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08/05/2016 04:29 PMOutside The Stand in Indian Neck, great ideas are growing in the garden, with community at its heart.
What was once a farm market garden space has become so much more this season. The Stand Roadside BBQ & Market's owners, Greg Nobile and Eamon Roche, have dedicated the majority of the garden's rich soil to support Branford Community Gardens' (BCG) volunteer effort to grow fresh produce that reaches local families in need. Also new is the garden's centerpiece, an artful pergola built to gather community members together for free educational talks and other programs.
Nobile and Roche are excited to have the chance to fold in so many community features into their garden space. Both also credit Celestial Crop Tender Andrew Biagiarelli with envisioning and nurturing so many of the gorgeous plants and plantings growing in the garden and on the grounds of The Stand.
"The garden was an important part of the culture and experience here," says Nobile, who started up his business with Roche last year on a garage-turned-farm stand property founded by resident Mike Beatty.
"We would never want to abandon the history of the garden, but really all we need is a small production piece where we can grow our tomatoes and things like the basil, herbs and flowers that we sell here," said Nobile. "So we were thinking about how to use the land in a way that could help the community. Another piece was how to bring people in to the garden to have a more educational experience."
BCG's all-volunteer organization was founded in 2009 to offer community plots for resident gardeners behind the former Pine Orchard School on Birch Road. There, in a 20' by 50' plot, members also grow fresh produce to contribute to the Community Dining Room (CDR) and Branford Food Pantry.
Now, BCG can offer even more produce to those two Branford-based charities, thanks to the additional garden space offered by The Stand. The business also provided plantings for the program this year and provides irrigation all season. BCG members tend the garden and harvest the food. This week, the first batch of beets was picked from the garden at The Stand and contributed locally.
In the center of the garden is The Stands new pergola, constructed of natural woods, branches and bows. In place for just a short time, it's already evolved, quite organically, into a meeting space.
"The thought was, what can we do here that's not exactly in our four walls, to create an inspiring place for people to come and just think, and dream, and talk together?" said Nobile. "We built it with no expectations and no intentions. It was just, '...let's build something that's beautiful, that people can come to, that's free space.' So whether Camp Rising Sun wants to use it for a planning meeting or a PTA wants to come here, or a book group ...it's just available. We've already had requests from three book clubs to use it."
An idea that's also taken root since the pergola was planted are The Stand's plans to offer free bi-weekly programs with master gardeners, as well offerings ranging from paint classes to bourbon tastings "...and everything is free," said Nobile. "So you can come into the middle of this beautiful garden and learn more about the world we're in."
Read more about what's in store at The Stands new restaurant in our related story here