As a regional "forager" for Whole Foods, Mark Smallwood spends much of his time making sure the green grocer stocks local food, usually from commercial farms. But if he has his way, some products will come from even closer: Baltimore's community gardens.
To make that happen, he has hatched a plan to vastly expand the number of city residents who know how to grow fruits and vegetables - as well as how to cook, preserve and sell them. He's negotiating with the city for a site, likely in northern Baltimore, large enough for gardening classes and some individual plots. And he's applying for grants to cover some of the costs. "There's no reason why you can't grow your own food in the city," said Smallwood, an organic farmer who points to his own planted Woodberry yard as evidence. "This is a years-long project that aims to get a lot of people involved."
Smallwood said many seeds are already planted: He's one of many urban and suburban dwellers growing food at home or in community gardens from Upper Fells Point to Rodgers Forge. And people are turning out in droves at area farmers' markets in downtown Baltimore, Towson and Annapolis, among others, fueling a nationwide increase in markets by more than 25 percent since 2004, according to government statistics.
Across the nation and Canada, there were 18,000-20,000 community gardens last year, the American Community Garden Association estimates. A Baltimore group has tracked nearly 100.
Miriam Avins, a local gardener, is working to preserve them. She used a fellowship won in 2007 from OSI-Baltimore to create a land trust called Baltimore Green Space (baltimoregreenspace.org), and it bought the Upper Fells site.
Neighbors had worked the abandoned public property between two Pratt Street rowhouses for years before they began to worry that rising property values would tempt the city to sell to a developer. There are 13 individual gardens, and those who tend them say it's been a gathering spot, a beautification project and a food source.
One plot is tended by Jan Mooney and her husband Kurt Schiller, who is the garden manager. It has flowers, lettuce, black beans, herbs and other plants.
"We're big on sharing," said Schiller, as he pointed to the varied collection of flowers and food. "This is a big asset to us and the community."
