Cultivating a Giving Garden from the existing Sticks and Stones Farm vegetable garden is resident Sean Fitzpatrick. He hopes to infuse “a new wave of energy” into the historic Sticks and Stones garden, he said.

Toward this effort, he is making a public appeal: “We are meeting every Saturday of the month of April,” to prepare the garden for the season, according to an e-mail.

Volunteers can lend their efforts on Saturdays, April 6, 13, 20, and 27, from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm. Limited parking is available at the garden on Huntingtown Road just north of Maltbie Road. Additional parking is at the main lot at 201 Huntingtown Road.

Wear comfortable clothes and shoes that may get muddy, the e-mail reminded.

Work will include cleaning up the garden beds from winter debris, securing and patching the surrounding fence, rebuilding a stone supporting wall, mulching the walkways, sifting the soil, applying compost, and organizing the layout of crops.

Some tools are available for shared use, but volunteers are encouraged to bring basic gardening tools. Water, coffee, and snacks will be provided. Contact Sean Fitzpatrick at [naviga:u]http://33vfitness.com/[/naviga:u] or call 917-575-6811.

The weekends in April will include “some heavy organizing and getting the land ready to go,” Mr Fitzpatrick said. “As for volunteers, we will be managing and coordinating tasks on a weekly basis… The goal will be to find synchronicity with the techniques that are used so that any volunteer that comes can learn from someone who has been there.”

Volunteers will also help expand the gardening effort, “so we can grow as much food as possible… we plan to donate a lot of fresh vegetables, herbs, and fruits to our local food banks,” the recent e-mail stated.

The garden’s main goal? “Grow as much food as we can!” It will be donated to someone “who will be getting good food and maybe they did not have access before,” Mr Fitzpatrick said. “Ultimately, the goal is to grow and give. There are people in our town that need food.”

Offering a definition of “good” and “real” food, Mr Fitzpatrick said, “Real food is produced naturally in a symbiotic relationship with nature, is not artificially produced or manipulated; so fresh vegetables and fruits grown from healthy soil and pasture-raised cattle and poultry, wild caught fish,” are among foods “that are not only healthy for the individual’s nutrition, but also for the environment.”

He said, “Nutrient dense and naturally grown food has a direct relationship to the body, absorbing what it needs. Our body is hard-wired to absorb nutrient dense and naturally grown food”

According to a recent e-mail about the Giving Garden, “This pristine organic lot along Huntingtown Road has never been touched with any chemicals or fertilizers. The produce has always been colorful, nutritious, and delicious, which says so much about the land it is grown in. This is soil that has been taken care of. Regenerative agriculture is a phrase to learn. Healthy soil produces nutrient dense food.”

Nutrition Notes

The Giving Garden effort is his “next chapter in the healthcare field,” said Mr Fitzpatrick. “This is really something I want to do.” With a professional background in nutrition/fitness and health for almost 20 years, he said, “I found over the winter I was considering my next chapter… I began attending [University of Connecticut’s] master gardener program, researching, planning, and attending the major ag conferences in the state.” He recently spent a day with farmer Craig Floyd and the Coogan Farm “giving garden,” which is hoping to donate 20,000 pounds of vegetables to Stonington area food banks.

“I love teaching and coaching, but growing, providing, and giving feels right on a whole other level,” Mr Fitzpatrick said. Promoting a Giving Garden at the Sticks and Stones garden “will be both educational and beneficial and a source of real food for people who need it, and educational for volunteers who want to learn how to grow.”

Mr Fitzpatrick said, “People really struggle with getting away from processed foods. There is a world of taste, flavor, and feel that people are missing out on.” He wants to “do it the right way, chemical free. There are a lot of pluses.”

People are “designed for real food, and the number of people that get the required fruits and vegetables in a day are less than ten percent of the population,” Mr Fitzpatrick said.

Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, “their numbers are climbing. By consuming food we are meant to consume and eliminating refined sugars, oils, etc, and giving our body vitamins and nutrients — when you make that change of swapping highly processed food for organic, it is shown to improve health,” he said.

The Giving Garden will be run as a nonprofit, Mr Fitzpatrick said, and will include a “small farm stand at Sticks and Stones to help us cover costs.” He said, “The vegetable garden has not been maximized in some time, so we will have a better idea of costs involved as the season gets going.”

What will the garden yield? “We will be growing all of the classic vegetables and herbs that do well in our climate: beets, carrots, kale, chard, salad greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, broccoli, basil, parsley, mint, and more. The first round of planting will probably be towards the end of April,” he said.