• Harvesting Lives

  • Jul 26 2024
  • Length: 5 mins
  • Podcast

Harvesting Lives By cover art

Harvesting Lives

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  • Graymoor farm grows produce, sobriety Bounty is everywhere on the grounds of San Damiano Farm at Graymoor, the Philipstown home of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement. Vegetables and flowers sprout from an array of raised garden beds, the progeny of a wet winter and spring, and the sweat of Derek Fox and other men. Fox is also blooming. He first entered St. Christopher's Inn, the friar's treatment program for men, in 2007, and achieved five years of sobriety before relapsing. He returned in August 2023 and, after graduating, moved on May 1 into San Damiano House, a transitional program just a short walk from St. Christopher's. "I wasn't even sure I wanted to do this," he said of returning to St. Christopher's. "But after a couple of weeks, the thirst came back of wanting to stay sober." St. Christopher's graduates sharing the same desire have planted, weeded and harvested at San Damiano since 2017, when the Franciscan Friars rescued an itinerant farming program for homeless men that a New York City nonprofit, Project Renewal, once operated on a plot at the Garrison Golf Course. Men who choose San Damiano over returning home or entering other transitional programs are required to work the farm for three hours each morning during a three-month waiting period before they can look for jobs in the community. Bob Conboy, a Garrison resident and the farm's longtime manager, imparts lessons in planting and growing the basil, carrots, eggplant, lettuce, sunflowers, tomatoes and other herbs, vegetables and flowers sold at the San Damiano farmers market on Fridays. Three restaurants - Riverview in Cold Spring, the Valley Restaurant in Garrison and the Farm to Table Bistro in Fishkill - also buy produce, said Conboy. Other lessons come from toiling outdoors on hot days and collaborating in the arduous work of farming, challenges that inculcate traits - a willingness to learn and take direction, patience and perseverance - needed to stay sober. An added reward, said the men, is seeing the seeds they plant and nurture flourish. "We spend a lot of time in the brutal heat, getting the beds ready, and it's just a pile of dirt," said Greg Miller. "Then, a few weeks later, you have these beautiful sunflowers." On a recent Wednesday, Miller and the other men listened as Conboy prepped them before they began planting bush beans, carrots and string beans in several of the farm's 245 raised beds. He told the men they needed to space the pelleted carrot seeds between 1 and 1 inches apart in the 10-inch-deep beds. San Damiano's farm has its roots in Renewal Farm, which launched at Camp LaGuardia, a homeless shelter that New York City opened in Chester. When Camp LaGuardia closed in 2007, the farm moved to The Garrison on Route 9. Two dozen men who stayed in dormitories at St. Christopher's planted and harvested produce, selling part of their yield from a roadside stand on Route 9. Graymoor began hosting the farm in 2011, repurposing badminton, basketball, handball and tennis courts built for a once-planned seminary. Facing financial difficulties, Project Renewal pulled out in 2017 but Graymoor decided to continue the program. Conboy, a former English teacher who retired nearly 20 years ago as chief financial officer for the Edgemont School District, began his journey to farm manager by volunteering with Renewal Farm when it moved to The Garrison. His farming lessons came from Brian Bergen, who grew organic produce at The Garrison's farm for the Valley Restaurant, as well as trial and error. His students have raised herbs such as oregano, thyme and sage, which Conboy highlighted as he walked rows of beds. Conboy pointed out Badger flame beets that look like sweet potatoes, eggplants, Swiss chard and Tuscan kale, all grown without pesticides and using compost from two piles stored at a former handball court. He pulled at some plants to uproot a handful of baby potatoes and passed beds with butternut squash, white onions. coleus and dahlias, all fl...
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