Re: Questions re setting up a garden or orchard as a coop or club
From: Lynn Nadeau / Maraiah (welcomeolympus.net)
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2013 14:29:43 -0800 (PST)
RoseWind Cohousing, Port Townsend WA (long built). 

Our gardening is defined by the nature of the plantings. 

Perennials are fruit trees, berries, rhubarb, asparagus (both stalks...), 
artichokes, and bees. These "belong" to the whole community and are under the 
supervision of the Agriculture Committee. Annual budget funds go to things like 
fertilizer, mulch, and bee-keeping stuff. Plus a few new plants. Individuals or 
small teams manage subsets of this: bees, trees, berries. Occasionally some 
stuff gets orphaned and we just take care of it without a designated manager, 
usually with the labor and direction of our Garden Coop (see below). The 
orchard team, for example, might send around an email saying (a) the Wagner 
apples in the hill orchard are ready, tree is marked with blue ribbon, each 
household can take 8 (b) there aren't a lot of Melrose apples, so they will be 
brought to Monday dinner for distribution of 1-2 each (c) the other apples 
aren't ready to pick yet. 

Annuals are the vegetables, and some flowers. A couple of members have personal 
patches, where they raise stuff for themselves, at their own expense, within 
the common gardening areas. Most of the other active households, about 12 
households, form a Garden Coop, or club. It's a de facto in-house CSA, with 
members paying a monthly fee, and most doing garden work as well. Cost is about 
$40 a month, for a 2-person household. The community Monday-night cooked meal 
program also has membership in the Garden Coop, so those cooks can harvest from 
the garden too. In season, the garden might provide a community meal with 
carrots, beets, onions, garlic, cabbage, kale, salad greens, potatoes, squash 
and more. In summer, tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, beans.

Produce from the annual veggies in the Coop areas goes first to those who are 
on hand for the twice weekly garden work times (2-3 hour long), then to Coop 
members (who get an email saying pick beets from bed 28, parsnips from 13, let 
the cauliflower get bigger still, etc). When there is more than that, it is 
taken to the Common House foyer with a help-yourself sign. If not taken, often 
someone will run the rest up to the local Food Bank, which welcomes even small 
amounts of garden produce. 

Key to the success (for years now) of our vegetable garden is that we hire a 
delightful neighbor as our manager: very knowledgeable, and fun to hang out 
with. This is most of where our monthly membership money goes. She not only 
directs us in what to do when and where, but does a lot of physical work 
herself at the same time. Monday mornings and Thursday afternoons typically 
have from 4-12 people pitching in to help, usually about 8. 

I still dream of a truly community vegetable garden, funded by the whole 
community, worked by the Garden Coop which would become a committee. But what 
we're doing now works, and seems good enough for now. At least via surplus 
harvest, and via community meals, everyone here can benefit. 

My response to the original post is that short term projects like annual 
vegetables and chickens seem more suitable for the "club" approach. If interest 
or help wanes, they can be let go. Not the same as fruit trees or to some 
extent bees. 

Maraiah Lynn Nadeau
www.rosewind.org
having a lunch salad with fresh-picked spinach, carrot, beet, turnip, lettuces, 
and calendula petals.....
and it's NOVEMBER! 

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