The smell of freshly baked zucchini bread wafts from the kitchen of Congregation Beth Ami in Santa Rosa. When the loaves cool, a group of synagogue volunteers will deliver them to a nearby hospital. Meanwhile, just outside, a few families are harvesting another batch of vegetables.
Since planting the first seeds of its community garden in May, Beth Ami has grown and gathered more than 200 pounds of produce and donated it to local hospitals, soup kitchens and centers feeding people with AIDS.
The congregation had been considering the project for a few years. A matching grant of $1,000 from the Jewish Family Education Project of the S.F.-based Bureau of Jewish Education allowed good intentions to finally take root this summer. Local nurseries like Friedman Brothers and Calloways donated additional supplies.
To date, about 50 volunteers have sectioned off and seeded the plot, cut vegetables, baked bread, dried herbs and delivered goods. In addition, the synagogue’s campers built trellises for green beans to grow up this summer.
Future plans include family text study of nature and Jewish ecology, as well as a havdallah (end of Shabbat) moon watch — both in the garden. Also planned are raised flower beds to make gardening accessible to everyone.
“We think of family as our whole community. Not just school-age children and their parents,” said Ellen Brosbe, Beth Ami family educator, and BJE family education resource assistant.
“This project helped us connect with our seniors, our preschoolers, the social action committee. We all got together to brainstorm.”
Brosbe, Beth Ami Rabbi Jonathan Slater and Vicki Kelman, BJE family education project director, are developing the education component, using resources from Jewish environmental organizations such as Shomrei Adamah in New York, and their own ideas.
“The possibilities are endless. We can deliver garden goodies to families with new babies and teach the mitzvot of social action and acts of loving kindness. We can teach havdallah in the garden with younger grade students and their families,” Brosbe said.
“We’re thinking of what’s do-able. We’re thinking in terms of units and seed packets.”
Meanwhile, congregant David Carson oversees the essential garden tasks.
An organic gardener for 25 years, Carson and his son Joshua cleared the land for the 25- by 150-foot plot, rototilled the soil, installed a drip irrigation system, and fenced in the garden to keep out deer. The two have devoted about 80 hours, mostly on Sundays, to the project.
“It’s a real enjoyment,” Carson said. “It’s about being close to nature and God and seeing something come up from the ground. All this work and joy of watching your seedlings grow day to day, week to week.”
Carson describes the garden as French in style. Everything is planted close together and grows vertically. The beans wind upwards, 6 feet tall already. Next to the beans are zucchini, cucumbers, squash, herbs to be dried for havdallah spice boxes, gourds for a sukkah, cosmos and marigolds.
Among the families tending to the crops are the Stithems.
Andy Stithem and her sons Josh and David have picked and delivered vegetables to a soup kitchen twice. Stithem said she joined the project because she doesn’t have a garden of her own. But she also “wanted to give to the community and teach my children to do the same.
“It wasn’t tough [to convince them]. My boys are unusual — very gentle spirits. They were really into it,” Stithem said.
“Plus, David helped construct the trellis in camp and then got to see it covered with green beans. It had real meaning for him.”
Others, like Brosbe, are whetting their garden palate for the very first time.
“I knew nothing about drip irrigation. I knew about Jewish education. I was afraid I’d plant things wrong,” Brosbe said. “It’s a lot more work than I realized. But it’s still all like magic to me.”