Join us at Hurricane Valley Community Farm in Falmouth for a new fall tradition! The Great Garlic Gathering is a chance to dig in and make a direct impact. Help us plant 5,000 cloves of garlic and support immigrant farmers and Cultivating Community’s fresh food and land access programs.
Admission is free, and bags of seed garlic will range from $5 – $25. Whether you’re a garlic lover, garden enthusiast, music fan, or simply looking for a meaningful way to spend your weekend, the Great Garlic Gathering is your chance to give back and have fun.
Come out to the farm and enjoy: Garlic planting, live music, food trucks, kids’ activities (play with farm animals, roast s’mores, photo opportunities, games & more), and farm tours.
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Farmers in our Community Farm Programs operate a network of multilingual farm stands across the Androscoggin and Cumberland counties from July through October. This week at the farm stands, you’ll find amaranth, squash leaf, and sweet potato leaf greens, as well as tomatoes, African eggplant, onions, peppers, and much more. Stop by the farm stands and take home delicious locally grown veggies!
All farm stand SNAP/EBT and WIC sales are discounted 50% in partnership with the Maine Local Foods Access Network and Maine Federation of Farmers’ Markets. While funding for these essential nutrition programs is being cut at the federal level, and future funds are uncertain, we are grateful for the advocacy leadership and work currently underway to fight for their continuation.
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Summer Fun in the
Community Gardens
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It is the peak of the summer growing season, and there are so many ways to enjoy Portland’s Community Gardens, get outside, and get involved.
Meditation in the Gardens – Today(!), August 21st
Our community gardens are inherently mindful spaces. They are quiet, nourishing, and hopeful, full of tender care. Through guided breathing, hands-on mindfulness practices, quiet observation, and a community sharing circle, this offering will help you cultivate a deeper relationship with the garden, your neighbors, and your own sense of well-being.
This workshop is for anyone who wants to slow down and admire the natural world; no prior meditation experience is necessary. Click here to register.
Urban Growers Summer Workshops
We have partnered with the University of Maine Extension to provide workshops on common gardening questions and challenges, and the last one is Extending the Growing Season on August 27th. Workshops are free, but registration is required.
Volunteer Days
Feel the need to weed? Want to help chip away at mulching? It takes many hands to keep Portland’s Community Gardens vibrant and well-managed. Dig in with us! We have drop-in volunteer days scheduled at each of the 11 gardens this summer, with the next one coming up on August 24th from 10-noon at the Clark Street Community Garden. Find more info on our website. No need to register, just stop by!
Thanks to everyone who came out to this summer’s Pop Up Picnics! And a special thank you to our friends at Wayside, Locker Project, The Book Fairy, City of Portland, local musicians, sponsors, and more for joining us for these fun events in the Community Gardens. Brentwood Garden (below) was in full bloom for the picnic.
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Boyd St. Orchard is the Nation’s First Edible Arboretum
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For two decades, we have worked with neighbors and community partners to transform a formerly unused city lot at 2 Boyd Street in Portland into a thriving urban orchard that is open for anyone to harvest. This month marks a wonderful milestone. ReTreeUS and Cultivating Community are thrilled to share that the Boyd Street Urban Orchard has just been certified as the first Edible Arboretum in the nation! With over 40 varieties, the orchard prioritizes fruits that are productive and disease-resistant in the region, as well as native plants.
What’s ripe right now? Stop by for a snack and you’ll find Lodi apples, a crisp green early variety, cornelian cherries, a unique edible variety of dogwood, and peaches, all ready to harvest.
Check out this video of Prisca talking more about the Edible Arboretum shared by our friends at the Portland Parks Conservancy.
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Janel Knightly, Director of Urban Agriculture (far left), and Prisca Hermene, ReTreeUS and Cultivating Community Ending Hunger Corps VISTA, celebrate in the orchard. Look for the “Ready to Harvest” signs (right) in the orchard and take some fruit to share!
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Introducing Gloria – Farmer Training Program Manager
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We couldn’t be happier to introduce you to Gloria Mangoni, Cultivating Community’s Farmer Training Program Manager, based at Hurricane Valley Farm! Gloria is a passionate scholar-practitioner devoted to uplifting rural communities and smallholder farmers through research, policy, and community-based action. She often describes her path into food and land justice as one rooted in a generational legacy and strengthened by a personal commitment to rural life. Raised in a family deeply connected to the land, Gloria grew up alongside five siblings, two agronomists, a rural health professional, a rural economist, and a geologist, while her mother and grandmother cultivated home gardens. This intergenerational bond to land shaped her earliest understanding of food systems and community well-being. With over a decade of experience in agricultural policy, community development, and international research, Gloria is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Rural Sociology and International Agriculture and Development at Penn State University. Her research focuses on how civic agriculture supports African immigrant and refugee farmers in rural America, bridging policy, practice, and lived experience to promote inclusive, sustainable food systems. In her free time, Gloria is embracing a joyful new passion for music, learning to play the piano, sing, and dance, rediscovering creativity and rhythm as powerful forms of self-expression.
Gloria will lead the relaunch of Cultivating Community’s Farmer Training Program (Formerly NASAP). This new role is in response to our 2024 community-led planning process and hearing the need for training opportunities for beginning farmers in the Greater Portland area that include stable land access, mentorship, interpretation, and cross-cultural support.
This project is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, through the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program under subaward number LNE25-491-AWD00001846.
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Our work is possible thanks to the support of our community. Please contribute if you are able. Volunteer time and in-kind donations are always welcome. Thank you!
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