Share work and harvest

Raising your own food may seem appealing now, with supermarket prices on a staggering climb. My neighbors even put in a chicken coop recently, and I'm getting used to hearing strange clucking noises in the mornings -- ones that aren't coming from a snoring husband.

Speaking as someone who, as a kid, was drafted into digging potatoes and picking tomatoes in my father's backyard garden -- when I couldn't fake a broken bone or the bubonic plague -- growing vegetables is a lot of work.

However, if many people are working in a garden, it changes things completely. Yes, there is still work to be done, compost to be spread and weeds to be dug, but it becomes a shared experience that creates more than a harvest.

There's a growing interest across the country in community gardens. The gardens, often initiated by churches but not limited to their members, serve many purposes for adults and children.

"It's another way of bringing people together, people of different faith backgrounds and no faith backgrounds. People who wouldn't set foot in a church come in the garden," says Chris Burtner, organizer of Covenant Community Garden at Fuquay-Varina United Methodist Church. "You'd be surprised how much the children have taken to eating things they wouldn't eat before. One little boy got so excited last year when the spinach came in, he said, 'Miss Chris, I eat two vegetables now.'"

Burtner helped organize the garden, which is in its second year and has expanded to 5,000 square feet. An additional 2,400 square feet is "under construction," which means members are building up the organic raised beds for next season.

A new pump brings water from a nearby pond to irrigate the tomatoes, herbs, onions, potatoes, beans, squash and other vegetables.

For $10 a year and a commitment of at least one hour per month of work, garden members receive a portion of the harvest on the days they work. Members also get buckets to save their kitchen scraps for the compost pile. There are regularly scheduled work hours on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

The garden receives a small amount of money from the church budget, but it's primarily financed through the seed money and donations. Burtner has received donations for deer fencing and gardening tools, and for a new addition: two hives of honeybees. She has learned to be a beekeeper as well as an organic gardener.

Right now, the bees are pollinators for the garden and an educational tool for the church preschoolers, but Burtner hopes to get honey eventually.

About half of the 40 registered garden members belong to the church. The rest are people who enjoy gardening, like Ellen Overington of Apex. She was one of a handful of folks at work on a blistering Saturday morning recently.

Overington, an experienced gardener, says she likes to have a chance to learn from others by working with them in the garden. She also likes the idea that some of the produce goes to Fuquay-Varina's emergency food pantry.

Lou Reynolds of Buies Creek doesn't belong to the church, either, but also likes to garden. She points out that people of all ages interact in the garden, from small children and teens to those of more, let's say, life experience.

"Each of us has differences, but together we make something wonderful and healthy," Reynolds says.

Burtner believes a garden is a natural place for diverse folks to work together, because we all have to eat.

"We're all on this planet together, we're all in this together," she says. "This is a work of creation, of God. And it's important that we do it together."

And if it's fun, you might not think of faking the swine flu to get out of it.