Meet yer Eats Farm Tour, Labor Day, Sept. 6, 2010.

Monika — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:30:36 +0000

Innisfree will be one of 18 farms featured on this tour! Please visit Market Central, Inc.

Garden of Love

Monika — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 18:12:15 +0000

Innisfree’s village brings new life to its residents and those who support it.
The Daily Progress, Sunday, October 2, 2005 Story by David A. Maurer

It has been a season of bountiful harvests for those tending the fertile gardens of Innisfree Village, both in terms of crop yield and in the hugs and smiles given and received along the way. Since the working community with adults with mental disabilities was established in Albemarle County in 1971, the gardens have helped nourish the bodies, spirits, and minds of its residents. This year a new program, Community Supported Agriculture, was started in order to share the benefits of the gardens with others outside the village.
CSA is a nationwide movement designed to connect city folks with the food they eat and with the land and people who tend them. This past spring, 25 subscribers were given the opportunity to participate in the program.
For a seasonal fee subscribers receive weekly boxes of vegetables with a newsletter tucked inside, which has news of the gardens and recipes. The boxes began arriving in June and will continue coming until October, Depending on what is being harvested, each box can wigh from 5 to 20-plus pounds.
Carolyn Ohle, executive director of Innisfree, said there were a number of reasons CSA was started.
“We want people to know about Innisfree and realize the incrdible wealth of our gardens,” Ohle said. “It also provides more therapeutic work opportunieties for our co-workers, which is our term for the people with developmental disabilities who live here.
“As a result of the program, we now have extra work in harvesting and preparing the vegetables that are sent out to the subscirbers. The number of diffeent tasks and skill lovels this provides is wonderufl for our folks.
“We have people who are very competent and can harvest vegetables, plant seedlings and do a lot. We have others who can do things like wash the potatoes or put five peppers in a box.”
Trisha Costello, Innisfree’s head gardener, said CSA has been a huge success in its first year. She said the customers like both the quality of the organically grown produce as well as where it comes from.
“We’ve gotten really positive feedback that people feel our food is very special, and that it has extra meaning to them because of all the hands that have gone into it,” Costello said. “Doing this means a lot to the co-workers as well, and it also tests their ability to be patient and watch a very long process evolve.
“I feel the gardening operation teaches them what it has taught me: patience and the need to respond to things outside ourselves. When the weather is a certain way, we have to work in a different way.
“And we all like a certain amount of routine, and I think CSA, in some ways, has brought a greater routine their lives. But it’s a routine that’s within a context that also challenges them to be flexible.”
For an additional fee subscribers also can receive weekly supplies of fresh herbs. The boxes are delivered to three centrally located pickup points for customers.
Logan Blanco’s home on East Jefferson Street in Charlottesville has served as one of the pickup points this season. Every Monday when she returns home from her job as accounting manager for the Southern Environmental Law Center, she has a box of healthy vegetables waiting for her.
“I just love the program, it’s fabulous,” Blanco said. “The vegetables ae gorgeous and delicious. The variety is wonderful, and I just love meeting all the people involved with it.
“When they deliver the vegetables, they’ll put up a sign that will say something like ‘Don’t forget to get a bunch of collards or a bunch of arugula.’ Each subscriber gets their box of vegetables, but then there’s often extra things they give as kind of a bonus.
“Usually one of the co-workers will make a pretty design on the sign they make. Another co-worker will cut pretty design in the big leaves on the leeks, which makes everything look wonderful. I’ll definitely subscribe again next year.”
As part of the program, subscribers are invited to Innisfree Village to help in the gardens and get to know the co-workers. One event in July was a potato digging party and barbecue.
“I was totally floored by how many members came out for the party,” Costello said. “and everybody worked really hard. I had to break them away from digging to go take a swim in the pool and have a picnic dinner.
“They all loved getting out there and scrounging in the ground for potatoes. For me the most important part of the program is expanding the concept of community.
“CSA is helping our concept of community to widen. It’s also allowing the larger community to embrace us in their sense of community as well.”

The Essential Volunteer

Monika — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 13:33:26 +0000

Full-time volunteer caregivers are the special ingredient that sets Innisfree apart from any institution, whether public or private. A two-to-one ratio of residents (also known as coworkers) to volunteer caregivers is maintained in order to foster a sense of community “with,” not “for” adults with intellectual disabilities.

This therapeutic model is at the heart of Innisfree’s philosophy. Volunteer caregivers receive a small monthly stipend. they do not come to Innisfree intending only to care for persons with intellectual disabilities, rather they join a community to share their lives.

Volunteer caregivers from all over the world come to Innisfree for a minimum of one year, while some stay on to make it their home for much longer. No matter how long they stay, volunteer caregivers are committed to creating a setting where each person is treated with dignity and respect. All community members are challenged and encouraged to grow, give and receive support, and have the opportunity to both teach and learn!