#AnnMolloy

Our Green Pride

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It’s no great secret that I consider Ann Molloy a dear friend.  We met at one of many long series of City Council meetings here in Gloucester.  It wasn’t one of the most ideal scenarios to sow a friendship, but it worked and has grown into a rich friendship that I didn’t even know my life lacked.

Ann’s family, as many know, own and operate Ocean Crest Seafood and Neptune’s Harvest.  Back in the Winter of 2012 another friend of mine, Rona Tyndall, had a wonderful idea to start a Community Garden down the Fort.  Ocean Crest owns a piece of property across the street from their company, part gravel parking lot, the rest a small field with an apple tree on it.  1It was a no brainer to approach them in hopes that they would let us dig it up and turn it into not only a vegetable patch for the fort community to share in, but a place that drew folks together. Not only did Ocean Crest say yes to us using the land for the garden, but Neptune’s Harvest even donated the fertilizer, and has continues to do so each year. They overwhelmingly said yes, because that’s the kind of people they are – kind.

While Winter slowly turned to Spring, plans were made in rough drafts on pieces of paper, dreams of fresh vegetables feeding our imagination as to what it could be.  A lot of work, but fun work.  In comes another bonus, my cousin, Debbie Adkins, has this contact with some University of Maryland students who, rather than go off to some sunny resort or home for Spring Break, they have “Alternative Break,” where they seek a destination and help people.  Debbie asks, “How would you like them to come here and help start the garden?”  Another no brainer.  How lucky are we?  We get these young kids, eager to help and not afraid to get their hands dirty.  It’s been so much fun having them over the past three years.  They work like there’s no tomorrow, and then we have a lunch break.

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Somehow everything tastes more delicious after a morning together in the garden. With a well deserved lunch in our bellies, it’s not back to work for the students, but out on tour.  A little make shift Gloucester history tour, an educational walk through Ocean Crest and Neptune’s Harvest, perhaps a dory ride…  what ever it may be, the kids love coming here and reach out to us year after year to see if we have a need for them in the garden.

I’ve moved from the Fort and find spare time scarce for heading over to the garden to see how it’s going.  Funny how life can take us in so many different directions in so little time.  I hope the garden will continue to be a place for folks to gather together.  What has flourished, in addition to the garden, is my friendship with Ann.  It’s been extremely apparent to me, that when she became my friend, I got the entire family along with her and I’m not talking about just her siblings, but their kids, the kids of those kids, cousins, nieces, nephews, their kids, her mom, her son…  I feel like I’ve been adopted into an empire of love.

Now I’d like to give back, return some of that goodness that they’re always pouring out on me.   How the heck do I do that?  By asking you.  You see, Neptune’s Harvest is up for another great “Green” award.  I say another, as last year they received an award for “Outstanding Innovation & Leadership in Achieving Sustainable Practices in the Gulf of Maine,” by the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment.  Pretty cool if you ask me.  This time they are up for an award from “Green America.”  This award is for their commitment to advancing organic agriculture, but there’s a catch, there are ten finalists and they need your vote. All the finalists must excel in an overall commitment to both social and environmental responsibility.  I’d say they’ve nailed that.  So please, go to the link provided here and cast your vote for Neptune’s Harvest. If you’re a gardener and haven’t tried their products, please do, your garden will love you for it.

To vote for Neptune’s Harvest, click the following link:

http://www.greenamerica.org/green-business-people-and-planet-award/index.cfm

 

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Laurel - Headshot touch up vignetteLaurel Tarantino, is happy to live in her hometown, Gloucester, with her husband, James, “Jimmy T,” daughter Marina Bella, and the family dog, Sport. She is known for “stopping to smell the roses” and loves to photograph and write about her beloved waterfront community.

 

 

The Fort Hotel is Here

Enduring Gloucester 3 Comments

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Today we offer a letter written by Fort business owner Ann Molloy to the editor of the Gloucester Daily Times, from November 4, 2011. The perspective of time, and events which have transpired since then concerning the re-zoning of the Fort to accommodate the construction of a luxury hotel there, weights this letter with a heartbreaking realism.

