Planting Hope
Leave no one behind” may be the rule soldiers live by on active duty, but after the military, many of them have to face their demons alone. Chris Brown has found an unusual way for veterans to connect beyond the battlefield. He gets them together on the vegetable field.
Brown is the cofounder of Growing Veterans, a nonprofit farm that helps former soldiers transition to civilian life by growing squash, carrots, beets, and more alongside other sympathetic troubled vets. As Navy veteran Kenny Holzemer told the American Legion magazine, “If you share the
deepest, darkest concerns of your soul when you are out among the rows of radishes and sweet corn, you know it will stay there.”
Working a nearly three-acre farm in Washington State, Growing Veterans unites more than 500 volunteers in a variety of earthy tasks, from planting and harvesting the crops to selling them at farmers’ markets or donating them to local food banks and schools. They even produce the very punny “PTS-TEA,” an herbal blend intended to help with anxiety, and a hot sauce made from homegrown ingredients called Fire in the Hole.
To Brown, this is therapy at its most basic: “You are bringing life into the world and using it to sustain your own life,” he told the American Legion
magazine. “After being around war and death, it’s pretty cool.”
Brown came to the idea from his own post-military experiences. He served as a corporal in the Marines, and when he returned home after three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2004 to 2008, he found himself staring down many of the same challenges as other veterans: survivor’s guilt, a traumatic brain injury, and PTSD. He knew he could be in danger: At least 15 men from his unit had died by suicide since they returned home.
“As part of my healing process, a counselor suggested I grow food as a way to reconnect with my surroundings,” Brown says. He began growing mint and cucumbers in pots on his apartment balcony in Bellingham, Washington. Watching the plants grow had a calming effect. “I could see it was helping me, so I figured, why not bring that to a larger scale?”
Brown found an acre and a half in nearby Lynden, Washington; invested in squash, beets, carrots, and flowers; and opened the gates to veterans who might want to spend a day, a week, or a season there— and take home all the produce they needed. The emotional nourishment they received from fellow vets was, well, organic to the process. As Army veteran Paul Keupfer told goskagit.com, “I describe it as 50 percent growing food, 50 percent hugging.”