It was the kind of laughter that catches on like wildfire, cutting through the crisp air and soaking into the bones of all who felt it.
The kind of laughter that warmed the spirits of those celebrating the final farewell to an urban farm that’s brought a taste of green thumb magic to thousands of people in the heart of downtown Halifax.
“This is the last hoorah on this very beautiful site that thousands of people have helped make together over seven years,” said Jayme Melrose, the former project coordinator of Common Roots Urban Farm.
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The laughter stemmed from families gathered around jack-o-lanterns being smashed into tiny pieces of neon-orange guck.
The annual hootenanny celebrates the harvest Mother Earth has provided to its gardeners.
“We just thought it was a good opportunity to smash pumpkins without making a mess of pumpkin on our own lawn,” said Kieva Diamond, a mother of three whose children were on cloud nine with every whack of their pumpkin.
Common Roots Urban Farm has brought new life to a plot of land that used to be home to Queen Elizabeth High School.
When the school was torn down in 2011, the land was revitalized into an urban farm.
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Now, the urban farm has until April 2019 to find a new home, as the land will become part of the Halifax Infirmary expansion and QE11 Health Sciences Centre New Generation Project.
“The hunt for a piece of land is complicated, but we’ve got a few interesting leads and if people have ideas we’re really open to hearing them,” Melrose said. “Especially if it is a developer that has large swathes of sunny land near apartment buildings.”
A fundraising project is currently underway to help with the moving expenses.
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