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GARY — Green grapefruit mint leaves and lemon grass tendrils stretched toward the afternoon sun as 'farm-her' Carmen McKee led a tour.
“I am going to encourage you to touch, taste and feel everything and anything,” McKee said as she passed around a laminated sheet detailing the rules of edible botany.
The grapefruit mint, lemon grass and splenda plants nestled next to one another are part of the citrus-themed growing area at Oases Botanic Gardens located at 3510 W. 15th Avenue in Gary. Though the land next to the former army reserve medic building is full of roses, lavender and bright pops of nasturtium flowers, everything on the property is edible.
A crowd of about 20 people wandered through the peaceful garden, admiring the rows of chili peppers, the rose bushes and the corn stalks growing alongside squash vines — an ode to the three sisters companion planting method.
Oases was the group's first stop on a tour of three urban farms in Gary. Organized by Purdue Extension, the group visited Oases, Shannon Farm and Homestead and FAITH Farm and Orchard.
"We wanted to visit farms that do a lot of community engagement," Lake County Extension Educator Rebecca Koetz explained. “We wanted to hear from beginning farmers so we can be better equipped to understand their needs."
A crowd of about 20 came out for a urban farm tour hosted by Purdue Extension last week. The group toured three farms in Gary, as part of an ongoing effort to support and learn from urban farmers in the Region.
There are some 23 urban farms in Gary, McKee said, though about half are "homesteads," meaning most of the produce is used for personal consumption. Though urban agriculture has been practiced in Gary for years, farmers have been receiving more support in recent years.
In 2020, Purdue Extension launched the Gary Urban Agriculture training program. Extension expanded the program this spring, creating the Urban Farming Signature program for residents throughout the Region.
Local growers also came together to form the Gary Food Council, which connects local farmers with resources and information.
Urban farming is also becoming more accessible. Last spring, a bill allowing Indiana municipalities to establish urban agricultural zones that are exempt from property taxes, was signed into law. Authored by state Rep. Earl Harris Jr., D-East Chicago, the exemption is aimed at supporting low-resource or beginner farmers.
Outfitted in an apron full of supplies, a wide sun hat and, of course, the Trailblazer Community Impact medal she was awarded at the This is Gary celebration, McKee looks like she has been farming all her life.
Growing up, her aunts, uncles and grandparents always had backyard gardens, "but they weren't for children, they were serious because they were food for my family." When she and her husband were raising their three sons, they often used container gardens because they lived in apartments.
However, when McKee moved from Georgia to Gary in 2016, she was confronted by the term "food desert." A chaplain by training, McKee was working at a local hospital when she and a patient began discussing food access.
“We were talking about health concerns and what that looked like, and she said, ‘Gary is a food desert,’” McKee recalled. “I had never heard the term food dessert or food insecurity."
A very "solution-oriented" person, McKee quickly discovered the many farms working to increase access to fresh food and started volunteering. She took the Purdue Master Gardener class in 2017 and the University of Illinois Master Farmer class in 2018. Over three summers, McKee spent about 1,700 hours volunteering at local farms — while working full time.
“I worked the night shift, so I would get off at 7 a.m., I would get to the site by 8, work until I was tired and then get ready for work again.”
As she got to know the farms in the area, she saw that many were growing the same things: collards, kale, spinach, turnips, onions, tomatoes. While established farms focused on the staples community members liked to eat, McKee wanted to "grow something that would compliment what everyone else is growing."
In 2019, she got permission from the property owners to start a small garden at the former army medic building. She started off by planting herbs and brought two coolers to the property, each filled with water bottles.
Maria Booker inspects a plot at the Oases Botanic Gardens in Gary during a farm tour hosted by Purdue Extension. Oases is one of about two dozen urban farms in the city.
“I wanted a nice, safe space where people could come from anywhere in the world and know that Gary is beautiful," McKee said. "I started growing herbs because you can rub those and put them in your drink.”
Year after year, McKee began expanding her offerings. Focusing on plants that "really makes food pop,” she started growing garlic, peppers, edible flowers and fruit trees. Oases also became a space for community engagement. The garden often hosts educational programming, yoga and Zumba classes and informational sessions led by local herbalists.
"Ninety percent of what we do is education because whether people are familiar with it (the plant) or not, there are so many different ways of handling it, of eating it, of using it,” McKee said.
Oases also hosts a farmers market on the fourth Thursday and second Tuesday of every month.
"(Events at Oases) bring people and family closer together, and while we're doing that, we’re also teaching them how to sustain and feed themselves," said Maria Brooks, who has been volunteering at Oases since the garden first started.
Brooks, a lifelong cook, said that until she met McKee, she didn't know she could "take a little square space in front of my home and make it a garden." For years, she used her windowsill as a mini garden, growing cilantro, basil and oregano, harvesting as she cooked.
Now she has two gardens at home — one filled with everyday herbs and another dedicated to more unique herbs.
