Grassroots in the Garden: Growing Community

Join us for our brand-new educational series kicking off this spring in the Seymour Park Food Forest! The goal of Grassroots in the Garden is to bring our community together to learn skills related to caring for the food forest and how to use the produce it provides. In a series of community work sessions, a mentor will guide you through activities in the garden! The Seymour Park Food Forest may be a collaborative project of ours, but it belongs to our community. The skills learned in this amazing community growing space can be applied to your individual gardening and growing interests making it a great opportunity to grow community and self-sufficiency!

Build Your Community

Learn Gardening Skills

Grow & Harvest Food

Community Work Sessions

  • Join Grassroots in the Garden mentor Dillon Weist to learn how to plant and care for edible perennial plants like strawberries! These food producers, alongside remaining Bountiful Branches plants, will make a great addition to the food forest. Help plant the roots for a future harvest work session!

  • Join Josh Kufahl in the food forest to continue planting any remaining perennials, learn how to properly prune plants, how much watering plants need in the summertime, and learn about the fragility of different plants. We’ll also roll up our sleeves to get some maintenance done, pulling weeds and bee balms from raspberry plants.

  • Crystal Brown will lead you through a harvesting work session! Any produce and or/herbs harvested are up for grabs at the end of the session, for FREE. Learn what produce and herbs are in season throughout the year.

  • Continue harvesting produce and herbs with Dillon Weist. Learn about hugelkultur to see if it’s something you’d like to try!

  • Join Crystal Brown to harvest herbs and learn different ways you can use them, including medicinally! As usual, any herbs harvested are up for grabs at the end of the work session.

  • Harvest goji berries, black berries, and elderberries with Josh Kufahl. Be sure to take some of these delicious fruits with you when you leave!

  • Join Dillon Weist to help prepare the food forest for winter, and learn how you can protect your own garden from the cold and from wildlife.

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Check Back Here For Updates!

• Check Back Here For Updates!

Meet your Mentors

  • Crystal Brown

    Mentor

    Crystal is an ethnobotanist, bio-regional herbalist, and writer/creative, focusing on wild edible food and medicinal plants and fungi. She has a background working as a psychiatric mental health nurse with children, adolescents, and adults.

  • Josh Kufahl

    Mentor

    Josh is the team manager for the Seymour Park Food Forest project and neighborhood garden. He has been managing the garden as a volunteer in the neighborhood for over 10 years, and helped install the edible walkway several years ago.

  • Dillon Weist

    Mentor

    Dillon is the Lab Assistant & Garden Manager for the Sustainable Agriculture Program at NWTC. He’s also the team lead for the Brown County Food Forest Coalition. For years, he has been a key volunteer for our Bountiful Branches Project!

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