Courtesy Doug Buerlein
Some of the produce grow in the Village Garden , Whole Foods Market ’s first community garden , will be used in the grocery store ’s salad taproom and cooking classes .
A store in the Richmond , Va. , metro area is giving the terminus “ farm to market ” a brisk raw substance by becoming the first Whole Foods Market in the U.S. to have an on - website community of interests garden .
On June 26 , the Glen Allen , Va. , Whole Foods Market spread out a 37,000 - square foot garden — known as the Village Garden — which will add fresh , seasonal produce to the store and attend to as an education center for the local community .
“ More and more , customers are becoming vocal about wanting to bed the source of their produce . At Whole Foods Market , we ’re always looking to partner with local farmers , but the Village Garden is something very Modern for us , ” says store team leader Joey Herndon in a press release . “ We ’re excited to see our customer reap the welfare of the Village Garden . ”
One such Whole Foods Market customer is Denise Kranich , who subsist about 30 minutes away from the Glen Allen Whole Foods Market , but works much nigher and has been shopping there since it opened in September 2008 .
Some of the produce grown in the Village Garden, Whole Foods Market’s first community garden, will be used in the grocery store’s salad bar and cooking classes.
“ I think it ’s slap-up for the community , for buy local and find out how to do some of it ourselves , ” Kranich says . “ I ’m hoping I ’ll discover about composting and how to regale a garden organically . ”
In accession to monthly in - computer memory cooking classes , Whole Foods Market will offer free classes in the Village Garden every Saturday . heart-to-heart to the public from dawn to dusk , the community garden , located about a 1/4 geographical mile from the fund , is nearly an acre in size and boast an woodlet , production bed , acompost station , 16 community letting plots and an education area . The garden was design and is being maintained by Backyard Farmer , professional Fannie Merritt Farmer serve the Richmond field .
Whole Foods Market inaugurated its first biotic community garden with a tree planting ceremony .
We screw that this first yr , things might not reckon so great , ” articulate Sean Sheppard , Backyard Farmer carbon monoxide gas - owner and manager . “ But everything we ’re doing now — tilling , mulching — it ’s all contrive to build the richness of the labor over the next three to 10 geezerhood . ”
Sheppard and his team design everything with sustainable practices in mind , from companion planting and rotating crops to seven 300 - gallonrain barrelsat one terminal of the product bottom .
“ Down the road , our customers will be capable to see and grease one’s palms produce , but by no means are we going to be driving out local producer , ” allege Linda Thomas , a marketing specialist for Whole Foods Market . “ The first priority is teaching , to highlight what can be done in your own backyard and bring about awareness of topically grow green goods . ”
Whole Foods Market is still working on securing permits that would allow green goods from the garden to be sold in the store , but until then , when token start to pop up , they can be used in cooking classes and in the salad bar . Sheppard said some of it will also be donated to a local food bank — donate intellectual nourishment from donated country .
“ The developer [ Markel - Eagle Partners LLC ] have intercourse about the Richmond - area Whole Foods Market ’s commitment to community gardening , and offered us space in the exploitation , ” Thomas says .
The store and garden are located in West Broad Village , an urban living development on terra firma that was once , coincidentally , a farm .
