Community farm sets roots
A grassed-over vacant lot in Hudson across from Thompson Park, long used mostly for overflow parking at special events, will soon be transformed into a not-for-profit community farm growing organic vegetables, flowers, fruits and herbs.
The Heartbeet Community Farm will also offer workshops and other opportunities for the community to learn about organic farming, community events and celebrations.
The farm, developed in partnership with the town of Hudson, is located on municipally owned land that is zoned for agricultural use.
The Hudson Food Collective project will be managed by Rébecca Phaneuf-Thibault, a McGill University student with four years of farming experience who is about to graduate with a specialty in ecological agriculture, and Loïc Freeman-Lavoie, a recent Concordia University grad who majored in Urban Studies and has been involved in farming and urban agriculture projects since 2012.
The idea for the Heartbeet farm germinated last summer, through Freeman-Lavoie’s involvement with the Hudson Food Collective and a Hudson committee involved in updating the municipality’s strategic plan. During these committee meetings, it came up that the town owned unused agricultural land, and Freeman-Lavoie decided to create a project to put the land to work.
Phaneuf-Thibault and FreemanLavoie, partners in life as well as farming, met two years ago through mutual friends. Inspired by an internship project Phaneuf-Thibault was involved in at that time, which put her and fellow agronomy students to work farming land owned by the MRC across the water in Brownsburg-Chatham to provide produce for regional food banks, Freeman-Lavoie approached the town of Hudson about creating a non-profit farm that could produce more than food, acting as a hub for the wider community.
“I was really inspired by the project Rébecca was working with because it was growing all the food for the local food bank to be distributed to citizens,” said FreemanLavoie. “I thought, how radical, we have a model that we can see growing food as a public good.”
The Heartbeet Farm is planned to be both a working farm, producing produce for a weekly communitysupported agriculture (CSA) produce box subscription for locals, as well as a place where families can come on the weekends to participate in some hands-on learning about how farming works.
For Phaneuf-Thibault, it was important for the Heartbeet to be a production-oriented venture, rather than just a demonstration project, so that visitors can see the real work involved in producing food.
“People don’t understand where food comes from and the work that is involved in that,” she said.
“If you’re not a farmer you can’t go on production farms. It’s important for people to understand what that’s like in order to make good choices about how we interact with our food system.”
The Heartbeet farm will also incorporate a social reinsertion program, providing training and what Phaneuf-Thibault believes is therapeutic time with green and growing things for people coming out of poverty, prison, coping with mental health issues or other disadvantages.
The focus this year will be to prepare the soil and build out the infrastructure needed to farm, aiming to move into full production and programming on the site in 2018. Freeman-Lavoie said the town of Hudson has committed to develop water access and bathroom facilities that will do double duty to serve visitors to Thompson Park and the adjacent dog run park.
While the town completes that work, the Heartbeet team will set up irrigation and electricity, install a deer fence and enrich the soil by planting cover crops so it is ready for planting the following year.
Phaneuf-Thibault, a former urbanite raised in Montreal and the West Island, is looking forward to taking on the long list of everchanging tasks new farmers must tackle.
“Farming feels like an endless experiment and there’s always so much to learn,” said PhaneufThibault. “Every season you take away so many lessons, new skills and new ideas. You reinvent yourself as a farmer every year.”
The Heartbeet farmers will begin production on rented private land until the permanent site is ready. Until then, a variety of community outreach events are planned, including a herb garden work bee on June 17, an invitation to come help plant a living willow fence in September, and a community launch party in October, when the farm is expected to move from the temporary site to its permanent home. The launch will feature the Heartbeet’s first harvest party, with live music, food and family-oriented activities.
Freeman-Lavoie, who grew up in Hudson, moved to the city at age 16 for CEGEP and then university, and is looking forward to returning home.
“I was really well immersed in the community and didn’t notice how wonderful it was until I left,” he said.
“It was in university that I realized what a great community (Hudson) was, and I had this realization that I don’t want to keep searching for greener pastures but rather see the bounty in our own backyard.”
If you’re not a farmer you can’t go on production farms. It’s important for people to understand what that’s like in order to make good choices about how we interact with our food system. Rébecca Phaneuf-Thibault