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| Around The Grange |
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Growing concern about Meriden Grange |
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By By Andrew Perlot, Meriden Record-Journal |
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FEBRUARY 24, 2008 --
Richard DelPivo sat alone in the large Grange Hall at 540 Broad St. talking about the possibilities of tomatoes. In packets in front of him sat hundreds of seeds, each capable of producing pounds of produce. "I've got enough here to feed half the city," he said, a faint smile on his face.
The Meriden Grange is an organization in decline, with most of the city's farms long gone and membership steadily dropping, but DelPivo, the organization's new assistant steward, believes that a little bit of agriculture has the possibility of relieving many of society's problems, and he's hoping the Grange still has a bit of relevance in today's fast-paced world.
"We're trying to preserve all this," he said, gesturing around the hall, which once housed the meetings, rollicking dances and home-cooked dinners of hundreds of agriculturalists, whether they worked a farm or just the plots in their backyards. Today, it's rare that more than a handful of grange members show up at meetings.
The Meriden branch of the Grange was founded in 1885, and originally only farmers, or tillers of the soil, as they were called, were allowed in as members. But at that time there were still many farms in Meriden, their produce brought in from the edges of the city to feed hungry factory workers.
As time went by and farmland was bought up for more factories, and later houses and apartments, those who simply liked to garden were let in as farmers packed up and moved elsewhere.
By 1940, the Meriden Grange had more than 400 members, the most of any grange in the state. There were 22,897 members in Connecticut at that time. By 1960, the Meriden Grange was down to 300 members. Today there are 53, with only a handful actively participating. There are about 4,000 members left in the state and 300,000 left in the country. The decline in membership has mirrored the shrinking amount of farmland. Connecticut has lost more than 21 percent of its farmland just since 1984, or about 9,000 acres per year.
The grangers themselves are aging. Many are into their 60s or older, and their varied agricultural and craft skills have not been passed down to a younger generation, DelPivo said. At 50 years old, DelPivo is one of the younger members.
Reinventing the Grange
But he looks at Meriden and sees only possibilities to improve the community through agriculture. Couldn't the small strip of earth on the Grange's Broad Street property hold blueberry bushes open to picking by anyone who wants some? he asked. Could room be found in the city, perhaps on the fenced-in city-owned lots scattered between properties, for organic community gardens?
The solutions to several big problems can be found in a garden, DelPivo said. His home is set on a small quarter-acre lot, but it's so productive that he jokingly refers to it as his micro-farm. "I take bushels of produce out," he said. He can't use it all himself. "I sell what I can," he said. "Some I bring to the soup kitchen."
In light of the many poor people in the city, who may be forced to eat unhealthy food because it's what they can afford, DelPivo looks at his 25-cent packages of seeds and wonders.
DelPivo often goes to agricultural fairs and sees those used to picking up their food from a supermarket look wistfully at plump organic tomatoes. "They say, 'I wish I could grow tomatoes like that,'" he said. "They can. You don't need to be a farmer to grow your own food. You just need to show them how to do it."
He urges people to bite into a real organic tomato and compare it to the ones they get from the supermarket, which were picked unripe and shipped across the country. "Those tomatoes taste like cardboard," he said.
By DelPivo's estimate, one truckload of seeds grown into fruits and vegetables in backyards can take more than 20 truckloads of produce off the roads. It would make a big difference for the environment.
Cynthia Charbonneau, the Meriden Grange president, joined at age 25. That was 31 years ago, when young people still joined the organization, she said. "My mother had joined the Grange and I started helping with dinners and programs," Charbonneau said. "Now we've got about 50 people who belong. Most of them don't come to meetings. Most of Meriden was farms at one time. It was amazing. Everywhere you looked there would have been a farm. Now you've got apartment buildings and condos."
"It's hard to get people to join an organization, especially if they're young or middle-aged," she said. "The children are involved in all these kinds of sports or church activities. They just don't have time anymore."
Edith Shoell, Connecticut Grange secretary, said her organization was holding its own, and that the towns that have the most success recruiting new members are the ones that actively go out and get involved in their communities.
"If they're really active, they don't seem to have any problems getting members," she said. "Every Grange has their own type of activities which fits into their membership."
State Grange President Robert Sendewicz said his organization still has a good deal of clout in Connecticut and in Washington, D.C. The organization is fighting to preserve agricultural land in the state, and is seeking to expand the reach of high-speed Internet service to rural farmers, he said. The Grange is involved with a host of other ventures, such as food banks and camps for children.
But, "We're always looking for new members," he said.
Gardening workshop
In Meriden, DelPivo said that times are getting a bit desperate. With the rising cost of energy, and so few members left to pay their $25 dues, there is talk of shutting off the utilities and turning in the keys to the hall, effectively ending a local institution that stretches back 123 years.
DelPivo is going to try his best to make sure that doesn't happen, though, he said. He wants to invite the mayor and other city officials to join, and to set up mentoring programs with local schools and youth organizations to pass on the Grange's knowledge. He fully hopes that his ideas for community gardens and getting more people to grow in their homes or yards will bear fruit, but for that he needs people to teach.
He's running a container gardening workshop on March 3 at 3 p.m. at the Grange Hall. The cost is $5, which goes toward utilities, and everyone who comes will be given a container and a tomato plant. DelPivo said he favors container gardening because it requires less water, and weeds are less likely to grow.
Anyone can grow sprouts and some vegetables in their home in the middle of winter if they have a window that gets sun, DelPivo said. Grow lights allow people to grow plants that require more sun. Even apartment dwellers with no yards can grow food if they have a balcony to use during warmer weather, he said. Most open ground has the possibility of being a garden, and that's something city residents should take advantage of, DelPivo said.
In the future, he'd like to run a potato-growing workshop and get involved with community gardening projects, among other ideas. Other members will demonstrate craft and gardening skills as well.
Anyone interested in getting involved is invited to meetings on the second and fourth Friday of every month.
DelPivo has high hopes: "It would be a shame to see the lights turned off in this place. At the end of the day, I think people with these high-tech jobs want to get out and do a little gardening."
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