It has been almost 20 weeks since the COVID pandemic hit Colorado. Almost 20 weeks of insecurity and uncertainty, 20 weeks of masks and social distancing. 20 weeks of enduring our lives being shaken to the core, and I find myself settling into a new normal where I forget that I’m wearing a mask. I no longer reach for peoples hands, and I find it weird to see people hug in TV shows. Coronavirus has sunk into our way of life, and we have continued to move forward. By this point, I imagine that everyone in the valley has at least heard of all of the efforts that are taking place in our here to combat the pandemic. From the Free Neighborhood Markets that Mountain Roots is putting on, to the RENT ASSISTANCE THING that the Health and Human Services is doing, the Gunnison Valley has done a lot of effort to lessen the impacts of the pandemic. During this time it is easy to only look at what is around you, and though there is value in looking to ones immediate community, there is also value to looking to what else is going on in the world.
The idea of this Victory Garden Revival is by no means a new idea, or a unique one amongst this pandemic. There has been a massive surge in gardening throughout the whole country. Back in late March, Oregon State University waived the $45 fee for their online intro into gardening course. During the month of April they would normally have approximately 5 people sign up for this course. This year they saw that number rise to a staggering 15,000 people. The National Gardening Association has seen a 98% increase in visitation to their website. Home gardening has truly swept the nation in tandem with the Coronavirus, and like the Coronavirus, increased interest in gardening has found its way into our little Mountain towns. Right here in the Gunnison Valley we have seen a massive increase in interest in gardening. I spoke to Danny from Rocky Mountain Rose, and she told me that she saw almost a 100% increase in her vegetable seeds and starters. But the Gunnison Valley has not been the only mountain town that has seen a revival of the victory garden movement.
I recently caught up with Nastashia, a master gardener from CSU, as well as Camiel Richard, the head of the community garden in Lake City. They explained to me a little bit of what is going on with local food in Lake City. Unfortunately Lake City’s community garden is not operating this year, but that does not mean that there is not an interest in gardening. Nastashia informed me that like many places in the country right now, a new significance has been put on local food. People are gardening more, there’s more people keeping back yard chickens, and people’s focus is being turned more towards local resilience.
Camiel informed me that she has started a business growing and selling micro-greens to the residents of Lake City. Right now that operation is based out of her garage, but she is planing on ramping things up by next year, and moving her operation into a greenhouse, to meet the increasing demand of local grown micro-greens. Nastashia informed me about Lake City’s own victory garden revival program. Last week Nastashia put on a Victory garden workshop for the kids of Lake City where she taught them about the history of the victory garden movement, the involvement kids had with this as soldiers of soil, some education about growing plants, and they also started some seedlings that they could take home to start their own garden.
The Gunnison Valley is a remarkable community. The way that this valley bind together in response to the COVID 19 pandemic has been truly remarkable. The way that everyone reached out to support our community, and this pandemic is far from over. With all of this local support, it is still important to look outside of our community to see what else is going on.