Hundreds of Ann Arbor community members gathered at the Ann Arbor District Library downtown branch Sunday afternoon for the annual Gardening & Farm Fest. More than 60 vendors took part in the festival, including The Herbal Basket, selling plant-based self-care products; Jacob’s Fresh Farm, selling a variety of flowers and herbs; and Bee Present Honey, selling tote bags and beeswax beauty products.
Attendees also had an opportunity to participate in a seed swap, make shadow boxes and attend three different presentations. The first presentation focused on strategies for growing flowering houseplants and the second on discovering and growing underutilized native and unique culinary plants. The last presentation was from Hillary Coleman, owner of 1991greenery Homestead, on how she uses herbs in natural body products.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Erin Helmrich, librarian and festival organizer, talked about the history of the festival and how it has always centered around gardening.
“This festival has been in a different form for almost 10 years now,” Helmrich said. “We started it in 2015 and it was called ‘It’s Easy Being Green: A Sustainability Expo,’ and it was in September. We wanted to do something to support the avid gardening scene. And so we’ve fixed it and moved it a lot of times. We realized pretty quickly that it would be better in the spring for people to be planting.”
Hannah Northey, Ann Arbor resident and environment reporter for Politico, told The Daily about the importance of this festival as grocery store prices for some food items continue to rise.
“The price of groceries have been a bit high,” Northey said. “It’s really nice for us to find ways to grow our own food and then control our own ways of making food. This is a nice way for us to help the community out, and then to also make our kids part of things. It’s just a really great way to be part of the community and help people grow their own food.”
Darla Kroft, owner of Green Garden Foraging, said during her presentation that chickweed is treated differently in her family: while her father uses Roundup to prevent it from growing, she prefers to cultivate it.
“So my dad’s a farmer,” Kroft said. “Way back in Thanksgiving, we were just talking about what I was growing, and what was happening in the garden, and what else just stopped. And he looked at me, and he’s like, ‘are you growing that intentionally? Like, of course, it’s trending right now. It’s a salad green. I had spent my entire farming career trying to get rid of it, and you’re trying to grow it intentionally.’
Tiffany Park attended the event and said she was surprised to learn how many types of edible plants humans don’t eat.
“I was really shocked to hear that there’s 300,000 types of plants that we can eat,” Park said. “But we only eat 1% of it. I think I’m inspired to go out and see what else I can try and try to learn more.”
LSA sophomore Nicholas Lusardi said while it can be difficult for students to shop locally, it also can be beneficial.
“I think for college students, the time and also the distance can be hard,” Lusardi said. “I know a lot of people, like myself, don’t have cars to get around and go to these kinds of places that can be challenging, which is why I’ve said that it could be harder, but also, maybe that gets you outside — riding a bike to a local produce store or something like that, instead of taking a bus or on a car.”
Lusardi said he enjoyed the local shopping aspect of the festival and how underappreciated it is compared to shopping at a corporation.
“I think this is beautiful because it helps you appreciate the alternative to the biggest grocery store in town, like the Walgreens down the street that you always go to get stuff,” Lusardi said. “Sometimes it requires a little bit more effort to support local businesses, but it’s always worth it.”
Daily Staff Reporter Kayla Lugo can be reached at klugo@umich.edu.
