K'jipuktuk (Halifax) – If we, as a society, continue to count carving faces into pumpkins among our sanctified traditions, we may as well let the kids (and kids at heart) smash them with sledgehammers and shovels once they start to rot, then run the ensuing mess through a wood chipper, then work that mushy product into the compost that feeds our community garden plots.
Such was the stroke of brilliance behind the main attraction at the Common Roots Urban Farm's end-of-season garden party. Common Roots, built upon the former site of Queen Elizabeth High School at the bustling mega-intersection of Robie and Quinpool, celebrated its first season in fine style. There was food, apple-pressing, seed-sorting, music, tours of the community plots, painting and hot cider. But it was the infectious smiles and airborne slop of the pumpkin smash that truly put the growing season to rest for another year.
“Kids smashing the pumpkins. Adults smashing the pumpkins. It was carnage. It was great,” Jayme Melrose, Common Roots co-ordinator, told the Halifax Media Co-op. “And look at all these people I don't know. There are all these people I've never met before, here."
“All in all I think we did really awesome," said Melrose, speaking of Common Roots's inaugural season. "I got to see a lot of amazing moments, the kind that you hear about in academic articles about why community gardens have value, about how people like feeling good and having experiences that open their hearts. And people getting to swing a hammer for the first time, or use a shovel and a wheelbarrow for the first time. [At which point] I think 'Oh, we've done a community service.' This is helping make a capable people, which is really important. And watching people eat food out of the garden for the first time, and getting to have some conversations about how it's not necessarily safer if your food is wrapped in plastic. Just because you're eating food that hasn't been washed and wrapped in plastic, doesn't mean it's deadly!”
Please enjoy the following photos, mostly of children smashing pumpkins.
Full disclosure: I love community gardens and shared a plot at Common Roots with my housing co-op mates.
