Local CYFAR Program Spotlight

CCST Slavic Gardening Project

CCST connected Slavic seniors with the
younger generation of Slavs in Spokane.

Spokane, Washington has about 28,000 native ethnic Slavs, most of them native Russian speakers. These new immigrants tend to come from agricultural areas where they lived in extended families.

In 1989 a US law granted evangelical Christians in the former USSR special refugee status, and many took advantage of this opportunity to escape persecution, despite having no English. Of those who settled in eastern Washington, many are now retired and live, like other elderly Americans, in apartment complexes with people their own age, rather than the multi-generational family they knew at home. Their children have jobs, and the seniors don’t have much connection to the land, or much in common with their grandchildren, who were born in America and have American ways.

About four years ago, Tatyana Bistrevsky, Washington State University Extension program assistant, organized a trip for 14 Russian-speaking seniors to the state fair. “They saw the cows and the pigs and some of them cried,” she said. “They had not seen a farm animal in so long and it reminded them of their homes. They missed the agricultural life on the farm.”

Realizing that these seniors were isolated not only by their limited English language skills, but also by social barriers and a lack of transport and social programs, Bistrevsky and colleagues at WSU Spokane County Extension applied for and got CYFAR funding to start Cultivating Community Strengths Together. CCST uses communal gardening as a bridge between Slavic immigrants in Spokane and the larger community, particularly youth. It uses gardening, a Slavic cultural activity, to engage seniors in their community and encourage intergenerational communication.

Tatyana Bistrevsky and the youngest CCST
participant tend a plot.

Bistrevsky and her colleagues set up a pilot gardening project in Spokane’s Rypien Field, near three senior apartment blocks where many of the immigrants live. There was an organizational meeting in the autumn of 2006, then last spring CCST offered the 47 garden plots, eight by twenty-four feet in size, to Slavic youth and seniors in the area. The response was good, and, like the plants themselves, grew throughout the year.

A group of 10 Slavic youth shared two plots, and chose to plant roses and other flowers, with an area for herbs and strawberries. “It was their first experience with gardening” Bistrevsky said. “Next year, we will have more variety.”  The youth attended a four-week spring gardening workshop, with sessions on weeding, soil preparation, rose pruning and planting, and the response was enthusiastic. These workshops were followed by a spring festival in May, bringing youth together with the seniors to discuss issues that had come up, such as costs. They also recognized the best-kept garden, and gave a small prize to the seniors who had tended it.

Response from the seniors was much more enthusiastic, with about 100 of them taking the remaining 45 plots. Working in pairs and small groups, they planted mainly vegetables to use in traditional dishes – lots of cabbage and potatoes, radishes, cucumbers, tomatoes, making the most of the plots by rotating when the crops came ripe. “They have lots of experience, they know the seasons,” Bistrevsky said. “The county director was impressed by their huge cabbages.”

Cabbage is an important vegetable in Slavic cooking, appearing as sour cabbage, cabbage and sausages, cabbage salad and in soups such as oroushka and borscht.

By August, all of the gardeners were interacting regularly, and the larger community was becoming aware of the project as it grew. Curious families from the nearby soccer fields stopped by to find out more, and awareness grew. Gardeners held meetings to organize building compost bins, garden clean-up in September, and to plan the first-ever Slavic Harvest Festival on September 25.

Most CCST youth were beginners at gardening when they
started the project

There were a few bumps along the way, which the gardeners had to negotiate. Initially, the project had been located near three senior apartment blocks where many of the immigrants live. As CCST got underway, however, Bistrevsky and Pat Munts, a master gardener at the Washington State University Spokane County Extension Center, were looking for a way to help continue the gardening program. They partnered up with Jane Farmer, who runs the Northeast Community Garden Project, to start the CCST project in Rypien Field, an additional six blocks from the senior apartments.

When the new garden site was announced, some of the seniors withdrew, saying the new site was too far away. But during the summer, as the project took shape, they asked to be included once again, Bistrevsky said, having concluded that the project was worth the effort. For those who have trouble walking that distance, arrangements are made.

Through the process, Bistrevsky said she could see a change in attitude from the seniors. Not only did they enjoy the gardening, but they also began to enjoy being with the youth, whom they had previously viewed with skepticism. “They even competed to water the plots for the youth when they had to be away during the final exams,” Bistrevsky said.

The Slavic Harvest Festival was a big success, with a party atmosphere. About 200 people from Spokane attended. The Slavic people played traditional music and all enjoyed traditional food. Bistrevsky hopes to make it an annual event.

Throughout the year, CCST’s major emphasis has been on gardening as a conduit for communication and inclusion. But a sub-theme has been health. At the Slavic Harvest Festival, free health screenings were offered, including diabetes and cholesterol checks. And Bistrevsky has applied for funding to expand the CCST program next year to include Gardening to Health, a nutritional education program for gardeners and others. There will be classes conducted in Russian twice per year for seniors who want to improve their health through better eating.

A postscript to this story: In February 2008, CCST won the Washington state Community Pride Award, which recognizes projects that evidence an understanding of their communities and how they function, foster skills development and improve local quality of life. The award is given at the annual state Know Your Govenment Breakfast With Your Legislator and comes with a small cash award and framed certificate. This is the first time that Spokane county has won the state award. Congratulations to CCST!

You may wish to consult:
CCST Web page
Local media coverage of the Slavic Harvest Festival

To learn more about setting up community gardens, listen to Grow Your Impact With Community Gardens, an online training recorded in March 2008.

All photos courtesy of Tatyana Bistrevsky and University of Washington Extension>

See past Program Spotlight articles