I came home to Idaho last week and finally got to check out the amazing gardens that Community Roots has been establishing on my parents’ property. I was truly blown away. In less than a year, they have transformed an empty piece of land into a beautiful series of gardens that will now work to provide food for Kootenai County’s very first CSA.

A couple of days after I arrived, my mom and I woke early to join Kaleb and Corrin as they picked, washed, sorted and boxed-up vegetables for the season’s first pick-up that afternoon. It’s been chilly here in northern Idaho, so we were just able to bundle rhubarb, garlic scapes, lettuces, spinach, bok choy, green onions, radishes, and a couple of hearty herbs. Mom and I didn’t get to stick around for the arrival of the first customers, but reports were that the boxes were well received. This was such a wonderful thing to be involved in, and I’m so thrilled to know that my parents are playing an important role in the education of a community that is in need of a little inspiration when it comes to their local food resources.

I grew up in an area just outside Coeur d’Alene called Dalton Gardens. The land parcels are large and often spotted with surviving relics of the days when this neighborhood was a bustling farmland. In backyards throughout the town, you will still find stretches of apple and pear trees, spots of cherry, plum and walnut trees, incredible raspberry patches, and of course home gardens overflowing with corn, beans, greens, tomatoes, pumpkins, and zucchini. As Costco and other discount big box stores have moved in over the years, more and more of this amazing produce is going to waste.

Not surprisingly, this trend hasn’t gone unnoticed. An organization called Community Roots has stepped in to make use of as much of the potentially wasted food that is already growing already in the area. In the way that City Harvest works in New York City to reduce waste among restaurants and markets, Community Roots has dispatched it’s volunteers to “reclaim” the fruit from neighbors and friends that they would otherwise toss into the compost pile. Last year my mom received a visit from a volunteer from Community Roots, a woman I graduated high school with in fact, who was interested in collecting some of the pears from our ancient (and prolific) tree that my family cannot put to use.

Their efforts are growing in the next year, as they reach out to local residents with unused land in an effort to establish small community gardens that would serve as a source for local CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture). This would allow residents to purchase shares in the garden or farm, then receive weekly boxes of produce delivered to their door. It’s a very common program in the cities, and I’m thrilled to see an effort being made here in town to finally again make good use of some of the fertile land in Dalton Gardens.