Corrie Spellman, a Pennsylvania native, has been working in fields both near and far, but always comes back to her stomping grounds. Corrie grew up harvesting potatoes and canning cherries alongside her Grandma in Central Pennsylvania - and the thrill of waking up to working in the cool morning dirt and ending the day with catching fireflies and eating homemade pie never ran dry. The garden, for Corrie, has always been a world of imagination, wonder, and hard work come to life.
Corrie’s first exposure to the gardening scene in Philadelphia started with a summer of interning with Mill Creek Farm of West Philadelphia and volunteering at Greensgrow farm in Kensington. The taste was enough to have her coming back year after year.
Corrie was a leader among her peers at Berea College in Kentucky, where she pursued a degree in Peace and Social Justice and worked as a Resident Director in the college’s Ecovillage. Here, Corrie collaborated with fellow students to organize composting, edible landscaping, natural building, and native plants. After graduating and a bout of migrant work that led Corrie to the blueberry fields of Maine, coffee plantations of Honduras, and vegetable fields of California, Corrie returned to Philadelphia to help convert an abandoned lot in Kensington into a thriving community garden (esuf.org) as well as an overgrown lot in Germantown (germantownkitchengarden.blogspot.com) into a functioning market garden.
Most recently, Corrie spent a growing season across the river in Camden, New Jersey farming with the Center for Transformation. Corrie helped to run the Junior Farmers program that employed youth to work in the community garden and greenhouse, as well as to lead fellow youth in cooking classes and agricultural production. While in Camden, Corrie helped to start a locally-run rain barrel business, convert an abandoned lot into a fruit orchard, and started impromptu dance parties whenever possible.
For Corrie, gardening on vacant land allows space for imagination and playfullness to reenter. The art and play of producing food for the neighborhood alongside youth creates a world full of laughter, color, abundance, and community, and she can’t think of anything she’d rather be doing with her time.
Corrie is currently managing the farm at the Carousel House.