Cedar & Sorrel
Gloved hands lowering a young seedling into a hole in dark garden soil.

We grow food. We give it away. Everyone's invited to both parts.

Cedar & Sorrel is a volunteer-run garden and food-share on a half-acre lot in Ridgeway — open growing beds, a Thursday give-away table, and no application for either one.

Find a Volunteer Shift Give Once or Monthly

Three things happen on this lot.

None of them are complicated, and none of them need you to know anything about gardening first.

A raised garden bed dense with young lettuce and herb seedlings.
Grow

We grow food in the open, together.

Forty-two raised beds, split between plot-holders growing their own and communal rows the whole crew tends. Anyone on the waitlist gets a bed within a season — usually sooner.

Share

Then most of it doesn't go home with the person who grew it.

Every Thursday the communal rows and any plot-holder surplus land on the food-share table out front. Free, first-come, no ID and no forms — the same as it's been since the first season.

Rows of small seedling starts in individual pots, ready to be given away.
Teach

And we hand off what we know.

A free seedling library every spring, a compost class most Saturdays, and a kids' dirt club that's turned out more than a few of our current plot-holders. Nobody's expected to already know how.

2025, in the numbers we actually keep.

Logged by hand at the shed door, tallied every December, published here whether the year was good or thin.

6,400 lbs
Produce shared, not sold
Grown across the communal rows and plot-holder surplus, given away at no cost through the Thursday table.
310
Households reached
Counted at the table, spring through late fall — no names taken, no proof of need required.
2,140 hrs
Volunteer hours logged
Put in by roughly 140 neighbors across 38 weekly shifts. Nobody on staff — every hour above is somebody's Tuesday evening.
10th
Growing season
Four beds and a hose bib in 2016. Forty-two beds and a share table now — same lot, same handshake agreement with the city.

What's running most weeks.

Programs come and go with the season. These four have held steady for years.

Close crop of a raised garden bed with young lettuce.
Grow Beds
Forty-two raised beds. Plot-holders grow their own; surplus goes straight to the share table.
Waitlist — apply anytime
An assortment of fresh vegetables laid out together.
Food-Share Table
Whatever came in that week, laid out front. Free, first-come, no paperwork.
Thursdays, 4–6pm
Small seedling starts in individual pots.
Seedling Library
Free starts every spring. Take what you'll actually plant, leave what you can spare.
April – May
A hand reaching into a strawberry patch to fill a small basket.
Kids' Dirt Club
Compost, worms, and a harvest snack. Ages 5–11, a parent stays for the first visit.
Saturdays, 10am

Shifts run every week, all year.

No experience needed, gloves are at the shed. Pick an open slot below and message the volunteer coordinator to claim it — first message holds it.

Slots reset every Monday morning. "Full" means the regulars have it covered this week, not that we don't want the company — ask anyway.

Gloved hands planting a seedling in the garden soil.
Open volunteer slots, week of July 20 — scroll to see all seven days.
Shift Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Morning · 8–10am — 2 open — 1 open — 4 open 3 open
Midday · 11am–1pm — 1 open 3 open Full — 2 open —
Evening · 5–7pm — — 2 open Full 1 open — —

Neighbors who chip in

Tools, compost, printing, and the occasional check — this list is short because we ask small and ask often, not the other way around.

Ridgeway Hardware Co. Half Moon Bakery Kepler Family Foundation Union Credit Cooperative Bramblewood Landscaping St. Aidan's Parish Hall Northside Compost Collective Petra & Sons Plumbing