Dr. De Benedittise envisioned using her home as a show case of efficiency and her yard as a community garden that together will demonstrate the beauty and benefits of home gardening. To that end she not only wants her home to be a model but also to be a class room. Suzanne or Suzie, as her friends know her, is a great cook and grows many vegetables, fruits, and herbs that go into wonderfully delicious and healthy meals. Please visit the recipes pages where you can see some of Suzanne’s creations.
She determined that she needed a state of the art eco home and so has done a complete remake of her house. The work is nearly complete but the master bath still is unfinished. Until that work is done she cannot have the inspectors come in and ok all the remodeling. And her home cannot be used as a class room or model until all of the building permits are signed off and approved.
Suzanne intends to expedite the bathroom and have it done as soon as possible. This means Rock Soup will not be able to start teaching until next summer. The Greener Way Associates is still looking for volunteers, supplies, and ideas, if you wish to comment or give us your ideas then please visit the contact us page.
The name Rock Soup comes from the story about stone soup because the more volunteers and tutors with many varied skills are brought together, then the better the pilot program will work. As in the fable, wonderful exciting things can happen when a community comes together. It is easy to see the negative results of youth when they are ignored. Working in the earth and growing food has health benefits as well as self esteem and income benefits.
Once the garden begins to grow, the fruit and vegetables will be freely available to everyone in the neighborhood. Cooking classes will be free for youth and adults. Working in the garden will be a class room experience for the youth but also serve as a hobby for neighbors who want to help out. There are many health related benefits to working with soil and growing plants. There will be no poisons or dangerous chemicals near the garden and everyone and anyone that wishes to be part of it is welcome.
It is Suzanne’s dream, that by showing neighbors how beautiful and wonderfully health having a home garden can be, that many in the community will want to learn how to start their own home gardens. These are not the gardens of our parents but more like beautiful edible landscaping you can be proud to show off. And the youth trainees will be more than happy to help teach and maintain gardens that many busy neighbors want but do not have the time to maintain. That is how they can make money and stay off the streets becoming solid tax paying members of our community.