Love Tree Farm gets land donation
Nonprofit can now begin growing produce for those in need
A land donation is allowing Love Tree Farm, a nonprofit founded to grow fresh produce for the Yuma Community Food Bank, to finally put its mission into motion with the first deliveries expected in mid-December.
“The first thing will probably be radishes, that’s a 21-day crop. With the new year, literally in January, we should start having new deliveries every week,” Issac Russell, Love Tree Farm president, said Wednesday.
He and the rest of the venture’s officers had expected to begin planting earlier this fall with the rest of the area’s produce growers, but the availability of the land they’d been planning to use fell through at the last minute.
This led to a frantic search for a home for tens of thousands of seedlings already growing in temporary quarters at Russell’s home with wife Lia Littlewood, who is Love Tree Farm’s vice president.
And eventually to Ralph Beam and Barbara Hengl, who live on a property called Purple Heart Ranch, just outside Yuma on Avenue B north of County 13th Street. Beam moved his three head of cattle and two donkeys from one side of his driveway to the other, and Love Tree Farm will farm the front two acres of their former pasture, with at least another acre-plus to expand onto.
Beam said Hengl “pretty much volunteered me, to be honest with you,” during a trip to Mexico with a group that included several Love Tree Farm board members, but had no reason to object to the idea. “Anything that feeds people is good,” he said.
Hengl added theirs wasn’t the only land she suggested during that trip. “When they were talking about needing land, I offered up ours, and a couple of other farmers that I knew would jump on board, but I think they narrowed it down to ours, just because of location.”
The location also gives the nonprofit room to expand, where it is, instead of having to relocate, she said. And getting involved with Russell and Littlewood was a
no-brainer, knowing them through the Littlewood Fine Art and Community Co-op.
“Everything they do resides in everything Ralph and I believe in and do also,” Hengl said. “We’re active in NextGen, and know they’re big parts of NextGen. And we’re all Rotarians. It helps weave, we’re all doing the same thing with a little bit different emphasis. And we have little children, and we’re big supporters of the food bank.”
Love Tree Farm board president Cid Kellen said the Arizona Community Foundation has also been a major supporter of the cause, awarding the nonprofit a $25,000 grant through its Yuma regional office, followed by another $5,000 announced last month at its Heart of Yuma annual awards ceremony.
“That has been seed money both effectively and figuratively, they kind of gave us that jolt to be able to move forward, and find and make stronger commitments to the process moving forward physically, in that sense,” he said.
Russell said most of the original grant is still in the bank, but it’s already been used to purchase about 150,000 seeds, plus equipment, labor and numerous other necessities.
The Yuma Community Food Bank has been distributing food to needy households and other nonprofits in the area for almost 40 years, and does receive a significant amount of produce from local growers every season.
“The food bank looks forward to the success of Love Tree Farm and its efforts to donate locally grown produce under the food safety regulations that all of our ag producers follow. All of the food donated, either by our ag partners, retail rescue and food drives greatly benefit those families and children in our community,” said Shara Merten, its president and CEO.
Beam said having a dedicated farm will increase the variety of crops available to the YCFB. “Anything that will feed children, and you can only eat so much cabbage and lettuce, throughout the year. Tomatoes, carrots, anything else would be nice.”
“I love that we get to open up our window, at our house, and see it from beginning to end,” Hengl added. “It’ll be really amazing being there, on the front grounds, watching it.”
A groundbreaking ceremony on the new land is scheduled for 4 p.m. Nov. 12. Russell said it will include the planting of a moringa (known as the “tree of life”) in honor of former food bank president Mike Ivers, who died last year. He partnered with Russell and Littlewood to hold classes in Yuma about gardening for self-sufficiency.
The second prong of Love Tree Farm’s mission is to continue teaching residents how to fulfill many or all of their nutritional needs in their own yards. Russell is calling these 10-foot-square plots “Emerson gardens,” in honor of Ralph Waldo Emerson and his famous “Self-Reliance” essay.
“With a good garden, if you do it right, you can know you and your family won’t be hungry at any point in the year. If you have two chickens,” Russell said.
A free class on how to start an Emerson garden, Love Tree’s first of the season, is set for 2 to 6 p.m. Nov. 18 at a private home at 15316 S. Avenue 4 E, Yuma. For more information, visit Love Tree Farm’s Facebook page.