I’m still grinning with gratitude as I savor memories of the recent 20th Harvest Supper on the Greenfield Common. I am immensely grateful for the hard, smart, caring work done by Kirsten Levitt and all of the Stone Soup Café staff and volunteers who pulled together a tasty evening of local food and community. I appreciate reporter Erin-Leigh Hoffman’s article and the Recorder’s coverage of the Supper. And, I’m honored to have been invited to talk a bit about the origins of the Free Harvest Supper of Locally Grown Food that I helped organize during its first 10 years. As there was a lot going on while I was speaking at the supper, I’d like to share what I said for those who missed it.

Let’s talk about the power of planting a seed. We are here today savoring this bountiful meal because 20 years ago Juanita Nelson planted a seed.

In 2005, Juanita said, “Years ago, we had a harvest supper at the end of the Farmers Market season. We should do that again.”

Juanita planted that seed of an idea in the fertile ground of community. As a member of the original organizing committee for the Free Harvest Supper of Locally Grown Food, I was one of many, many people who helped grow that seed into a deeply rooted annual community event that each year feeds hundreds of people a meal prepared by local chefs with food from local farms and food producers. By “community,” I mean everyone: folks from all walks of life.

Juanita Nelson held deep love for community and a strong belief in nonviolence. A subsistence farmer and a co-founder of the Greenfield Farmers Market, Juanita’s focus on encouraging everyone to eat more locally grown food and less food from far away was rooted in her commitment to nonviolence. If we grow our own food, we don’t have to exploit someone else’s labor to grow our food. If we eat food our neighbors grow, people in other places can focus on growing food for their neighbors.

In 2007, thrilled with the success of the Free Harvest Supper, Juanita said “It’s easy for people to eat locally grown food when we feed them in August. But what about in February? We should create a winter farmers market and activities to encourage people to eat locally grown food year-round.”

Juanita and a group of us took that seed of an idea and created the Week of Winter Fare in February 2008. On Groundhog Day 2008, we held the first winter farmers market in Massachusetts right here at the Second Congregational Church. That Groundhog Day farmers market led to a robust, ongoing tradition of winter markets in Greenfield and across the state.

In 2005, when Juanita planted the seed that grew into the Free Harvest Supper, it was beyond our wildest dreams that 20 years later we’d be here tonight continuing to savor what grew from that seed. We didn’t take into account the power of a great idea and a supportive community. Of the many ingredients that go into the supper, one is most important … community coming together to celebrate and create the abundant, generous world we want to live in every day.

In 2005, this night was beyond our wildest dreams.

I like to think that if Juanita were here today, she’d encourage us to dream wilder!

Mary McClintock lives in Greenfield.