St. Paul Community Church
can communities, once thriving
community centers which often
included a church, school, benefit
hall, store and post office serving
the surrounding homes. Many
African American settlements were
scattered throughout the county,
usually located near mills, farms,
or other sources of employment.
This day we meet with a direct
descendant of one of the founders
of Sugarland, Gwen Reese,
who shares what life was like for
her ancestors after emancipation
in the thriving and collaborative
community. Her important
research as part of the Sugarland
Ethnohistory Project is ongoing
and has helped paint a picture of
community members who
shared equally in tasks,
including caring for their
children and tending the
land. The church stands
as a testament to their deep
faith and devotion today.
Just down the road a piece,
at the orchard, we’ve managed
to snag the farm owner from his
tractor. He tends nearly 8,000 fruit
trees of many varieties. It’s been
a ridiculously tough year already
with damaging nights of frost and
deep freeze. He’s lost his entire
apple crop as well as a good number
of plums, peaches and pears.
And yet here he is—greeting us
cheerfully and sharing with us his
growing techniques and delighting
us with the serendipity of how
he developed his own cultivar of
peach, aptly named Kingsbury’s
Pride. You simply cannot meet a
farmer that revels in his craft this
way and leave unmoved.
Traveling north through
Comus, we are graced with the
achingly beautiful view of Sugarloaf
Mountain and pasture scattered
with wooly sheep decked
in coats… Before you ask, I offer
that the flock wears these to keep
their fleece clean, bolstering the
price that can fetched at market
for their wool. Natural fiber will
be more sought after as we drift
away from plastic fibers that foul
our water. I can see from the
eager expression on your face
that you’d like to take a little side
trip—the mountain beckons—
and so we’re off past the Sugarloaf
Vineyard (more purchases
later!) and across the county line
into Frederick for a loop up and
around the mountain. We are
thick in talk about how important
it is to protect our working lands
and natural resources regionally
by advancing farmland and open
space preservation across county
lines with a goal to create large
swaths of lands that will feed and
restore our bustling region. The
long views into the Reserve from
the mountain tell the story of a
place with purpose inspiring us to
make sure it will endure.
Caroline Taylor is executive director of
Montgomery Countryside Alliance and
lives with her family on beloved small
acreage in the Agricultural Reserve.
6 plenty I Summer growing 2020