THOMASTON – The concept is simple: Anyone interested in taking fresh vegetables from raised beds outside the Maine State Prison Showroom need only wait for the Popsicle-stick signs to say ‘Ready.’ Scissors are available, instructions for proper harvesting are posted, and no money or permission is required.

Nancy Wood, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program educator for Knox County, is not only feeding her town, she’s providing an example of easy do-it-your-self sustainability through a gardening concept known as Edible Main Street.

“A community garden doesn’t have to be in the Back 40,” Wood said. “A community garden can be anywhere.”

Including, along a noisy stretch of Route 1.

“When I first started, I had no idea how busy this corner was going to be,” she said. “I thought I was going to be kind of out of the way.”

In Wood’s cluster, eight mini gardens, all constructed and painted by inmates, two are blooming with lettuce and chard destined for the Thomaston Food Pantry. When ripe, those tomatoes, peppers, peas, beans, herbs, beets and cabbage not picked by the public will follow suit.

“[The Food Pantry is] really appreciative,” she said. “They’re really small and they don’t ever get any fresh stuff. AIO in Rockland is so big, they get Walmart and Shaw’s and all the stores bring them stuff, but nobody brings anything here.”

The Prison Showroom, as well, has welcomed the project, beyond selling more garden boxes to customers. At the onset, when easy transport of water from the building wasn’t yet factored, Showroom employees actually lugged five-gallon buckets for her. However, dumping five-gallon buckets of water produced too much backsplash. Now, Wood has settled for a wagon and multiple watering cans. A hose, she said, would be ideal.

Wood is a former chef by trade. A few years ago, in the midst of running her own restaurant, she voluntarily taught a cooking class at a local middle school and found an enjoyment working with students. After being made aware of a job vacancy with SNAP, she ended her restaurant life and became an educator of nutrition in RSU 13 and beyond. Because of her, many pre-Kindergarten students are learning that carrots don’t originate in plastic wrap at the grocery store.

She’s the Knox County representative for a statewide program, and she successfully created and grew the Kid’s Club at the Rockland Farmer’s Market that has now been duplicated in a couple other municipalities. The Greater Pen Bay YMCA, which oversees the Knox County Health Coalition, now runs Rockland’s Kid’s Club, handling more easily registration and documentation.

Needing a new summer community project, as required by her job, Wood looked to Edible Main Street last September before initiating concept plans and grant searches. 

The SNAP-ed motto is ‘Shop, Cook, and Eat.’ “For some people, fruits and vegetables are expensive,” she said. “What we teach is that half of what you eat should be fruits and vegetables.”

In providing accessible gardens, “There’s no stigma and it doesn’t cost anything,” she said.

A gardener, however, she is not.

Granted, having only started the gardens a month ago, the seedlings are doing well, all except the peas, anyway. 

Raised-bed gardening has its perks, according to Wood. Her beds are merely wooden frames with screens on the bottoms, and filled to the brim with potting soil. She doesn’t have to bend as far, and weeding is minimal. Even so, she wouldn’t mind receiving advice from knowledgeable growers as well as a volunteer helper or two.

The Edible Main Street concept started in an English town where a group of women created garden boxes for the community as a way to prove how easily vegetables can be obtained. The town, Todmorden, is now an eco-destination, according to Wood.

In Maine, Bath, Bethel, Westbrook, Norway, and Lewiston have joined the movement. Norway’s program, started and maintained by the Center for an Ecology-Based Economy, began in 2015, and now has 16 boxes.

“It helps me,” Wood said. “It helps [the Showroom]. It helps the community. And “the bonus is, I’m feeding people.”

Reach Sarah Thompson at news@penbaypilot.com