Growing Food During the COVID-19 Pandemic

I started the Blue Heron Project three weeks after COVID-19 had been declared by the World Health Organization as a global pandemic. Little did I know then, what a toll this year would take on my little community. In the season to come not only would COVID-19 impact all of our lives, but we would be plagued with unprecedented wildfires—months of breathing in smoke so thick it blanketed the ground like fog. Once ladened grocery stores now contained nothing but empty shelves. Our collective anxiety rose as the sharp realization of just how limited our resources are in our remote little town.

Like the rest of the world, we found ourselves swept up in uncertainty and isolation.

I didn’t expect it to hurt so much. I found myself craving connection, craving community, and craving something that would remind me that there is hope for the future.

The Blue Heron Project became my answer.
My way of finding joy and connection.

I began sending out emails on Sundays. Three simple-ish recipes that reflected what I was harvesting that week from the garden and what I was cooking up in my kitchen. The response was powerful. Pictures of people’s tables with plates of delicious-looking dishes. Photos of delighted faces gobbling down new ingredients. Excited messages about discoveries of new tastes or cooking methods.

Once a week I was able to drop off a box of produce to six families, harvested straight from my garden. Pulling up outside and hearing the kids yelling - “The box is here, Rachel is here!” as their little faces popped up in the window. These moments filled my chest with the warmth of community I had been so craving.

To me, it felt like being home. Through everyone’s photos and messages, it felt like I was there with them, invited to sit at their tables, at a time when I could not be. While in many ways our worlds were contracting, somehow, my community expanded.

We are heading into another season where there is perhaps just as much uncertainty waiting for us. While that thought scares me, the Blue Heron Project sustains me with hope.

There is so much in the world, and in the garden, that I can’t control, and that will always be the case. Through the Blue Heron Project, I am striving to create something to make the challenges easier. Nourishment. Through our connection, we nourish our spirits. Through our food, we nourish our bodies. When those both are thriving, I know we can find the strength and hope to dream bigger and overcome incredible obstacles together.