Help Tiverton’s Sandywoods Farm Win a Fruit Orchard
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Sandywoods is what's known as an "intentional community," one that is focused on both agriculture and the arts, with affordable housing for low and moderate-income families. It already has a large community garden, which has grown enough food in this first year to make weekly donations to a nearby soup kitchen. Winning the orchard would enable Sandywoods to expand its giving capabilities while possibly creating local jobs.
A few clicks will do it
Click here to help Sandywoods win an orchard. You will need to set up an account, which takes less than a minute and only requires a valid email address, your name, and a password. Simply vote by clicking “Leaders” and selecting Sandywoods Farm in Tiverton, RI. You may vote once each day until the contest deadline, August 31.
Sandywoods has been in the running since April, managing to squeak by through several rounds of voting. Sandywoods is now down to the final voting round but only the five competitors with the most votes will win an orchard. Sandywoods is currently in 5th place, which secures an orchard, but it could easily slip out of the running. Rhode Islanders’ support is crucial.
GoLocalProv voted and then spoke with Russ Smith, Sandywoods Farm Community Outreach/Program Coordinator:
Why should Rhode Islanders vote for Sandywoods to win the orchard?
Sandywoods is the only Rhode Island nonprofit group chosen by the FTPF to participate in the contest. If we win one of the 20 free orchards at stake in the competition, a new fruit orchard will be planted in the Ocean State by year's end. This is the kind of eco-friendly project that has no downside whatsoever. To have 40-50 healthy fruit trees (which are expected to start bearing fruit within 3-5 years) planted in Rhode Island soil can only be a good thing. The icing on the cake is that because the orchard will be located on land owned by a nonprofit land trust, and managed by a nonprofit garden co-op, the public will be able to visit, enjoy the trees, and watch them grow.
What would the RI community gain?
Under the terms of the FTPF contest, the donated orchard cannot be used for commercial gain. In other words, an orchard recipient may not sell the harvested fruit for profit. With this in mind, the Sandywoods Farm Community Garden Co-op will seek to use the harvested fruit for charitable purposes. This will likely include donations to local food pantries - in fact, Sandywoods is already donating fresh vegetables harvested from our community garden to a soup kitchen in nearby Fall River on a weekly basis. The orchard could also prove to be a popular destination for school field trips, giving kids the opportunity to experience an orchard up close, climbing trees or picking fruit. Of course, the trees also absorb pollutants like carbon dioxide from the air. One tree can clean about ten pounds of pollution and 330 pounds of carbon dioxide from our air every year! So the new orchard will benefit all Rhode Islanders, even those who never get a chance to visit.
What are your goals for the future?
We're still just getting started - the first families didn't arrive at Sandywoods until September 2010 - but we've already started a half-acre community garden this year. And of course, we hope to plant the orchard with help from the FTPF later this year. In 2012, we'd like to expand the garden and recruit more garden members from the general community, acquire a flock of laying chickens, start up a small beekeeping operation, and begin to sell our flowers and vegetables at a local farmer's market. We have about 20 acres of fertile farmland - owned by the nonprofit Sandywoods Land Trust, LLC - available to us, so there is plenty of room for growth. Eventually, large-scale crop farming and livestock raising, overseen by a farm family, are a possibility.
If you have any questions or want to leave a comment to lend support please visit the Facebook page or email Sandywoodscommunitygarden@
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