A garden grows at the very top of Frydenhoj on St. Thomas — but not just any garden. This one is nurtured by an ever-expanding and diverse community rooted in the common purpose of producing fresh food and goods that nourish and sustain both body and soul.
Wenner Hill Gardens and Cooperative — whose thriving terraced beds of everything from peppers, fruits and greens to herbs, vegetables and edible flowers offer sweeping views of the ocean and distant islands and cays — is the passion project of Dr. Gemma Wenner, who has an extensive background in hospitality, tourism and the culinary arts. Her husband, Dr. Mark Wenner, an economics professor at the University of the Virgin Islands, credits his wife’s penchant for organization and control — a personality trait further honed during seven and a half years as an Army cook — for the farm’s success.
“She smiles, but she’s iron. She curses you with a smile. She is relentless,” he said during a recent Saturday at the farm, adding that she also leads by example. “She’s out here, she works like a dog. But she’s very humble.”
The couple, whose loving and hilarious banter is hard to capture on the page, live on the property that comprises about 15 acres total, down from about 300 acres Mark’s enterprising great-grandmother amassed through a variety of schemes in the latter half of the 1800s (but that’s a story for another day). His parents built a home there in the 1980s, where he and Gemma now live in addition to hosting guests in their agritourism cabin on a back portion of the land.
The pair knew each other growing up but did not connect romantically until later in life. Gemma’s father was a Black man from Haiti and her mother was white and they arrived in the Virgin Islands after a spell in Puerto Rico during a time when the U.S. mainland did not allow interracial unions.
It was only about a year ago that Gemma hatched a plan for a garden that has evolved into a four-acre operation with 12 members that includes agri-tours for visitors on Mondays and Wednesdays, a farmers’ market on the first and third Saturdays, and an airy “Garden Shed” to host community dinners that draw extensively from the bounty of the land. The farm is also certified to accept WIC coupons.
The members “lease the land from us and basically they have a choice: They can produce for themselves, and if they want to, they can market or sell whatever surplus they have here on market day,” said Gemma. “We try to collaborate, sharing seeds, sharing knowledge, helping each other out. If you don’t know what this pest is, you have somebody to help with it. If you’re traveling, someone else takes care of your plot. We have a lot of seed exchanges, slip exchanges, knowledge exchange and sharing,” she said.
It is a model the Wenners say could be easily replicated all over the island, increasing access to fresh, healthy food while nurturing a sense of community and decreasing the reliance on expensive imported goods we can grow ourselves.
“I think there’s a certain sense of responsibility when you’re local in the community, and it’s part of your legacy to contribute to the community. Whether it’s in a business sense, or economic sense, just generosity. Right? Take a small fraction of what you have and then ask your neighbors, would you like to? And I bet you will get the response from your neighbors. Open it to your neighbors first, and if they don’t go, then open it to the wider community,” said Mark.
The members of Wenner Hill Gardens come from all walks of life, including nurses, business owners, chefs, a baker, and a carpenter among other talented and enterprising folks. The farm is organized so that there are a variety of crops and little duplication.
For example, Albion “Chico” George, a mainstay of the UVI Extension Service with decades of experience, specializes in peppers as well as wine, selling not only wine and bags of seasoning and hot peppers on market days, but also his homemade pepper vinegar.
Recently, the garden has welcomed hives from Goshen Farms — a name that means “a place of comfort and plenty” and is rooted in scripture — with a mission to promote sustainability, support and increase pollinators, honey production, and a line of all-natural soaps once the hives are established.
Other members offer a variety of pestos, baked goods, sauces, jams, lotions and, of course, a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and flowers picked fresh on market day. And they lend their skills to improving the farm, such helping to build the shed, or laying stone paths and creating terraces.
The offerings change seasonally, with Gemma encouraging more sorrel in the weeks leading up to Christmas, for example. A member who hails from Iowa has planted corn, which will be ready in time for a corn roast to celebrate July Fourth. They also host education seminars — the most recent on vetiver grass, a plant that not only has antioxidant and other healing properties but also reduces soil erosion.
Gemma’s hope is that Wenner Hill Garden can stand as a model for others to start their own cooperative farms.
“We have all the contracts. We’ll tell you what you need,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be a lot of land — half an acre. But the thing is, start. Right? Start. And if you’re somebody older, this is a good way to get a young person to clean your yard. They farm your yard and then they come and check up on you. Right? Because a lot of people, their kids are gone away. But you have to set up rules. You don’t come on Sundays when I’m sleeping or something, you know?” she said. “And, if you don’t have land, you’re in the hood somewhere, come and grow some stuff. What a wonderful opportunity.”
To learn more, visit the Wenner Hill Gardens and Cooperative website, and their Facebook page.
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