Anathoth Community Farm & Garden

Our mission at Anathoth is to cultivate peace by using regenerative agriculture to connect people with their neighbors, the land, and God. We are supported by a 75-member CSA program called HarvestShare which strives to make good food accessible to a diverse community. Half of the HarvestShare participants donate a share and half of the participants receive a share. A share includes a wide variety of vegetables and small fruit, and bread that we bake in our brick oven. "The Garden" comprises four different gardens: a bio-intensive garden in the shape of a Celtic cross, a small-scale market garden that we manage with a walk-behind tractor, a native plants garden, and a forest garden. "The Farm" comprises our commercial-scale gardens which we manage with a four-wheel tractor. Our story: In 2005 Bill King was murdered at his bait and tackle store down the road from the current community garden site. In response, Cedar Grove United Methodist Church held a prayer vigil for healing and peace at the site of the murder. At the prayer vigil two visions came together: Scenobia Taylor, an African-American woman, had a vision to donate five acres of her family's land to the church for the healing of the community; Rev. Grace Hackney, the pastor of the predominately white church, had a vision that the church could reconcile with the land by growing food sustainably. Due in large part to the skill and dedication of our first director, Fred Bahnson, and the amazing efforts of neighbors from all across the region, Scenobia�??s and Grace�??s vision grew into Anathoth. Named after the place in the story of Jeremiah 29, where Jeremiah purchases a field and summons the Israelites in exile to make peace by planting gardens, Anathoth has a vision of holistic reconciliation, shalom, in which relationships with all creatures are redeemed to their fullness.