1909 Culinary Academy Starts Community Garden Amid Pandemic

Friday, 23 April 2021 05:37

1909 Culinary Academy has started a community garden in order to help the less fortunate in our community.

BLANDFORD-BLENHEIM - 1909 Culinary Academy in Blandford-Blenheim has had to pivot a couple of times now during the pandemic.

They opened three weeks before the pandemic and originally planned on having a culinary school with day camps for kids along with the restaurant. They actually were having the March Break day camps when the announcement first came down. Executive Chef and owner Murray Zehr told the kids at the time that they were just going to have to shut down for a couple of weeks and they would make up the time on weekends. That was over a year ago now.

The restaurant is still open for takeout and they have set up an outdoor patio as well. During the down time, they have come up with a way to give back to the community.

Executive Chef and owner Murray Zehr says they have started a community garden with 42 beds, where the food will be donated to the less fortunate in our community.

"We are growing tomatoes, zucchini and eggplants, all kinds of herbs, red peppers, green peppers, cucumbers, pretty much the whole gambit, not only all of the staples but hopefully some other things that people can experiment with too."

The garden is supported by local members of the community and businesses who have donated to the cause, and the food will be donated in their names. Zehr says they wanted to create something to give back to the community and that is where the growing our community support program started.

"Whether it's families, individuals or companies are sponsoring us to pay for the seeds, seedlings and growing and we had to hire a full time gardener and then this summer, all of the food we are growing will put into these produce boxes and they will be donated to people in need on behalf of the people who sponsor us."

They will donate the food to local women's shelters, homeless shelters and churches and they will also be giving them directly to local families. You can read more about the Growing our Community Support program online here. They are still looking for more sponsors.

You can listen to the full interview with Murray Zehr below where he talks about how 1909 has had to pivot several times during the pandemic, his cookbook called "What Else Can I Do With Preserves" and more on the Growing Our Community Support program.