“I never thought you would be able to farm right around the corner from the steel mill,” Brooks said. "When I thought of gardening or farming I always thought of the country, but it can be right here in the city, and you can really feed your family.”
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, much of Gary is considered to be a "food desert," meaning a substantial number of residents in the area are low-income and do not have easy access to a supermarket or large grocery store.
The term "food desert" has received some pushback in recent years. Many researchers say the word "desert" ignores the racially discriminatory policies and economic factors that create food access issues. Instead, the term "food apartheid" has gained popularity, as it highlights intentional barriers that cause food insecurity.
However, McKee said terms imposed on communities by outside entities are not "necessarily helpful."
“In several ways, the term food desert cripples. People hear that and think, 'I am really not as well-off as I thought I was because I don’t have something I thought I had,'" McKee said.
While the food desert categorization can help communities get funding, the assistance that comes often ignores the local farmers already "doing their part so we don't have to use those terms," McKee said.
Senior boxes filled with canned peas and grocery store chains buying "fresh" produce from all over the country doesn't actually solve the problem McKee explained.
"If the goal was to have fresh food, then why are we sending canned goods?” McKee asked. “If that (having fresh vegetables) is really the concern, why don't grocery stores buy from local farmers in Lake County?"
Farm-her Carmen McKee shows off a raised bed planter during an urban farm tour. McKee started Oases Botanic Gardens in 2019.
Despite what the highlighted census tracts on the USDA Food Desert Map say, McKee said fresh produce and medicinal herbs can be found growing in backyards and beside old buildings throughout Gary.
The health benefits of urban agriculture are simple: “When you grow it, you know what you are eating,” Brooks said.
Over the years, several veterans that used to work in the army medic building have come out to Oases. They tell McKee the new use of the space is fitting — a building once dedicated to healing is now a source of natural medicine.
"When you come in this gate and you touch the lemon balm and you pull the leaf, you have life in your hand. Whether you realize it or not," McKee said. “Whenever life touches, life, you are releasing a different type of energy."
Touching the leaf, bruising it, inhaling it, "that's when everything stops on the inside," McKee said. "Now you have a clear head, you are in a position where you can make choices. That, to me, is the epitome of spiritual health."
Indiana Dunes National Park volunteer Marisa Rempala shows the equipment used to make maple cream.
Metal buckets and a wagon at the Chellberg Farm's barn show some of the gear the family used.
Zella Olson has been a volunteer at Indiana Dunes National Park's Maple Sugar Time since the festival began 40 years ago.
Cooking over a wood stove requires hot coals like these, shown with a burner removed.
Volunteer Mark McColley tests the sap being boiled to create maple syrup during Maple Sugar Time at Indiana Dunes National Park's Chellberg Farm. The sap is 98% water.
Steam rises as coals are dumped into water outside the Chellberg Farm sugar shack.
Metal buckets made it easier to collect and transport maple sap and other liquids at Chellberg Farm.
Native Americans collected sap from maple trees in a mukak, like this one held by Indiana Dunes National Park ranger Steve Rodriguez.
Indiana Dunes National Park volunteer John Roquet shovels ashes from the Chellberg Farm sugar shack as Saturday's maple syrup production winds down.
Pioneers used three kettles to make maple syrup, boiling sap to release steam as the sap was distilled into maple syrup.
Animal pelts like these were used for warmth by Native Americans in the area.
Cliff Goins points to the Chellberg family's accounting of maple syrup production in 1947, conveniently written in pencil on a board at the sugar shack at Indiana Dunes National Park. The family produced 154 quarts that year.
The wood stove at Chellberg Farm is a lot more fancy then many stoves used at the time the Chellbergs lived there.
A suspended gallon jug hangs in steam over evaporator trays used to make maple syrup at Chellberg Farm's sugar shack.
Visitors to the Chellberg Farm sugar shack see how maple syrup is made, with steam rising from the evaporator pans to concentrate sap into syrup.
Maple coffee stays warm in a vat of sap at the Chellberg Farm sugar shack. The coffee is made with maple sap instead of water to give it a sweet, maple flavor.
Native Americans boiled sap to create maple sugar, which they used for a burst of energy at the end of a long winter.
Cliff Goins, a retired Indiana Dunes National Park ranger who helps at Maple Sugar Time as a volunteer, pours himself a sweet cup of coffee in the Chellberg sugar shack. The coffee is made with maple sap instead of water.
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Maria Booker inspects a plot at the Oases Botanic Gardens in Gary during a farm tour hosted by Purdue Extension. Oases is one of about two dozen urban farms in the city.
A crowd of about 20 came out for a urban farm tour hosted by Purdue Extension last week. The group toured three farms in Gary, as part of an ongoing effort to support and learn from urban farmers in the Region.
Farm-her Carmen McKee shows off a raised bed planter during an urban farm tour. McKee started Oases Botanic Gardens in 2019.
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