Public orchards could be a path for local food, community connections

DES MOINES — Nearly 40 fruit trees have taken root at Drake Park in what is the start of a community orchard in Des Moines.

Once established, organizers hope the orchard will serve as another place in Des Moines to build up the city’s local food infrastructure.

Chelsea Krist, chair of the steering committee for Iowa Food System Coalition, said community orchards create spaces, not only for food access, but also for communities to gather and connect over food.

“It’s a really important and accessible way to literally change the landscape and the environment where people can interact with food more directly,” Krist said.

She said spaces like a community orchard create a “touchpoint” for people to see food growing in their region. Grabbing an apple off the tree in a local park, or while on a neighborhood walk, could cause a “ripple effect” for community members to notice the nearby pollinators, talk to someone else who is harvesting from the tree, or become more interested in other local food sources.

That ripple effect toward local food procurement, and sense of community around food, can also be helpful during times of crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, or the government shutdown that recently led to suspended federal nutrition programming.

“The more spaces that we can create for people to connect with each other and food, the better,” Krist said.

City-led orchard

Krist said while a lot of community groups start community orchards and gardens, she said a lot of recent efforts have been led by municipalities across the state.

This is the case for the project in Des Moines. Breann Bye, economic development project manager with the city, said the project in Drake Park shows that public spaces can fulfill “multiple objectives.”

“It’s a park, so families can come there and play, there’s a splash pad, there’s a shelter you can rent, there are basketball hoops, but also it can be a great place for neighborhood residents to take a walk, collect some apples — when they’re ready for harvest — cherries, apricots, peaches, all that,” Bye said.

An orchard project had already been started in Drake Park, according to Bye, with fruit trees in various stages of development. The city approved a measure in May to plant more trees and reinvigorate the community orchard at the park, and by late October, a group of around 30 volunteers showed up to plant the fruit trees.

It will take a couple of years before the trees are mature enough to bear significant amounts of fruit. By the time that happens, Bye said the city hopes to have signage up explaining the types of fruit, when they’re ripe and maybe even QR codes that link to recipes.

She said surrounding communities, like the Drake neighborhood and Sherman Hill neighborhood, have already shown interest in the orchard, but the city plans to continue public outreach to create a “community of care” around the orchard.

“So that people understand the asset that is this orchard and then want to help care for it — hopefully they then feel a sense of ownership and connection,” Bye said.

The city will work with the local Trees Forever group and volunteers to maintain the orchard.

Dubuque also got a community orchard this year on city property, in an initiative led by the local Trees Forever group.

Tom Kramer, president of Dubuque Trees Forever, said the group planted fruit trees this spring in a city-owned spot he said was previously a mostly unused green space.

Trees Forever partnered with the city, exchanging maintenance of the area for the ability to plant fruit trees and establish some perennial beds. Kramer said it was a “win-win” situation.

Now, he said the community will be able to enjoy the beauty of a blooming orchard in the spring, “versus just an empty lot with grass on it.” And later in the summer, people can stop by to pick some cherries, plums and apples. Plus, he said, the pollinators will enjoy the orchard, too.

Part of the local food ‘puzzle’

Krist said she sees more and more support for projects like community orchards, gardens and local food procurement. These projects, she said, are being adopted as community leaders care more about the benefits, such as providing fresh local food, than some of the downsides, such as tree maintenance.

An orchard, she said, is a “piece of a very complicated puzzle” that makes up a sustainable local food system.

Kathy Byrnes and Ed Fallon, of Birds & Bees Urban Farm in Des Moines, have been pushing for a city-led community orchard for years, as a step toward their dream for Des Moines to be the “local food capital of the U.S.”

They were among the volunteers planting trees in Drake Park.

“It’s a good start, but we’ve got a long ways to go to accomplish the level of food security that we need,” Fallon said.

In terms of fruit procurement, Fallon and Byrnes said they hope to see Des Moines establish other community orchards and use edible fruit-bearing trees such as serviceberries in lieu of plastic snow fences.

Already, Fallon said, the city is moving in the right direction.

Following building renovations several years ago, the city planted strawberry plants as ground cover surrounding City Hall. Each June when the fruit ripens, the plants are picked clean by citizens who stop by the massive patch.

“We need more strawberries everywhere,” Fallon said. “There’s plenty of places where the city could plant strawberries.”

Byrnes said local food is more than just vegetables and fruits. She said it’s about pollination, bees, backyard chickens, goats and “all the ways that people feed themselves.”

Des Moines, Byrnes said, has some of the best local ordinances in terms of allowing backyard poultry and gardening, which also fits as a piece of the local food system.

Once people start growing and producing their own food, she said, it also opens up opportunities for community, which is a “real benefit to a city.”

“People always want to look at what you’re growing, come in and talk about it,” Byrnes said. “You meet your neighbors, then you find ways that you can not just exist together, but help each other and just grow that connection.”

Fallon said another element to a food system is permanently dedicated land for food production within the city. He suggested the city identify land and then work with local farmers who are “getting out of corn and beans” and want to grow food for sale.

“We have so much opportunity for local consumption,” Fallon said.

According to Bye, conversations about these initiatives are happening at the city.

She said the city plans to identify other sites where it makes sense to establish more community orchards. As the city works orchards into its plans, “people are more aware about it as an asset,” which could create a bridge for using more food-producing plants in other landscaping projects.

“Joy matters in our urban spaces,” Bye said. “When we can work on projects that not only address food security and education around food production and sustainability, but also just make people smile and make people happy — that’s a good thing.”

This article first appeared in the Iowa Capital Dispatch.