LAUREL COUNTY, Ky. — In its third year, the Grow Appalachia Project has been seeded in 25 Kentucky counties and three states within the Appalachian region, and serves 43 families in Laurel County.

Wayne Riley, director of the Laurel County African American Heritage Center Community Garden Project, received a visit from the project’s sponsor, John Paul DeJoria, last year, confirming the project will continue to expand with an investment of a small livestock program and $500,000 in overall funding.  Funds are used to purchase gardening equipment and seeds to further enhance the vision of teaching the Appalachian community to fight hunger by create a self-sustaining food culture.  

Within the project’s first year locally, gardens yielded 22,000 pounds of groceries. Garden plots within the city of London have been donated to assist families who may not have land for planting.  For Greta and Dale Beach, driving to London from Knox County to sew their seeds and till their plot of land behind First Baptist Church of London is a ripe opportunity.  They tried gardening three years ago with difficulty, since their land rests upon a “holler” within woodlands muddled with briars.

“Here we’ve got organic fertilizer, organic everything — we’re just trying everything new.  I’ve never officially been taught how to do a garden but we’ll work at it until it comes through,” Greta said.

“It’s a good experiment for us,” Dale agreed.

Dale is in his first year of retirement following 35 years of truck driving. He grew up on a farm in Michigan, but is out of practice, he said.  Greta grew up as a city kid who enjoyed her summers with her grandparents in the country, getting dirt under her fingernails.  

“We didn’t have electricity for a while, and my grandfather plowed with mules.  I was never forced to have to work on it (the farm), for me it was a delight to go,” she said.

Farm fresh fruits and vegetables are the reason the couple joined the gardening project, as well as some convincing from their East Bernstadt friend, Angela Hoskins.  

“Honestly, it’s to get some decent food.  Do you know what a country tomato tastes like?  There’s a flavor to it. They’re wonderful,” Greta said, continuing, “the food that we grow here is so much better than anything you can get in the grocery store.”

While driving a truck cross-country, Greta recalls opening a case of mass produced tomatoes off the truck, deep green and firm.  The tomatoes are processed to ensure ripe delivery.

“They eventually start turning red but they’ll never be the vegetable that you’ll grow here,” she said.

“They look pretty but they don’t have the vitamins and nutrition you get from a real vine-ripened tomato,” Dale said.

The trio of friends put a dent in their soil last Thursday, tilling  and making sure their seeds were covered.  Vegetables planted include everything from herbs to a variety of beans and broccoli to a bed of carrots.  Gardening tips shared from the Beach’s neighbors in the “holler” such as ribbon tightly wound as a fence post to repel deer are ready and set for the season.  

“We’re getting a little more ambitious here. We’re helping to garden and onward from there,” Dale said.

Monthly classes for Grow Appalachia gardeners are offered the first Monday and third Tuesday of every month at the Laurel County Africa American Heritage Center on Mill Street.  



mmccrarey@sentinel-echo.com