Guest Post: The Journey to Urban Orcharding
The Common Orchard Project growing community and food in Cincinnati, Ohio
The Giving Grove would like to introduce you to Chris Smyth, director of The Common Orchard Project. The Common Orchard Project, in partnership with Green Umbrella, joined the Giving Grove affiliate network in 2021 and is its sixth affiliate city. Chris’s expertise lies in permaculture and regenerative agriculture. We asked him to share a bit about his mission and his passion for perennial urban agriculture.
The Beginning: Backyard Paradise
I kicked off this journey into permaculture and sustainable agriculture in 2010 after returning to Cincinnati from a year-long volunteer program in Philly. My first step was to transform my backyard into a paradise that included vegetable gardens, ducks, and fruit trees in Price Hill, Cincinnati. When Ohio kicked off its landbank program designed to deal with blighted properties, the attorney general showed up two doors down from me for a ribbon-cutting. Of all the places in Ohio, it seemed my street was the best example of the aftermath caused by the 2008 financial meltdown. Nine of the 12 properties surrounding my home were abandoned and vacant.
Guerilla Planting & Price Hill Will
It has been a long road between then and now. In 2012, I began working at a community development corporation called Price Hill Will, creating neighborhood sustainability initiatives. Every fruit tree that I “guerrilla planted” or even planted with permission died from a lack of communication or understanding and often at the hand of landscapers. I knew that planting fruit trees was an important way to grow more food in the city and use our undervalued space, so I set out to redesign completely how I was approaching it. In 2017, I planted the first orchard that would grow into what we now call The Common Orchard Project.
In my opinion, the number one pathway to community is solving interesting problems together. Cultural events are important. Seeing each other at the grocery store, having our kids play on the same street are all important. And without all of these events working as a whole system, the community will continue to fracture. However, by addressing our collective needs and learning to generate our own well-being, we can create a well-glued community.
I started The Common Orchard Project because, frankly, I don’t know a better way to connect neighbors in a meaningful way than working on a project that benefits the whole. There are sure to be many other methods, no doubt, but creating perennial green space is a potent one, and it's one within my skill set.
Growing food, and especially fruit, is a dwindling set of knowledge, and perennial systems can be three times as productive as annual ones. So, I continued to carve out a niche in Cincinnati, advocating for the productive use of residential land as agricultural and community gathering space. You might even think of it as a “Food Park.”
New Friends: The Giving Grove
After building 10 of these orchards in Cincinnati, it was time to level-up and create better structures to take care of these orchards long term. With a goal of 100 orchards on vacant lots held in a land trust, the work would have to grow beyond just me and the faithful volunteers and current participants. I read about The Giving Grove while searching for other models across the country that were already doing what I was building toward. I saw they had an affiliate in St. Louis, so I reached out to a friend in urban agriculture to help me make the connection.
After reaching out to Rob, the CEO at The Giving Grove, we set up a time in late September 2020 to meet with Dean Gunderson at Gateway Greening in St. Louis to talk about this rare fascination we all have with growing fruit in the city. We were instantly problem-solving and curious about each other’s skillsets and ways of viewing this work. My biggest hope was to find some comrades in another state to share ideas and best practices. I knew I had found that! (Plus, we got to eat some pawpaws!) Then Rob brought up The Giving Grove affiliate program, which I did not know about at the time. One thing led to another. Now, The Common Orchard Project has partnered with an established non-profit, Green Umbrella, to expand orchards, urban agriculture, and a systems approach to address blight and value in our neighborhoods. Together we have joined The Giving Grove affiliate program.
Looking to the Future
Community building and food accessibility are essential work, and I am dedicated to it. It takes regenerative agriculture, investing in youth, productive cities, and community land trusts that help guide development to create a community strong enough to prosper in this ever-changing world. Be it large acreage or city lots, we must work together to mitigate climate change by growing holistic food for our communities. Fortunately, we CAN grow food in cities and eat it too!
To learn more about The Common Orchard Project and Green Umbrella, please visit their website. If you are interested joining the mission of The Common Orchard Project and The Giving Grove, visit here to learn more!