BDN interviews Coffin, Garland about One Tomato Project
The Bangor Daily News reported on the One Tomato Project, which was was launched in 2009 in Sarnia, Ontario, and offers free tomato seedlings to encourage gardening. When Donna Coffin, a University of Maine Cooperative Extension educator and professor, heard about the project, she thought it could be a great fit for rural Maine, and especially Piscataquis County, where she is based, according to the article. “Our goal, and why we started this, is that we wanted to think of a way to encourage people who have never gardened to start gardening,” she said. “The goal is to just start growing your own food. To grow and consume food that you know is raised in Maine.” This year will mark the fifth anniversary of the One Tomato project in Piscataquis County, with 400 seedlings expected to be given away throughout the area. UMaine Extension in Penobscot County also is distributing seedlings, the article states. “It’s such a clever idea and such a simple idea,” said Kate Garland, a horticulturist with UMaine Extension. In addition to a seedling, project participants also are given fact sheets about gardening and asked for their contact information so UMaine Extension educators can follow up with them. “We try to encourage folks,” Coffin said. “We try to remove as many barriers to gardening as we can.”