September 2020 - Sweetgrass Garden
Sweetgrass Garden Celebrating 10 years of Growing Food for Those in Need!
In our ten years of operation, Sweetgrass Garden has provided many thousands of pounds of fresh produce to local food pantries and outreach services through our partnership with the Sea Island Hunger Awareness Foundation. Looking forward, our goals include creating more partnerships with farms and charitable food distributors in order to provide increased amounts of fresh produce to those in need. In 2019 we expanded our partnerships to include a collaboration with the College of Charleston to educate veterans using our state of the art kitchen, hosting Business Communication classes from The Citadel in an annual academic project for course credit, and a year-long STEM program with Charleston County School District’s Montessori Community School. We also added a summer program hosting campers from Wesley United Methodist Church every week in the summer of 2019. As a favored destination among Citadel cadets seeking community service hours, Sweetgrass has provided over two thousand hours of service opportunities annually for volunteers from schools, churches, civic organizations, youth groups, and enthusiastic groups from near and far.
During the spring of 2020, Peter Conway graciously invited us to use a plot on his Full Circle Farm off River Rd to expand our growing opportunities. We planted tomatoes, basil, peas, and a variety of pollinators. Early this summer the field was a beautiful sunflower field that produced tomatoes that we donated to the community. Now we are donating the basil to our friends and partners at Amor Healing Kitchen who create meals for folks with compromised immune systems. We grew strawberries for the first time this summer in hugelkultur raised beds built by Jack Riggle for his Eagle Scout project. These strawberries also went to Amor for their clients. This interdependence of community partnerships is a human reflection of the example provided by the soil, sun, water, and seeds in our gardens.
Sweetgrass Garden Co-op, Inc. was founded in 2010 by George Taylor, Dale Snyder, and Jennifer Wicker, as a 501 (c) 3 not-for-profit Corporation and has been the recipient of many charitable grants and research grants as well as donations to support the farm’s mission to grow fresh, naturally grown produce for under-resourced residents of Johns Island and Wadmalaw Island. Cultivating a variety of fruits and vegetables, using sustainable methods and good agricultural practices, Sweetgrass has been donating food to those in need and educating volunteers about natural farming techniques, composting, beekeeping, and fighting food insecurity ever since.
We have been greatly honored to have continued serving our community while respecting the environment throughout this unprecedented time!
Our honey bees have been busy this summer and we have a limited amount of honey in two sizes with suggested donations of $15 for 1 pound jars and $30 for 2 pound jars. We are also taking donations for sunflower seeds!
Text our Farm Manager, Jennifer Wicker at (843) 330-7164 with any questions, honey, or sunflower seeds!
Visit our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/sweetgrassgarden
Or Instagram @sweetgrassgarden
We are located at 3121 Plow Ground Rd, Johns Island, SC 29455.
Due to Covid-19 volunteer opportunities are by appointment.
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