Global Gardens
Global Gardens is a two-year-old program put together by the Idaho Office for Refugees to teach and provide gardening space for refugee families in the Treasure Valley. Five gardening sites have been donated to the program and some 80 refugee families work the plots using organic farming methods.
Two of the sites are big enough to be considered farms. One is in Eagle and one is in Boise. Groups of refugees work together at these sites to grow vegetables for their families and for sale.
During the growing season, Global Gardens offers produce at the Tuesday evening Farmer’s Market at Edward’s Greenhouse (now closed for the season) and the Capital City Public Market in downtown Boise on Saturday mornings — Global Gardens is the first vendor at the Market to accept food stamps. They also sell to restaurants including Bittercreek Alehouse, The Red Feather, and Mesa Taqueria.
I visited Saturday with Katie Painter, the Refugee Agriculture Coordinator for the program.
