Many Mothers helps new parents learn to grow fresh food
By Manette Newbold For The New Mexican Photos By Jane Phillips The New Mexican | Mar 26, 2013
At age 2, Sunna Boyles already loves to garden. Using plastic tools to dig through the dirt, she helps her father, Steve Boyles, plant starts in her family’s above-ground hoop house garden. When Sunna was a bit younger, Steve Boyles said she would climb in the garden wearing ruby red slippers, but she’s grown a little too big for that.
The 4- by 8-foot hoop house garden in Sunna’s backyard was given to the Boyles through the Many Mothers program of Santa Fe. About four years ago, the nonprofit organization was contacted by a donor who wanted to help families with young children have a way to grow their own food. The donor had recently purchased a hoop house garden from Ken Kuhne of Grow Y’Own, and because she loved the way it was set up — with watering and heating systems along with summer and winter covers — she wanted to help families in need have a similar experience.
There are currently 22 families in the Santa Fe area who have received the raised-bed gardens through Many Mothers, and two high schools — Desert Academy and the Teen Parent Center at Santa Fe High School — also have the hoop houses. According to a news release provided by Patricia Stephens of Many Mothers, the schools utilize the gardens as sources of nutrition and learning. In class, students learn the importance of good health through wise food choices and are able to use the food from the gardens to make smoothies, snacks and meals some days. Smoothies also are made for the children at the Head Start day care center in the Teen Parenting Center. And last summer, a student who maintained the hoop houses distributed the produce to teen parents in the program, the news release said.
“At the Teen Parenting Center, it’s wonderful because the new moms and dads are required to take classes on parenting,” Stephens said in an interview. “They took classes on how to make healthy meals.”
The families who receive hoop houses are able to keep the gardens for as long as they are willing to maintain them. Kuhne said whenever he’s funded, he’ll go to a home, set up the garden, help the kids and parents plant starts and offer gardening advice. If a family moves or no longer wants the hoop house, they can give it back to Many Mothers for another family to use.
Some of the families have been surprised by the amount of food they can get from a 4- by 8-foot raised-bed garden. Steve Boyles said he grew so much lettuce and herbs, he was able to share with neighbors on both sides of his house. Right now, he’s growing sassy salad mix, sugar peas, lettuce, radicchio, chard, herbs and spices.
“Mint is really good to put in your tea,” he said, adding that learning new recipes that include his produce has been part of the process. Like other gardeners, he also likes being able to come home, pick something fresh from outside and eat it for dinner. “You come home for dinner, go out there with scissors and cut the lettuce off of the thing. And because it stays in the ground, you can cut it, and two weeks later you can cut it again.”
Melissa Briggs, another recipient of a hoop house garden, said since she likes salads, it’s been nice to have a garden where she can go pick lettuce and have fresh vegetables for lunch or dinner. Briggs received the garden in October 2011, three months after her daughter, Annabelle, was born. The first winter, she grew kale, chard, lettuces and herbs. In April or May, she will plant tomatoes and mint like she did last year, and she’ll continue growing oregano and chives, which have done really well, she said.
A teacher at National Dance Institute, Briggs has a busy schedule and isn’t always able to put as much time as she’d like into her hoop house garden. But over the last year-and-a-half, she said she’s learned a lot. Whenever she had questions, she could call Kuhne, and when some of her plants failed to thrive, he actually came out and gave her new starts.
“I was surprised,” Briggs said. “I sort of assumed [setting up the hoop house] was a one-time thing, and then I was on my own. But [Ken]’s been really helpful. He’s passionate about it, and he wants people to learn, and I think one of the biggest things about this program is, I’m sure, it’s reached some people who have a lot of gardening experience, and then some people like me, who don’t. So, it’s about educating, too, and teaching people, and hopefully inspiring them with a new hobby.”
Kuhne said he’s there every step of the way.
“I come in, I plant seeds and starts and most of the time, the mothers help me plant or the kids help me plant because that’s all part of the learning curve,” he said. “And anytime they need help or advice, I go show them what to do or I help them plant more.”
Both Briggs and Steve Boyles had Many Mothers volunteers visit their homes when their children were infants, and both commented on how much the program helped them. Boyles said he is still in contact with the volunteers who used to come by his house twice a week, and when Briggs struggled with postpartum depression, she said Stephens paired her with volunteers who could help her.
Stephens said Many Mothers has been around for 18 years and focuses on new parents’ needs. Volunteers do light housekeeping and connect parents with resources in town.
“It really helps a mom get back up on her feet again,” Stephens said. “We offer her some respite.”
With the hoop house gardens, Stephens wants to continue offering families an avenue for good nutrition and alternative ways to feed their children.
“The most nutritious way to do it is to grow an organic garden,” she said.
Many Mothers now has two donors providing hoop house gardens to families with young children. One is Cynthia DaCosta, and the other prefers to remain anonymous. According to Kuhne, each hoop house garden with soil, covers, water system, heating system, set-up and starts is valued at about $1,000.
Many Mothers currently has a list of families in waiting for the hoop houses, and as they are funded, Kuhne will continue to deliver and set them up. On May 3, Many Mothers will hold a silent auction where one of the hoop house gardens will be donated to a family. The event will take place at the Santa Fe Farmers Market Pavilion, and chef Angie Ortiz, a recipient of one of the Many Mothers hoop house gardens, will offer a meal created with vegetables and herbs from her garden.
“There is a lot of excitement about Many Mothers,” Kuhne said. “It’s a great program. It’s a wonderful program to volunteer for and everybody in the organization encourages people to come in and volunteer. And I just love working with them. They’re a great group of people.”
For more information about Many Mothers, visit www.manymothers.org, call 983-5984 or send an email to manymotherssf@gmail.com. For more information about hoop house gardens, visit www.raisedbed.biz.
