Fremont's LEAF garden is raising money for a tractor

Local Ecology and Agriculture Fremont gathered supporters, partners and local community leaders at its LEAF Community Garden on Saturday, Sept. 12, for an event called Grow Together. The Fremont Chamber of Commerce was among those who came.\n\nThe ask is specific: a brand-new compact tractor. LEAF says the machine would make workdays at the farm more efficient and let its programs keep growing.\n\nIt is a modest piece of equipment to build a fundraiser around, and that is rather the point. Most of the work on a small urban farm is done by hand and by volunteers, and time spent hauling is time not spent teaching.\n\nLEAF has not said how much the tractor costs or how much the event brought in.\n\nThe nonprofit describes itself as an educational organization whose urban gardens work as living classrooms, soil science labs and community spaces. Its stated mission runs along four lines: teaching people about healthy soil and caring for the planet, growing and sharing produce with people facing food insecurity, researching and advancing soil science, and connecting people to food, to land and to each other.\n\nFor anyone who would rather give hours than money, LEAF's own site lists volunteer days every Monday and Thursday, plus the first Saturday and the second Sunday of each month. Details and directions are at fremontleaf.org.