Dear Garden Members,

It is the beginning of another year and with it begins my appointment as your new Garden Director. My name is Kate Forer and I come to you with a lot of love for Anathoth Community Garden, Cedar Grove UMC, and the Cedar Grove area. Some of you may know me as Kate Svajian. I served at the Garden as a Duke Divinity School intern from 2006-2007. And I’d like to tell you a bit about myself.

I come to you with a strong farming background. For three years I worked at Perry-Winkle Farm in Chatham County, learning organic and sustainable farming methods, as well as the joys of hard work. My time at Perry-Winkle Farm was deeply rewarding as I learned how to grow food and flowers, go to market and develop wonderful relationships with the rest of the farm crew. My knowledge of farming practices were only enriched as I learned bio-intensive farming from our past Director, Fred Bahnson. From Fred and the practices we implement at Anathoth, I learned how to grow food without petroleum and in the healthiest and most productive way possible, furthering my knowledge of how to take care of the soil and keep it happy.

I also come to you with a background in the Church – one that I hope serves as an open door to people of any faith who come to the garden. I received my Master of Divinity from Duke and am an ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ (UCC). Most recently I was an Associate Pastor at the First Congregational Church of Greenwich in Old Greenwich, CT. Back here in North Carolina, as the season progresses, I look forward to participating in the wonderful sense of community at the Garden, the growing and sharing of food and learning to be better stewards of God's creation. My hope is that Anathoth will continue be a place of authentic nurture for the land and our bodies and for our souls and spirits as well.

Please feel free to contact me in the days and weeks ahead. My email address is This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it I look forward to meeting and reconnecting with you all soon!

Peace,
Kate Forer
Director, Anathoth Community Garden

In the beginning, humans ate, and in the beginning, Christianity was about eating. These simple facts are at the heart of Anathoth Community Garden. Eating matters, profoundly, to the life of Christian discipleship. As theologian Alexander Schmemann notes, “[T]he Bible . . . begins with man as a hungry being, with the man who is that which he eats.”

 Charlotte Hughes walks past the shelter and rows of crops at the Anathoth community garden in Cedar Grove, heads down a winding path into the woods and across a creek that forms the headwaters of the Eno River, and tends to the native plant garden she established earlier this year. With the soaring temperatures, even the hardiest plants need her help and the water she totes.