Josephine Oleson was already hard at work by 8am, picking her way through the well-tended rows at Sow Therapeutic Farm in the Puyallup Valley in search of dark-green zucchini. One by one, she picked the squash until she had nearly 60 pounds packed up in crates in the back of her car.

By 1pm, the crates had been stacked on a table some 30 miles away, in the lobby of a community health clinic in White Center, along with tomatillos, broccoli, basil, garlic, green beans, cucumbers, cabbage, chard, and potatoes grown by other local farmers. A dozen people with reusable grocery bags had already lined up for their chance to peruse the produce, which is offered for free to anyone who wants it. 

“It really helps me,” says Maria Montes, a Renton woman who planned to sauté the zucchini picked fresh that morning with tomatillos, onions, and garlic for dinner. “Especially with my diabetes.” 

Fostering better community health through fresh food

This free weekly farmstand, which we call FARMacia, started three years ago in South Park as a partnership between Solid Ground and Sea Mar Community Health Centers. From the beginning, its goal had been to get more fresh produce into the hands of people whose health would most benefit from it, particularly those with diabetes, high blood pressure, and other chronic health conditions.  

We started by providing fresh vegetables harvested weekly from Solid Ground’s Giving Garden at Marra Farm, but the need quickly outpaced the capacity of our ¾-acre farm. Thanks to the support of PCC Community Markets, Solid Ground is now able to buy additional fresh produce from local partner farms to stock our weekly farmstands at Sea Mar clinics in South Park and White Center.  

For the last two years, we’ve worked to build partnerships with BIPOC-led farms and nonprofits, like Sow Therapeutic and New Roots, that are aligned with our mission of building stronger, healthier communities through access to fresh, healthy food. 

“We’ve been really intentional about who we’re getting the produce from, which allows us to support other farmers and community farm projects,” says Sarah Benson, Solid Ground’s Farm Market Assistant. 

That’s especially true for Sow Therapeutic, a community-based farming nonprofit founded just last year by Colette DeMonte, a clinical psychologist and avid gardener. Solid Ground was the fledgling farm’s first buyer. 

“It was our very first partnership and provided us with some consistent funding to buy things like seeds and tools,” says Josephine, Colette’s farming partner. “Right now, we’re all volunteers – we’re not paying ourselves – so we can grow as an organization.” 

And Sow Therapeutic has big plans for the future. It all started a couple of years ago when Colette began spending more of her time gardening during the worst parts of the pandemic and discovered how therapeutic the work was during a highly stressful period. As a psychologist, she immediately saw an opportunity to use farming as a community resource for healing and growth. 

“For a lot of us, one thing that was highlighted through the pandemic was how disconnected we’ve become from other people and from Mother Earth,” says Colette. “I see gardening as a way to practice mindfulness and remind us to slow down.” 

Cultivating mental wellbeing on the farm

Eager to combine her background in psychology with her love for gardening, Colette signed up for Farm Foundations Training to learn the basics of sustainable farming. That’s where she met Josie, who not only shared her passion for community building but had dreamed of starting a farm since she was in high school. Together, along with a growing team of partners, they successfully applied to lease a ¼-acre field at Washington State University’s Goss Incubator Farm in Puyallup. 

As a Health Educator at Sea Mar, Josie sees firsthand how many people in Pierce County struggle to afford fresh, healthy produce. So as Sow Therapeutic has grown over the last two years, the team has worked to distribute much of their produce through free Farmacy pop-up food stands – just like Solid Ground’s FARMacia – at Sea Mar and HealthPoint clinics in Pierce and South King counties. 

“People get pretty emotional sometimes, and it’s a really intriguing thing, because sometimes people are almost like, ‘Why are you giving this away?’ ‘Is this for real?’” Colette says. “It’s really special to be able to give people food, which is something that is so connected to our social connections, to our family and friends.” 

This growing season, the Sow Therapeutic team has been holding community farm days on the third Sunday of each month  and twice-monthly Farmacy stands at a variety of community clinics. But their dream is to eventually move to a farm that would be more accessible to the community, where they could realize the dream of creating therapeutic programs embedded in farming.  

They hope to offer gardening support groups, walking meditation sessions, and other programs that allow people to improve their wellbeing while growing food for their neighbors. 

“You’re kinda taking therapy out of the office space and into nature,” says Josephine. “For a lot of people, therapy may feel very daunting or uncomfortable – so taking it out of that space and bringing it into nature is a way to make mental wellbeing more accessible.” 

Solid Ground is proud to support Sow Therapeutic and its mission of promoting community wellness through farming. You can follow Sow Therapeutic on Instagram and Facebook to stay up to date on their latest news, events, and programs.

Photo at top: Latoya Hampton and Sow Therapeutic volunteers weed along a drip irrigation line (photo by Neal Simpson).