forge a sense of togetherness among gardeners in New Jersey’s East Brunswick, said Liti Haramaty, vice president of the Friends of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission.
“People really look after each other,” Haramaty said. “When I water my plot, I water everyone else’s, and other people water for me.”
The community gardeners come from all walks of life and many backgrounds, said Lois Moskowitz, treasurer of the Friends group. She said she recently spoke with an Indian American gardener who was growing a type of Indian spinach in the garden and came across a Chinese American gardener growing the same type of spinach. “He had no idea that it was the same thing with a different name,” LoisMoskowitz said.
And many of the gardeners are practical jokers as well. She said one gardener recently put a big plastic spider on her plot, which gave her a scare.
“I am minding my own business and picking my peas, and see this spider and I scream and I jump,” she said.
Another gardener came to see what was the matter and began smashing the plastic spider as Moskowitz tried to explain that it was plastic.
“It was very funny,” she said.
But it is this diversity and sense of community that Lois Moskowitz said has helped make the garden so unique.
“Awhole lot of different people are here. It’s not based upon your children’s age or your children’s interest, or religion or ethnicity,” she said. “It’s just, everybody loves gardening.”
Formore information on the East Brunswick Community Garden or the Friends of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission, visit its website at http://www.friendsebec.com.