27 East.com
By Carolyn Kormann
Feb 24, 09 4:11 PM
photo credit KYRIL BROMLEY

The demand for staples from people in need has more than doubled at the food pantries in East Hampton, Montauk and Springs this winter over last.

To feed the demand, Peter Garnham, the chairman of the East End Community Organic Farm, and the EECO Farm board of directors, have decided to devote two acres of the 42 acre farm to growing fresh vegetables, herbs and flowers for families in need.

“It just seemed to me that with the pantries really hard up for good, fresh food,” Mr. Garnham said, “we’ve got 42 acres, and if we couldn’t grow enough to make a difference for them, there is something wrong.”

EECO Farm is a non-profit organization that leases farmland on Long Lane from East Hampton Town. Plots of from one to 15 acres are rented to commercial farmers, who grow and sell organic produce to local markets and restaurants. Four acres of the farm are devoted to more than 100 community gardens, each 20 by 20 feet, which can be rented by any individual or family who joins EECO Farm. There is also a three-acre compost operation.

Seed will be sown for the food pantries under the guidance of EECO Farm’s three master gardeners, Peter Garnham, Hannelore Bladuell and Elaine McKay. Volunteers and community service workers will help with weeding and harvesting. Mr. Garnham said that 10 to 15 members of EECO farm have already offered to volunteer.

The list of what they will grow includes: arugula, beans, beets, broccoli, carrots, cucumber, kale, lettuce, onions, parsley, peas, radishes, spinach, summer and winter squash, swiss chard and tomatoes, plus basil, dill, and cilantro.

Mr. Garnham is a garden writer for Horticulture, Organic Gardening and other magazines, and through his writing contacts, was able to secure seed donations from distributors around the country, including Johnny’s Selected Seeds, High Mowing Organic Seeds, Seeds of Change, Renee’s Garden Seeds, Burpee Seeds, and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

In early March, the master gardeners will start seeding in the greenhouse to produce transplants that will be ready to move outside in May. The first harvest will be in May for the cool season crops such as lettuce, spinach, arugula and some of the Asian greens, which grow fast.

Fresh produce will be provided to only the East Hampton and Springs food pantries in this first trial year.

“I don’t want to overextend and make promises which we can’t keep,” Mr. Garnham said.

Dru Raley, the director of the Springs pantry, said that she had 130 people who needed food last week. In a typical winter week last year she’d see about 60. There are a lot of people without work, she said, people who normally would be sheet rocking or doing other construction work through the cold months. But no one is building, she said.

“I don’t know how you get those jobs back,” she said. But she said the idea from EECO Farm “is terrific. If we can get some people involved in going down and helping them, too, that would be great, either people who work at the food pantry or our clients.”