Greenhouse Project celebrating 10 years of fresh bounties in Carson City

About a decade ago, a group of community members organized a sustainable horticulture program targeting food insecurity in Carson City. They called it the Greenhouse Project, a not-for-profit effort to improve the quality of food available to the area’s most hungry.

“It's fresh produce, and that's what we emphasize,” said Carson City Supervisor and Cafe at Adele’s co-owner Karen Abowd, who along with her husband, Charlie, spearheaded the campaign to launch the Greenhouse Project in 2008. “All these food insecurity groups get seconds, 2-3 day old produce in most cases. But this is fresh, and I think it provides the quality that folks wouldn't necessarily get.”

The Greenhouse Project celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, and it is now a larger operation than it has ever been before.

About a ton or more of fresh produce is harvested each year from the one acre parcel of land tucked behind Carson High School off Robinson Street. That yield includes herbs, vegetables and fruits grown inside of the state-of-the-art 2,100 square-foot green house, as well as hoop houses and more than 70 raised beds located on the property.

“We get 2,000 to 3,000 pounds of produce yielded per year out of the operation,” said Greenhouse Project Site Manager Cory King.

Even more produce is expected to be harvested this year with the addition of Foothill Garden, which opened in July 2017 on the Carson-Tahoe Medical campus in Northwest Carson City.

That site, a partnership forged between the Greenhouse Project and Carson Tahoe Health, is situated just behind the Carson Tahoe Cancer Institute and features a 14-foot by 48-foot hoop house.

While there aren’t any numbers available yet on the annual yield of the new Foothill Garden, King said he figures it will add around 25 percent onto what is already being produced at the main site.

“We're estimating a quarter of the total we produce at the main site will be yielded here at this point,” he said.

Greenhouse Project Assistant Manager William Pierz, who manages Foothill Garden, said harvest on ripened produce began as early as December 2017. Growing will continue year-round there just like it does at the main greenhouse site.

“Over the fall and winter, it's been mostly spinach, mustard greens, radishes, turnips, several heads of cabbage and a little bit of broccoli,” Pierz said. "I just harvested about five pounds of carrots, and to many eyes, it doesn't even look like that has started to be harvested yet. We will have a few dozen more pounds of carrots that will be coming out of there for sure."

Raised beds will be added to Foothill Garden, featuring primarily hardy root vegetables. Those will free up space inside of the hoop house for more delicate produce, Pierz said.

“As we expand outside, we'll have space for more of our root vegetables like carrots, beets, radishes, and other crops considered lower in dollar and nutritive values as compared to the greens and fruiting crops like tomatoes and peppers,” he said.

Crops harvested from Foothill Garden go directly to Carson City Meals On Wheels through the Carson City Senior Center and to the residents of the Eagle Valley Children’s Home, located next door to the Carson-Tahoe Medical Campus.

Yields from the project’s main site at Carson High School are distributed on a rotating basis to local community organizations that help feed area hungry, Abowd said.

Among those that receive fresh produce through the Greenhouse Project are Friends In Service Helping (FISH), the Ron Wood Family Resource Center, the Salvation Army, Capital City CIRCLES Initiative as well as Food For Thought to provide its summer lunch program for children, Abowd said.

The depth of product is as diverse as the groups benefitting from the project’s yields.

“What we're trying to do in this greenhouse is produce a lot of variety,” said King, who emphasized the project’s focus on produce with more nutrients and less bulk. “We're trying to increase the amount of product that actually sustains people. Less lettuce, more substance.”

Abowd said increasing the availability of foods with higher nutritive value is what reducing food insecurity and hunger is all about.

“The whole point is to increase the nutritional value of food for food insecurity groups,” she said. “This is our part, to provide a fresh product to help feed those with food insecurity.”

But this quality and these values don’t come cheap.

Abowd said annual operating costs of the Greenhouse Project run about $125,000 per year just at the Carson High School site, the price tag for which ran to more than $350,000 a decade ago after factoring in all additional excavating and construction costs.

To help fund the Greenhouse Project’s installation and continued operation, the Abowds organized their annual Concert Under the Stars, a summertime music festival that draws hundreds of spectators to downtown Carson City each year.

The 10th Annual Concert Under the Stars is scheduled for Wednesday, July 11 at the Brewery Arts Center, featuring Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group Jefferson Starship along with Midnight North. Tickets can be purchased on the Greenhouse Project web site.

“The costs have all been fundraised, with the exception of one recreational trails grant which helped us do the outside beds and their trail,” Abowd said. “We also got a Community Support Service Grant for $30,000 just to get the ground source heat pump installed.”

The project also relies heavily on volunteers to maintain both growing sites. From AmeriCorps members to youth and adult volunteers throughout the community, the Greenhouse Project is able to keep its labor and maintenance costs to a minimum.

The entire board of directors and its action groups all contribute to the Greenhouse Project as volunteers, Abowd said.

At Foothill Garden, even patients at the hospital and cancer center are encouraged to dig their hands into the soil.

"Being in the garden is healing, and gardening is healing in and of itself," Abowd said. “Growing is a human thing, and it’s a natural extension of what we do.“

Visit the Greenhouse Project online or on Facebook for more information on scheduling a tour, serving as a partner or sponsor, or to become a volunteer at either growing site.

Anyone interested in touring the facilities or becoming a volunteer can also contact Cory King at 775-600-9530 or cory@carsoncitygreenhouse.org.

Partnership and sponsorship information can be obtained by contacting Karen Abowd at 775-232-8626 or karenabowd@hotmail.com.