Community Garden
The Garden was first planted over 20 years ago by the Brooklin Youth Corps and the Brooklin School. Now part of the Brooklin Food Corps, the Community Garden’s teaching plots and the plots allocated to individual gardeners continue to educate and to feed Brooklin. The Garden is located on property reached by the Brooklin School drive, off Bay Rd. — look for our sign at the drive’s entrance, and a short way in you’ll find a path to the Garden on the left, just before our white tool shed.
There are about 10 individual plots allocated each season, and any available plots for the following growing season are allocated early in the year. Enjoy some company and support while growing your garden!
The other plots are used to teach Brooklin School students the skills and joy of growing food. Produce from the teaching plots is donated to the Magic Food Bus, the seasonal traveling farmstand run by Healthy Peninsula, which offers free, fresh, local produce and information about food-security resources to Peninsula residents at multiple locations each week all summer long.
If you’d like to visit, volunteer or to inquire about a plot, please reach out to us at vasb@oebbxyvasbbqpbecf.bet.
Workshops
Our workshops bring local experts together with interested community members. They are free and open to all. Check our Events Calendar or our Facebook page for date, time, and location, which we’ll post when scheduled. We encourage you to propose ideas for workshops, including ones that you could lead (send a note to vasb@oebbxyvasbbqpbecf.bet or talk to anyone on the steering committee, which is listed at the bottom of this page).
Past sessions have included:
- Clamming
- Sustainable gardening techniques
- Hot-water-bath and pressure canning, taught by the University of Maine Cooperative Extension
- Fruit-tree pruning workshops
- How to grow shiitake mushrooms from oak logs
- Gardening-season extension techniques
- Raising backyard pigs and chickens
- Beekeeping workshops
- Putting your garden to bed for the winter
Seed Library
Our Seed Library, located inside the Friend Memorial Public Library, is a free resource open to all. The Seed Library is available from March until August each year, during regular library hours. Here you can select or donate vegetable, herb, and flower seeds to grow in your garden, from arugula to zucchini. We are working to fill the Seed Library with varieties that have growing traits specific to this region of Maine — including ones that are easy for new gardeners — and to help make our local food system even more robust.
Tool Lending Library
We are building a library of gardening tools available for borrowing by community members. We have a pole pruner, a broad fork, a soil corer, a post digger, and more. Email vasb@oebbxyvasbbqpbecf.bet with questions and to reserve.
Compost Sale
Build healthy soil for strong plants and exceptional food! Our annual compost sale takes place each April, at the start of the growing season. It makes high-quality organic compost easily available to the community, with proceeds supporting Brooklin Food Corps events and programming. Check our Events Calendar for date, time, and location, which we’ll post when scheduled.
Seedling Swap
Held annually in late May, the Seedling Swap offers community members the chance to swap seeds and plants. Gardeners are on hand to answer your questions. All are welcome, even if you don’t have seedlings to swap. Check our Events Calendar for date, time, and location, which we’ll post when scheduled.
Readings & Talks
Readings and talks are offered periodically and often in collaboration with like-minded organizations, especially the Friend Memorial Public Library, which generously offers its space, grounds, and expertise. Check our Events Calendar for date, time, and location, which we’ll post when scheduled.
Past readings and talks have included:
- A book club reading of Serving the Public: The Good Food Revolution in Schools, Hospitals and Prisons, by Kevin Morgan (with the Friend Memorial Public Library)
- A series of talks by the newest generation of Peninsula farmers
- A book club reading of All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for Climate Change, edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katherine K. Wilkinson
- A talk on turning green crabs from coastal scourge to garden glory
- A book club reading of The Seed Keeper, by Diane Wilson (with the FMPL)
- Growing-themed story time and activities for children (with the FMPL)
- A talk on Maine’s Right to Food constitutional amendment and Food Sovereignty ordinances
- A talk on the 2023 Farm Bill — how it can strengthen climate-smart agricultural practices and how to get involved (presented with Maine Farmland Trust and Climate Action Net)
- A book club reading of Onward and Upward in the Garden, by Katherine S. White, edited and with an introduction by E.B. White
Community Gatherings
We look for opportunities to gather our neighbors and have some fun as we celebrate local food in beautiful settings. We have joined with the Brooklin Climate Response Committee and Carding Brook Farm to host a festive mid-summer picnic, with a buffet of foods featuring local ingredients prepared by attendees and shared in a special spot complete with live music. We have hosted August garden parties in the Community Garden, enjoying the summer’s bounty and each other. Partnering with the Library, we have introduced Brooklin to the Wassail celebration, the ancient winter revelry meant to promote a good harvest, and we kept warm with treats and hot cider. Watch for information about upcoming events on our Events Calendar.
