Photos: Easement to protect Grateful Tomato Garden for generations to come

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Tom Hamilton and his grandson, Aiden King, tour Wasatch Community Gardens' Grateful Tomato Garden in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, June 22, 2016, after a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the acquisition of a conservation easement on the property that will permanently protect the land for agricultural use. What is now the Grateful Tomato Garden, located at 800 South and 600 East, was part of a larger property owned since the 1800s by multiple generations of the Fletcher family and used as a small urban homestead. In the late 1980s, the family invited Wasatch Community Gardens to use the property as a community garden, primarily serving immigrant residents of the neighborhood. In 1995, the family notified Wasatch Community Gardens of their desire to sell the property and allowed the organization time to raise the money to buy the garden for $65,000. In 1996, after a communitywide effort, the purchase of the garden was completed. The easement will enable Wasatch Community Gardens to keep its promise to the community of supporters who joined together in the campaign to “Save the Tomato Garden.” Today, the Grateful Tomato Garden features community garden plots where individuals and families of all income levels can grow their own food.

Laura Seitz, Deseret News