Don’t Throw Gloucester “Off-Balance”

  What makes Gloucester so cool? Why do you love it here? How does it make you feel? What makes it so great?   I like that it’s real. It’s authentic. I like that it was built with hard workers, tough working class men and women. We have something special here, something different. Saltwater runs through our veins.   Tourists come here and recognize we’re different. There’s magic here. We’re as tough as our granite and as powerful as our ocean waves. Our hands are calloused and our clothes worn. We’re the finest kind…   Now I ask-  what are we becoming? Do we really want to sell out? Should people with big money from out of town be able to change our look, our feel, our very existence? They want to pretty us up,  put in a Harbor Walk for the tourists, with kiosks that say, ‘This is where the fishermen “used to” tie up, and “used to” unload their boats.” Words uttered from a Harbor Walk representative at City Hall last summer. Was it a Freudian slip?

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What is the spirit of Gloucester? Is it a grand hotel and marina down the Fort? Is that really what we want? People from out of town move here because they feel the power here and fall in love with Gloucester. What kills me is the people who move here and then try to change it.   As I think about the days ahead, it aggravates me to know I must take time away from my family and job (a marine industrial job down the Fort) to fight again, for the third time, to save the Fort from rezoning, therefore allowing a hotel. And as the mayor(Carolyn Kirk)  was quoted in the paper saying “Third time’s the charm”.  It honestly makes me sick, and at this point after about four years of fighting this, it feels like harassment.

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But now the real big bucks have arrived. The third richest man in Massachusetts (Jim Davis,) can afford to sway votes and public opinion with his cool million (half million for the naming rights, and half million for construction) for the New Balance Newell Stadium. Dollar signs in one’s eyes blurs vision sometimes.   Mr. Davis paying double and triple for property will increase all the Fort people’s taxes, by creating a false sense of property values. How many will be forced out? This is what some people want. Is it what you want? Do you want to look like Newburyport, or Newport, RI? Do you want their traffic? Why would anyone pay so much over value for this property? And talk about putting the cart before the horse, especially after rezoning failed in the last two, very recent, attempts. I sure wish he wanted to make sneakers there.   Many will say I’m living in the past. Fishing is never coming back, so I’m dreaming. We’re holding the city hostage. Please look a little deeper, before passing judgment. Look at the thriving MI (marine industrial) businesses that are down the Fort.   If this zoning goes through, it will benefit my family financially, if we wanted to sell out, but at what cost? I’d rather leave our future generations with something real, authentic and of substantial value, like my grandfather and father did for us. Showing us, with hard work and ambition, you can accomplish great things. I think that’s worth much more than selling out, and leaving them a trust fund.   The Fort is basically an industrial park, a marine- industrial park, and the people who live there deal with that daily. Do we want to put tourists and their kids down there with all the big trucks? Sounds like an accident waiting to happen. Do we really want more traffic? Our way of life as we’ve known it will no longer exist. Tourists won’t even want to come here.   So, when you’re sitting in traffic for an hour, trying to get over the bridge, will you think of this letter and say “Wow, what have we done? What have we let our town become?”   If you value what we have here, will you stand up with me and help me “Hold the Fort”, before it’s too late? It could be your neighborhood next.

Ann Molloy

Neptune’s Harvest Fertilizer

88 Commercial Street     (Down the Fort)

 

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Ann Molloy was born and raised in Gloucester. After several years of traveling around the country and world, she settled back here and has been helping run her family business, located down the Fort and on Kondelin Road. For over 20 years, Ann has been in charge of Marketing and Sales for the Neptune’s Harvest division of Ocean Crest Seafoods, which came about as a way to fully utilize 100% of the fish, by turning the gurry (everything that’s left after you fillet a fish) into an organic fertilizer. She has a wide knowledge of organic fertilizers, and the fishing industry. She also loves to paint, write, and see live music.