Upon opening the gate to the Farm, West Ward Councilman Ron Rice was instantly moved by what he saw: varieties of peppers (he prefers sweet), rows of corn (“growing in Newark?!”, which is the nearly universal response), lettuce, herbs, a pumpkin patch, and a field of tomatoes. “Wow! And you can do this on rooftops too? How do we bring this to the West Ward?”
Just the other day, 12-year-old Kameron (with a K, he will tell you), a kid from around the corner who has been keeping a close eye on our work, showed up at our lot with a head full of questions and a real enthusiasm to help out. Since then he’s been doing pretty much everything there is to do, from staking and tying tomatoes to attempting to drag bags of soil that might be a little bit bigger than he is. He was even taking control of the business side of things, when he was helping to plant our latest pumpkin patch and determined that “with 8 seedlings with an average of 5 pumpkins per plant, we will have 40 pumpkins for Halloween!” Easily now the most charming member of our team, it has been a real pleasure to have him, and his scores of friends who stop by to see what’s going on, around.
