Hello Capital Hill neighbors.
I'd like to start a discussion about food in our neighborhood. When it comes to growing our own food, some of us have actual soil, some have decks, and some have a little of both. Some of us probably harvest a bit of food from the forests and waters around Juneau. Some of us are likely members of food cooperatives and CSAs, or order meat directly from farms down South. To supply the rest we turn to Juneau's grocery stores.
Everything we don't or can't grow or harvest locally (probably 95-100% for most of us) is shipped to Juneau by water or air from all over the world. This has always been expensive and will only get more so... not to mention the cost to the planet of the greenhouse gas emissions from this shipping.
I've started calling my own house, with our deck and postage stamp bit of soil, my "Homestead" so I can actually think of it as a place that could support at least some of my family's food needs. But what I really need is more soil to make a good effort at growing food. And I'm not alone on this, in our neighborhood. So I'd like to discuss the following ideas:
1) Establishing a neighborhood garden at Capital School Park,
2) Assessing City owned neighborhood open spaces for growing, and
3) Assessing privately owned open spaces that the owners might make available to others for growing (with no pressure to do so).
I'd also like to connect with neighbors who are interested in (or are already participating in) a food cooperative for both purchased and harvested/home-made foods.
Let me know if you are interested in any of this! I'd love to work on it with neighbors.
Sarah Lewis
635 Main