A day of farming in the sun can be sweaty, backbreaking work, as many a farmer can tell you. Now imagine doing all that without food or water from sunrise to sunset.
Syrian families celebrating their first Ramadan in New Brunswick are refraining from eating and drinking according to their tradition, but this year some got to spend their time planting food for their futures, something they wouldn’t have been able to do in a refugee camp.
If you take a drive out to Keswick Ridge just before the Mactaquac dam, you’ll find Tula Farm, the new site of a project between the Conservation Council and the Multicultural Association of Fredericton.
The property was given to the Conservation Council as a land trust in the 1980s by long time supporters Jim and Kay Bedell. Once used to be the site of a co-op farm, it’s been hosting a nature trail for the students at Keswick Ridge school as part of the Conservation Council’s Learning Outside project, and a nearby farmer has graciously been looking after the rest of the of the 29 acres. http://www.conservationcouncil.ca/our-programs/community/no-child-left-inside/
Brittany Maclean is the Tula Farm project organizer, who started developing plans for the site this past spring. “When I started speaking with organizations in the area that might be interested in developing projects and programs on the site, I had an overwhelming response. The Multicultural Association in particular, had been seeking out an opportunity like this for months, as many of the refugee and immigrant families they work with have agrarian backgrounds and are keen to grow food for their families.”
The Conservation Council has partnered with the Multicultural Association of Fredericton to use a section of the land as a Newcomer garden for Syrian and Bhutanese refugee families. Funding of $1500 was provided by the Greater Fredericton Social Innovation for tools, soil amendments and seed.
Maclean and the MCAF kicked off the garden project this past Saturday with a planting day. Members from nine Syrian families came to spread compost, till the land, make rows, and plant.
Once finished, the plot will be roughly a quarter acre. The nine families who worked to cultivate the garden will be able to feed their families with the harvest throughout the summer.
Most of those who came have only been in Canada for a few months, but have farming backgrounds. The project will also incorporate some workshops and demonstrations on how to grow crops in New Brunswick, as a supplement to the agricultural knowledge they already possess.
Working together, the families and nine volunteers were able to plant a half of the garden plot, with crops like corn, potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, peppers, radishes, carrots and beans.
Maryam, a widow from Syria, also found wild grape leaves growing on the property, and gathered some to bring back to cook and fill with rice to feed herself and her two children.
The Multicultural Association and individual participants will be arranging transportation, using the MCAF’s van and carpooling to get the families out to the farm to check on their sections of the garden.
Maclean is still looking donation of gently used garden tools for the families to use to tend their plots. Any donations are being collected in Fredericton at the Conserver House on 180 St. John Street and at the Multicultural Association office on 29 Saunders Street.
