Volunteers with the Butterfly Effect Project have brought the historic Tuthill farmstead in Jamesport back to its roots, creating a garden club to help bring fresh food to local families and teach gardening to the next generation.
The garden club was created “as a means for kids to meet safely outside and also provide supplemental nutrition for the community,” said Brienne Ahearn, the BEP’s garden club coordinator. It supports the nonprofit organization’s mission of encouraging collaboration and youth empowerment.
The garden club first launched at the First Baptist Church in Riverhead, where the Butterfly Effect was headquartered during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the organization relocated to the historic Tuthill homestead, “we knew we wanted it bigger — to feed more families here, and also to grow more food and learn more,” Ahearn said.
The garden also brings farming back to the Main Road property. The Butterfly Effect Project moved its headquarters to the Daniel and Henry P. Tuthill family farmstead, located at 1146 Main Road, last year.
The expansion was made possible with the support of local horticultural businesses, including the Nestledown Dahlia Farm in Westhampton and the Peconic River Herb Farm, Ahearn said. The Garden Club of America awarded a $10,000 grant for the project, and Southold Town donated compost for the garden, Ahearn said.
The garden now boasts dozens of varieties of plants, from shishito peppers and ground cherries, to tomatoes and sunflowers. About 40 garden club members help tend to it.
Tomatoes are a favorite of Giselle Maldonado of Riverhead, a Butterfly and one of the teenage members of the club. Younger participants are mentored by the club’s experienced volunteer gardeners.
Maldonado said the club has helped her discover gardening as a hobby. She finds gardening “calming” and “relaxing,” especially to cap off a long school day, she said.
“When I first joined the garden club, I was definitely a little nervous because I was all brand new to the Butterflies in general,” she said. “But I definitely got really close to everyone here. Everybody’s really nice and sweet, and I just really enjoyed being here and being able to enjoy everything in the garden.”
The Butterfly Effect Project will host a ribbon cutting at its headquarters on Saturday, Oct. 4 from 12 to 2 p.m. to celebrate the new community garden. The public is invited to attend.
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