A Seed Is Planted

For many years, when Chris, one of the facilitators of the Alpine Community Garden had his own farm, “Chrysallis”, at the base of Mt. Shasta, in California, and later when he was the head farmer for “The Church of the Golden Rule”, a community near Willits, California, he established and maintained several projects that brought the mystery and satisfaction of organic gardening to the people who lived in his area. When Chris moved to “Golden Rule”, he and his former wife Sally, created a hands-on, 4-H gardening curriculum and program. Many local children participated in the full circle of planting seeds, harvesting food and saving seeds for the next years' cycle. The photos in this section come from that experience.


Currently, Chris and Llyn live in Alpine, OR and there is promising movement in the direction of turning a portion of the town’s city park into a thriving community garden project. It is our hope that this can provide meaningful activity for the rural town’s young people, an outlet for neighbors to donate unused garden supplies and their own services towards this project, and that the surplus produce can be shared with people who are having difficulty getting enough to eat in these challenging economic times. We envision that this project will reinvigorate our town’s sense of community and that this can be a pilot model for other small towns, schools and churches with vacant lots and unused lawn areas to become hubs for vibrant, meaningful community involvement.

This last photo shows one week's harvest of squash, loaded and ready to go to the local food bank in Willits, California. The corn in the background would be harvested in time for next week's delivery.