Expanding Our Reach

For many years I’ve worked as a part time director of Garfield Community Farm. Evan and I actually worked together to get the farm started way back in 2008. The farm is a place based non-profit, committed to one neighborhood and three acres of land and the people who visit these three acres. Wild Indigo Guild is our work to expand the message and work of growing food, caring for land and seeing God’s creation restored through communities of faithfulness. Instead of one locale we have many, instead of one community we work with many.

This month we were involved in a retreat with several Episcopal churches spread up and down the Puget Sound in Washington State. All of these churches are developing new plans to work together to bring about restoration on their communally owned land. Until now almost all of our work has been in the Allegheny plateau where Pittsburgh is rooted. We’re expanding our reach!

We had a wonderful time discussing ideas and sharing our experience here in Pittsburgh with these folks of the Diocese of Olympia. As we worked together to dream of new ways that a Centre Guild might form in the future and how individual churches could partner to bring about more positive change we also reveled in the goodness of Creation along the waters and foothills of the Olympic mountains. We hiked through a second growth forest. We ate a wonderful meal together. And we all learned from each other. As the work restoration continues in communities across western WA, we hope to be helpful partners.

Not only did we learn from each other, Evan and I (John) took time to plan for the year to come. We also took time to explore quite a bit, learning from the ancient wisdom of this beautiful place. While on a hike in the foothills just south of Olympic National Park we found so many wild and native plants growing together, many that much to share in way of human food and even more habitat for wild creatures.

In the understory of the dense fir, cedar and spruce forest we found Kinnickinnik, or bearberry (Arctostaphylos Uva-ursi) growing in and among them mosses and ferns.

We also found herbaceous plants like this wild ginger.

In the shrub layer we found things like huckleberry and salal, both food producers.

On our final day together Evan took me to see some of his favorite trees in the cemetery near his house, such as this huge hybrid chestnut. Some of the big old trees are pure American chestnut and others have mixed European and American genes. Evan has foraged nuts from these trees and we have three year old saplings available in our new nursery! They’re very interesting specimens, with good quality nuts.

We hope you’ll support our work as we see God providing new opportunities in new places, from one side of this continent to the other!