BRISTOL — Megan Walsh and Silas Clark share several interests, particularly when it comes to growing food and building community.

It makes sense then that the duo is building on those passions together through their work at the Bristol Collaborative Campus, or BCC, which they operate at 140 North St.

The property is home to the pair’s greenhouse business, Bristol Botanicals, as well as the site during the summer of live concerts and various classes and workshops.

And that’s not all — Clark and Walsh have some other projects in the works that they’re hoping will eventually create more opportunities for community members to gather at BCC, such as through cooking classes and pop-up meals.

“A big part of what we wanted to do is make this for the people, for the community, and pull people together and make them feel comfortable coming here, making really awesome plants affordable as well, and just recognizing that it really takes a community to get by in the world these days,” Walsh said during a recent interview.

Walsh and Clark opened BCC last year. The site was previously the longtime home of Pine Tree Gardens, run by the Heffernan family.

Clark, a Monkton native and experienced carpenter, was drawn to the property partially due to the 3,200-square-foot onsite. The structure offered a home for his contracting and building services.

In addition to his work in construction, Clark spent several years studying agriculture at Craftsbury’s Sterling College and working on farms. While life took him down a different career path, Clark said he’s always been drawn to agricultural endeavors.   

“This property was a great opportunity to get back into what I was passionate about in my 20s and in college, which was largely community-based endeavors,” he said.

Walsh joined Clark in establishing BCC, bringing her years-worth of experience in agriculture to the table. In the late 1990s and early 2000s Walsh grew medicinal herbs, vegetables and perennials that she sold at farmers markets.

In 1998, she launched a nutrition counseling and health and wellness coaching business called Rootswise. She’s also worked on a farm in Oregon, taught health and wellness classes and worked as a nurse for around 20 years.

“Food, community, health, plants — it’s always been a passion, so it’s cool to see it come together in different ways here,” Walsh said.

SPACE TO COME TOGETHER

The BCC site features five greenhouses filled with annuals, perennials, veggies and herbs.

The duo said part of their goal is to continue the legacy of the Heffernans’ work on Pine Tree Gardens.

“We really didn’t want to change up too much, so we’re offering the same annuals and vegetables,” Clark said.

The pair shares a deep appreciation for farming and began thinking about other ways they could increase access to locally grown food through BCC.

Last year, the team began hosting a live music series called “Freshie Fridays.” Each week, local residents can stop by to hear performances and enjoy food and drinks. This year’s series of Freshie Fridays will kick off on Friday, May 23, and run through June 27. A full lineup can be found at www.bristolcollaborativecampus.com/gathering.

Clark said initially the idea was for the event to serve as an alternative farmers market.

BRISTOL COLLABORATIVE CAMPUS’S offerings include the farmstand shown here, where visitors can find groceries, gardening necessities and locally-made products. The property also features five greenhouses and is the site of community events like live music nights and workshops.
Independent photo/Marin Howell

While it didn’t quite pan out that way, the pair wants to continue offering a space to support local growers and producers. There’s a farmstand on the property where visitors can find groceries, gardening necessities and other products made locally.

“We do offer some artisan goods and maple syrups and honeys, some local crafts and other herbal products,” Clark said, adding that Walsh recently relaunched her tea brand.

Throughout the season, BCC will also offer workshops and events centered around painting, growing medicinal herbs and more.

“That word ‘collaborative’ really was a big part of our mission when we started this because we understand that there’s so many talented people in this area, so many people with gifts to offer, but also that it takes collaboration,” Walsh said. “We wanted to have a space where people could come together and showcase some of their own talents, whether it’s through music, classes or different events that we’ll be hosting.”

LOOKING AHEAD

Clark and Walsh are working on creating other opportunities for community members to gather at BCC. They’ve received a wastewater permit to support a commercial kitchen on the property, which the pair says will help expand grocery offerings at the farmstand and provide a space to host food programs.

“Basically, (it’s) creating a food hub where there will be classes centered around food, whether it’s learning about food, learning about nutrition, but also actually cooking together as a community,” Walsh said.

She noted that the commercial kitchen will feature a fulltime bread baker and could provide opportunities for hosting pop-up dinners and allowing residents to rent out the space.

“A big goal of ours, too, is to be able to utilize the kitchen to create prepared meals, so working with local farms to source some great ingredients and then using the kitchen space to prepare meals for people,” Walsh said.

“With the hope of making healthy, good food more accessible,” Clark added.

The pair is exploring the possibility of forming a nonprofit around that effort. Ultimately, they’re hoping to offer a wide variety of classes in and around food and gardening at the site.

“In this day and age where the financial struggle is real for many people, how can we work with the community in helping each other be able to make affordable food and choices around that,” Walsh said of the pair’s mission. “Also, what we put into our bodies is what we get out of them … so, how can we learn about good foods, not just growing and making meals, but how can we support our bodies in the process?”

“I feel like a vibrant, happy, healthy community is one that thrives and sustains itself, and it ripples out,” she continued.

If food is one key pillar of BCC’s work, building community is another.

“Just the holistic nature of health being more than just food and more than just medicine, but people and community,” Clark said. “Making this a public space is the hope.”

That vision is starting to take shape. On a sunny afternoon last week, several folks wandered in and out of BCC’s greenhouses, stopping to chat with Clark and Walsh as they perused the plants. Clark noted that earlier that day, a couple of groups had stopped by to sit and enjoy coffee served in the farmstand that morning.

The BCC team has also collaborated with community entities on a few endeavors, such as serving as a site for the BEATS Eats Food Truck this past fall. It also worked with local students involved in the MAUSD’s Expanded Learning Program and artist Matthew Denton to create a mural on one of the greenhouses.

“I think first and foremost, last year and this year, we really just wanted to get a foundation here and get our wings underneath us, get some sort of a flow with this, see what the community wants and needs,” Walsh said. “But, then also having this greater vision that we want to implement in the next couple of years.”

Walsh and Clark said they’ve appreciated the local support over the past year and getting to engage with residents in a new way.

As their work at BCC continues to evolve, the pair said they’re open to hearing from community members about what offerings they’d like to see.

“We’re very open to ideas that we didn’t come up with or think about at all,” Clark said.

Walsh agreed.

“Outside of what we want to create, what does the community need and what do they want? That’s been really awesome to just talk to people and figure out,” she said.