This year Camden Garden Club is offering something different to the community.  Instead of the traditional Tour, on July 17th Camden Garden Club will host their inaugural Garden Expo, “Edible Gardens & Bountiful Tables.”  The day will begin with a PechaKucha-style presentation featuring four local horticulturalists. PechaKucha is a Japanese-originated format where speakers address the audience using 20 slides, each displayed for 20 seconds, resulting in a concise 6-minute and 40-second presentation, emphasizing visual storytelling and brevity. Tickets are limited. Go to camdengardenclub.org/2025-garden-expo to purchse your tickets as soon as possible.

Hannah will speak to some critical questions asked of New England farmers and all farmers. What food do I have available when? How can I buy it? When can I pick it? When these questions are directed at one farmer, they serve a very narrow purpose, but when directed to 100 food producers at once, they generate the next food revolution. Hannah will talk about her efforts to address the universal questions.

Hannah Semler is a food web weaver, currently working in Maine to connect community food systems in a statewide network with her own FarmDrop technology. After College of the Atlantic '06, a Masters in International Food Business took her to Germany, and back to Spain where she grew up, to work on food waste prevention. In 2013 she rejoined her COA classmates at Healthy Acadia in Maine to launch the Downeast Gleaning Initiative, which she led until 2018. It was during her time at Healthy Acadia that she founded the Maine Gleaning Network, professionalizing an age old food rescue tradition and replicated the model to a dozen other Maine regions. She led the Feeding the 5000 event that fed soup to thousands of people all made from rescued ingredients, proving food waste was a problem and a solution. In 2018 she cofounded FarmDrop's network of now 100 farmers and food producers that share an online platform to collaboratively get their products to multiple regions across Maine. 

Here is a sample of Hannah's message:

"Radical collaboration is required for any plant to thrive, whether it is the enzymes and mycelium at their root, or the water poured on them by the rain gods, and the light shining down. We take this natural web of communication for granted. But when we mimic these real energetic exchanges to create a human food system, building reciprocal relationships is a lot of work. As we strive to develop tools that aid us in our ability to evolve and adapt, with flexibility and resilience, it is communication systems that we need to make more readily available. What food do you have available when, how can I buy it, and when can I pick it up? That question when directed at one farmer serves a very narrow purpose, but when directed to 100 food producers at once, it is generating the next food revolution. Of course we need technology to support us in doing that, but what that technology does by design, is not to replace human interaction it is to ease coordination of a much needed radically collaborative food system." 

Hannah's "can do" spirit answers questions, offers solutions and ignites our imaginations as to what is possible in our home state.