Youth Garden

With funding from a Gulf Coast Resource Conservation & Development Council grant, the Local Food Production Initiative with help from the Master Gardeners of Baldwin County established a youth garden at the Rotary Youth Club on Young Street in Fairhope. Articles about the youth garden can be found in the Local Food Production Initiative newsletters for December 2009 and January & March 2010. The youth garden is also mentioned in the Fairhope-Point Clear Rotary Youth Club web site at http://rotaryyouthclub.org/recent_events.htm. To see photos of the Youth Garden in Fairhope, CLICK HERE.

Establish Community Gardens

The Local Food Production Initiative has worked to establish two community gardens in Fairhope where plots of land are available to Fairhope citizens to grow vegetables, fruit, herbs, or flowers.

Our first community garden site was made available by Homestead Village, a retirement community in Fairhope. Development of this community garden was funded in part by the grant from the Gulf Coast Resource Conservation & Development Council. The second garden site was completed in May 2011 and is located on Summit Street in Fairhope, just behind the old K-1 Center School. 

Membership in the Local Food Production Initiative is not required to secure a plot in the community gardens.

To access a Garden Plot Application, the Garden Plot Agreement, or a Garden Plot Sponsor Form, please CLICK HERE.

To see photos from the Summit Street garden, CLICK HERE.

Expanding Fairhope’s Farmers Market:

In order to encourage more citizens to eat more healthy locally grown food and become aware of potential crops to grow, we would like to see the City-sponsored Fairhope Farmers Mar­ket expanded in size, number of days open, and length of season. Perhaps a permanent shed for the Farmers Market could be cons­truct­ed in a location near Downtown. The Farmer’s Market committee has conducted a survey of local food producers concerning their desires for an expanded Farmer’s Market, and supported both the moving of the Farmers Market from a downtown city street to a vacant site next to the public library, and the establishment of a fall market.

Preserve Open Space, Including Agricultural Land:

Primegreen space, especially agricultural land, in Baldwin County is being lost due to development pressures. We hope to encourage public and private actions, such as conservation easements, that would preserve farmland and other open spaces for the benefit of the residents of Baldwin County. Preserving open space would help control flooddamage on private and public property, and would help preserve forests and wetlands needed for environmental protection, as well as providing land for food production.Should fuel costs continue to increase, thereby increasing the cost of transporting food long distances, theavailability of land for local food production would become even more important.

Public Education on Local Food, Home Gardening & Promoting CSAs:

We have initiated public education efforts on the benefits of, and opportunities for, local food production at our monthly membership meetings. To date, we have offered talks on such topics as square foot gardening, community gardens, fall gardening, spring gardening, soilenhancement,  integrated pest management, and much more. We will inform people about Com­munity Supported Agriculture (C.S.A.) farms where people pay so much per season, and every week receive a share of the produce harvested, including the methods to start additional CSAs, in case there is interest by members of the public. Home vegetable, herb,and fruit gardens will also be encouraged, as will gardens for wildlife.