The Mustard Seed - Edmonton

The Mustard Seed
96 Street & 106A Ave

The Mustard Seed and you -
Changing the face of poverty together

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COMING UP!

Running Room’s Fall Classic 27th Annual Race in support of The Mustard Seed October 17, 2010  Edmonton, AB

Community Garden in bloom!




There are many reasons why a community garden like the one The Mustard Seed began this summer is important.  A community garden draws people together by bringing them outside to work alongside one another; it gives people dignity and satisfaction at being able to produce their own food; it beautifies a lot that has been abandoned and strewn with old needles and trash; it helps restore our connection to the food we eat and the land that it is produced on.  There was a lot of work to be done in the beginning as the lot was uneven with a lot of concrete in the ground.  As well, we had raised beds to build, soil to prepare and a garden to plant. 


While commitment levels varied- some people just enjoying coming down for a chat or to give a few tips and others came to spend all day every day working exceptionally hard- it quickly became clear that people in the community felt proud and excited about the project, and many wanted to help the garden grow. 


 The garden would not have happened without the surprising and wonderful assurance that as soon as someone began working in the garden, they were not alone for long before others would come and join them. 


For most of the gardeners it has become a lot more than just a curiosity or a summer pastime, but has really become part of their life in a very meaningful way: a valuable community that has sprouted from working alongside one another and that has grown steadily as we have watched the very seeds we have planted grow and fruit. 


A good number of those working in the garden are without homes so we had to be creative in order for everyone to be able to enjoy some of the harvest.  As a result, we decided to cook meals with what we were able to pick and enjoy dinners together- around a table, with great food and conversation, times of sharing and great satisfaction.  These meals have turned out to be a highlight for everyone and a meaningful image of what the garden is all about.  When I try to picture what the garden is, or should be, I recall the afternoon we harvested a load of cherry tomatoes and shyly went around to the people hanging around the neighbourhood to offer them some of the fresh fruit.  There almost seemed to be something magical about fresh tomatoes that day. 


Life is complicated and messy, painful and full of wrongs, but the taste of a tomato grown in an old abandoned lot, grown without chemicals and in full sight of those who will eventually eat it, grown largely by the processes of soil, sun and water that we cannot control and by a God of mystery… this taste is something pure to hold on to.  It is something for which our best response is one of thanksgiving to a God who not only gives us free gifts but invites us to be participators in that grace.      Thanks be to God.    

- Bethany Tulloch, summer intern at The Mustard Seed 

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