Littleton Community Farm Sees Growing Interest Due To Coronavirus
LITTLETON (CBS) – In a time when people are being encouraged to limit grocery store trips, there is growing popularity in growing your own food.
Unlike past years, Sara Kallock of the Littleton Community Farm has an eager audience to share her enthusiasm of farming.
"It's becoming clear to people that they need to have food nearby," said Kallock.
She is one of the managers of the farm and is already fielding phone calls about their May seedling sale.
"We've got peppers. These are eggplant," said Kallock.
Volunteers run the small farm and help residents grow home gardens.
"This year, however, people are extremely interested because of Covid-19," said Judith Taylor. "Everyone wants to grow their own plants and a lot of people realize that it was time to start their own gardens."
Last month, the organization first realized interest was noticeably higher when they passed out thousands of seeds.
Taylor manages the seed catalog at the farm. "A lot of the seed companies had to shut down. They were so overwhelmed with orders," said Taylor.
Usually every year people buy into the farm and get shares of the produce, but this year everything grown here will go toward hunger relief.
"Hunger relief and nutrition relief," said Kallock.
Sweet potatoes, butternut squash, pulled beans and greens will cover the three and half acres.
"These tend to be products that can store well in food pantries and in people's home," said Kallock.
Although it's a large effort, for once Sara should have plenty of volunteer hands.
"We've always had to recruit them so it's interesting they are coming to us this time around," said Kallock.
Coming around to a growing trend of backyard farming.