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HOLLADAY, Utah — Some Salt Lake County seniors are going back to their roots. They are cultivating friendships right along with the vegetables growing in their backyards.
Tucked away behind the Holladay home 84-year-old Chiyoko Chiba has lived in for half a century, something is growing. "All we did is cut back the weeds and grass," Chiba said.
Clearing away the useless growth made way for a small backyard farm. "When the children were young, we had this whole place as a garden," Chiba said.
Chiba had some experience, but she needed a reason to bring what she calls her "vacant lot" back to life.
Katie Nelson is the Back-Farms program coordinator for Salt Lake's nonprofit Green Urban Lunch Box. Nelson and Chiba explored what's growing on the farm in early June. "The zucchini are sprouting," Nelson said. Chiba expressed surprise, asking, "That's zucchini?" "Yes it is!" Nelson replied.
Nelson actually planted the idea of tranforming Chiba's overgrown backyard into a fertile vegetable garden. "It got too much to mow the lawn," Chiba said.
Still, the elderly homeowner wasn't sure if it was possible to start a productive farm in her backyard. "I wanted to see if it would work out because I really didn't have much faith in it," Chiba said.
But Nelson had faith saying, "This is a great opportunity to help out some folks who can no longer grow their own food."
And with direction and support from Nelson and her staff, 30 senior citizens across the Salt Lake Valley are growing their own food this summer and sharing it with those who can't afford fresh produce.
Margaret Harmon is one of those seniors. "About one-third of what they raise stays with me and the rest goes to people that need it."
At 78-years-old, Harmon struggles to maintain the Salt Lake home where she grew up, especially the backyard. "I don't have a green thumb. My dad did and we had a nice garden out here at one time," Harmon said.
Now Nelson and the 28 garden apprentices she works with are clearing the weeds out of Harmon's childhood garden. Jessica Collette is one of those garden apprentices. She described this experience as "a really great opportunity for exchange of knowledge."
"They're really fine people to work with," Harmon said of Nelson and the apprentices.
Collette, an AmeriCorps volunteer, is one of the millennials in the program who is nurturing relationships across generations. "I'm learning a lot about the process from the way beginning of the season and then I will follow through to the end," she said.
"We're really engaging everyone in the community. It doesn't matter what your age is," Nelson said.
Everyone is learning but no one is worried about a backyard farmer's lack of mobility. Harmon has trouble getting around but says, "A lot of times I get more food than I can use."
It's just important for the backyard farmer or homeowner to be willing to listen, provide friendship and time. "They're (the Back-Farms coordinator and volunteers) very nice, wonderful people. They also work very hard," Chiba said.
Everybody is working toward the goal of a healthy harvest. Chiba asked Nelson, "How did the other gardeners do last year?"
"They did really well," Nelson replied.
In fact, 12,800 pounds or about six tons of vegetables were harvested in 2015. And all that food came straight out of backyard farms like Chiba's and Harmon's. It was divided evenly between the seniors, apprentices and local food banks.
This summer, the goal is to clear seven tons of veggies and share even more with the county's aging residents. "We're going to be hosting farmers markets at senior centers where seniors can come in and get a bag of produce," Nelson said.
It is the kind of success that Chiba hopes to keep on growing in her backyard farm. "It turned out to be so wonderful for people to have the fresh vegetables," she said.
The folks at the Green Urban Lunch Box will start holding the farmers markets at the county's 19 senior centers on Tuesday, June 28. Each senior center will be visited by the organization three time over an eight-week period.
Email: solney@ksl.com
