Dexter woman’s energy powers volunteer community food production

By Sam Brown
Dexter Dover Area Towns
in Transition

    DEXTER — “Variations on Community Gardening” was the topic at Dexter Dover Area Towns in Transition’s (DDATT) March 7th First Friday public discussion held in the Abbott Memorial Library’s meeting room in Dexter.
    Deb Burdin, who with her husband, Shawn, own and operate Bwarts Greenhouse on Route 7, is the driving force behind two different types of community-based food production which literally hit the Dexter ground in 2013 and are expanding in scope this year.

    One of Burdin’s ideas, “Shared Bounty,” is a large volunteer-run garden, growing and delivering free produce for any local area seniors who need it. She has recognized the need for a more healthy and affordable diet for seniors for a while and grew frustrated with the complexity and ineffectiveness of the few state or local governmental programs that attempted to address this nutritional issue.
    So, in 2013 she and at least a dozen regular volunteers  planned, planted, maintained, harvested, bagged and delivered all sorts of vegetables to elderly residents throughout the growing season on a easily accessible piece of farmer Fred Sherburne’s land in town. One hundred thirty-six “shares” (individual bags of whatever produce was available) went into seniors’ kitchens at the peak of the 2013 summer season.
    “To see those people go down there and work as hard as they did, it was just amazing, in the rain and fog and sun,” said Sherburne of the volunteers. Burdin is grateful to Sherburne for his support and assistance in preparing the soil and adding cow manure and compost to the whole plot. “We grow all organically, but we aren’t certified, “ she explained, “and since we don’t use poisons, we need lots of hands to keep the weeds and critters down”. 
    “A lot of these old people get confused when they don’t have to sign up for some government program.  We just give’em the food if they want it.  If you want it, you’re qualified!” Burdin said with a laugh.
    The volunteer work aspect of the garden has also attracted many seniors to help out themselves, getting a social boost from mutual work and interaction. Once last summer during planting time, Burdin saw a little girl and an old woman out by themselves, slowly working along a freshly tilled spot. The little girl turned out to be “kissing the beans for Grammy to grow them better.”
    Some who aren’t very mobile anymore come and just watch, happy to be outside in the company of others.  This generational aspect drew lots of interest from the discussion participants, as a way for those people who know about gardening to transfer their knowledge to those who don’t know much, yet. 
    The second 2013 gardening project took shape at an Arno Road field of Mark McKusick, the other Dexter farmer who made available tilled and organically-fertilized land for anyone who lacked space for their own gardens.
    Despite Burdin’s intense and seemingly endless energy (“I get an idea and just keep slammin’ on it ‘til it’s done!”), she didn’t have enough time last year to fully advertise and develop these gardens, so only a few people took advantage of the offer. This year Burdin hopes that more people take advantage the opportunity, and that someone might step forward to lead it on. 
    McKusick, one of the discussion group participants, watched a few novice gardeners last year lose their courage when the weeds suddenly took over the nice, clean, well-tilled seedbed because they didn’t know what to expect once the seeds were planted and the summer advanced.  He said they stood in the hip-high weeds and exclaimed “OMG! Where did all THESE come from?”
    In closing the evening, Burdin expressed her wish for a big turnout at a volunteer work day at the senior garden set for 8 a.m. Saturday, May 3 which will be followed by a potluck “Planting Dinner” at noon. “We need plenty of muscle power that day to get the beds ready and the poles set up and get as much of the up-front grunt work done as we can, and still have fun.”
    The First Friday public discussion meetings are sponsored by DDATT and the Abbott Memorial Library, on subjects emphasizing useful skills and practices to help reduce our area’s dependence on fossil fuel energy.
    The April 4th topic will be looking at how well does our current educational system work to serve our needs. Matthew Drewette-Card of AOS 94 will begin the evening describing “effective grading practices in schools & proficiency-based education.”
    For more information and to get on the DDATT email list:  info@ddatt.org or 277-4221.