11/28/2008 2:02:00 AM Stone Soup Gardens for Humanity provides community nourishment
VVN/Steve Ayers
Gardens for Humanity and the Friends of the Well, with the blessings of the Hopi people, planted a traditional Hopi garden this last summer at Montezuma Well. Using heirloom seeds donated by the Hopi it produced some unique variety of indigenous vegetables.
Diane Dearmore assumed the role of president and CEO of Gardens for Humanity earlier this year and is now launching a plea to find more gardeners and more space to garden in the valley.
There is a fable told in many ways and in many cultures of a solitary traveler or group of travelers who arrive in a village looking for something to eat.
Denied a handout, they concoct a plan that will not only sate their hunger, but leave the villagers with an understanding that there is value in sharing.
Typically, the travelers fill a pot with water, toss in a stone or otherwise worthless object and set it out to boil. The villagers, curious and anxious to get a taste of the magical stone soup, begin to toss in what they have -- seasonings, meat, veggies, whatnot.
If all goes to plan, both the soup maker and the villager enjoy a fine feast.
The recipe is as varied as the cast of characters, the available ingredients and the culture in which it is served.
But stone soup is not about what's in it so much as how and why it's made.
It is a fable about making something from nothing -- about working together to make something better than what could be made individually -- and about sharing in your success.
Gardens for Humanity, an organization started in 1996, has in many ways achieved and shared its success in a "stone soup" sort of way.
Over the last 12 years it has helped build more than two dozen community gardens, in four states, all with the belief that gardens, like pots of stone soup, have as much to give as they do to teach.
Last year, working with the Friends of the Well, a group of volunteers that assist at Montezuma Well, they built their newest addition, a traditional Hopi garden on the grounds of the National Park.
With the assistance and blessings of Hopi tribal elder Jerry Honawa, volunteers and Hopi children, the garden put out its first crop of corn, beans, melons and squash, this summer.
About the same time the garden was sprouting, Diane Dearmore, former director of the Institute for Ecotourism in Sedona and volunteer at the Hopi garden, found herself filling the shoes of Gardens for Humanity founder Adele Seronde.
Dearmore, now president and CEO of Gardens for Humanity, is committed to making her garden grow, not just the Hopi garden but also the larger garden she now finds herself tilling.
"Gardens are a metaphor for many things in our lives, if not for life itself," Dearmore says. "In this economic crisis we now find ourselves in, they are an opportunity to teach us about the things in life that are important -- what works and what doesn't work."
With that in mind and a belief that we would be all better off economically, psychologically and physically if we reconnected with the earth,
Dearmore is now setting out the pot -- or more specifically the plot -- and asking the community at large to bring what they have and become a part.
While applying for grant money to expand the Hopi garden, she is putting out a call for more gardening space, unused water rights, equipment and people to create more community gardens.
"There are a lot of people out there who love to garden but have no place to do it. And there are people out there who have land and water rights they are not using, that would make for a perfect garden. I'd like to put those two together," Dearmore says.
Last summer the Verde Valley Community Supported Agriculture organization, a cooperative of growers and buyers, had a waiting list of more than 120 people wanting a weekly supply of locally grown produce. Farmers markets all over the valley often sold out within hours of opening.
"The Hopi garden is just a start. There is a largely unfilled market out there for fresh, locally grown foods," Dearmore says. "More community gardens, and more people gardening their land would go a long way towards filling that demand."
Using the Hopi Garden as an example of a successful community garden, Dearmore hopes to interest others.
But her commitment goes well beyond the notion that gardening can be profitable.
"It's a holistic thing," Dearmore says. "It's not necessarily about the food on the table or the financial benefit of gardening.
"It's about good nutrition for the body and the soul. Gardens have a healing and a spiritual quality. Everything we enjoy in this life is in someway connected to plants."
Dearmore is making her plea this winter in hopes of having more gardeners and more gardens come this spring.
Anyone with something to contribute can call Gardens for Humanity at (928) 592-0255. For information on the Hopi garden at Montezuma Well call Fred Shute at (928) 593-0931.
