New Community Garden Sprouts in Oak Park

There are givers in this world and there are takers. I’m so grateful to know that we have so many givers in my neighborhood.

The two I’m thinking about today are Laura & Andrew Maychruk, who have owned and operated our local hot spot — Buzz Cafe — for more than a decade.

I’ve written about Buzz before, how it supports local artists, serves farm-fresh, organic fare and is a pickup spot for CSA deliveries.

And now the Maychruks have decided to step it up a notch. When they learned about a group of local residents who were having trouble locating a sunny spot in Oak Park (harder than you think in this tree-lined village) to grow a community garden, they had an idea.

Why not use the empty space adjacent to Buzz?

Why not indeed. So this locavore-inspired group of volunteers is taking the Maychruks up on their offer.

I’m told we’ll hear more about the community garden in next month’s Buzz Cafe newsletter. Laura made a minor mention in this month’s issue.

And a co-founder of the garden, Urban Farmgirl Monica Phillips, gave me a little more detail.

The six volunteers first got the community garden bug when they took a “Menu of the Future” class at the Unitarian Universalist Church.

Their first lesson? It’s harder than it looks.

“We’re at war with a couple of rabbits and cursing the cool weather,” Farmgirl Monica wrote me an email.

I’ll be pulling for them and looking forward to learning more about their experience growing food in Southeast Oak Park.