Suna Turgay: Using Nature to Find Peace
Written by Abigail Crawford
Photos by Nikki Gardner Photography
Sponsored by Valley Home Improvement
Published in Northampton Living (September 2022)
Suna Turgay, of Bay State Village in Northampton, has been gardening since she was a student at Hampshire College, where she studied Experiential Education, Music and Dance, before working in education. Suna’s gardening has been a source of peace and joy, a comfort in times of distress, and a resource for her, her partner Ben Wood, and their children, Elsa and Cyrus. Suna has gardened in the summer camps and farms she worked for during summers as a student, she has had a space in the Northampton Community Garden, and she now has a lavish garden at her home in Northampton, as well as a farm plot at Grow Food Northampton. Her flower farm is Flowerwork Farm, a regenerative no-till flower farm in downtown Florence. The garden at her homestead contains flowers, fruit trees and berry bushes. Suna is passionate about food access, and about teaching people to grow their own food, and envisions Flowerwork Farm as a peaceful space where people of all backgrounds, identities and abilities can participate in growing flowers to be sold locally. “I want to create volunteer opportunities, provide vocational training and flower arranging workshops, and create a space where people can come together to do activities that bring peace and calming, using nature to find peace,” Suna said.
Suna met Ben when they both attended Hampshire College, and they now have a twenty-year-old child, Elsa, who is a dance major in college, and a fifteen-year-old son, Cyrus, who enjoys sports, and whose favorite subjects in school last year were photography and shop. Ben leaned more toward the sciences on his path at Hampshire College, got his Master’s Degree at the University of Michigan, and has now had a twenty-year career in public health. He works for both the State Health Department and the national non-profit organization, the Public Health Institute, which does capacity building work for organizations across the country. He was also the Public Health Director of Northampton for twenty years.
The family moved to Northampton from Concord, New Hampshire in 2004. What they enjoy most about living in the Bay State neighborhood is being close to the Mill River and Maines field, where they play volleyball. They also enjoy the neighborhood because it is a short distance from both downtown Northampton and downtown Florence. “We love living in a neighborhood where we know our neighbors, where we check in with one another, where we pet and garden sit for each other, and can always borrow a cup of sugar from one another,” Suna and Ben said. Together they participate in community trail-running and mountain biking groups as well. “There’s just a really great sense of togetherness in this community,” Ben said, mentioning that elsewhere people might engage in these activities alone. “There’s a really great sense of comradery,” he said.
Shortly after the family moved to their current home, their son Cyrus was born. When he suffered from seizures at four months old and was eventually diagnosed with Autism in addition to other health issues, Suna leaned into gardening as a way to do what she could to give Cyrus and the rest of the family the best care, to “feed both our tummies and our souls,” as she puts it. “It was my way of feeling like I was doing something fulfilling, contributing to my family, and creating something that we all needed, and also being able to be as flexible as I could be for my son, as well as my older child,” Suna said. This home resource and passion project has now grown to include Suna’s farm plot at Grow Food Northampton, where her goal is to create volunteer opportunities where people can participate regardless of social differences.
Their son Cyrus also inspired Suna to serve on the Special Education Parent Advisory Committee for local schools, and Elsa inspired her to coach soccer and even participate in a performance at Elsa’s dance studio. Suna was also active in making costumes for school plays and enjoys other artistic activities. Her favorite job was being the director of an overnight camp in Vermont, where she was able to create a place she wanted to live and participate in. Now she runs Flowerwork Farm and works for Grow Food Northampton.
As a family, they enjoy cross-country skiing, ice skating, canoeing, and kayaking. Suna and Ben recall fondly a recent memory from Cape Cod’s Nickerson State Park, a place the family often visits, where the two watched their children enjoy one of the park’s kettle ponds at sunset. Cyrus does not usually enjoy water, but he decided to give it a try on this beautiful evening, and Elsa joined in to help him swim. “That evening there was perfect weather, Cyrus was splashing around in the water and Elsa was helping him swim. They were laughing and having the time of their lives,” Ben said, “It was this crystallized moment of the kids together and being in such a beautiful place.”
More additions to Suna and Ben’s family include their eight-year-old Catahoula Leopard dog, Kona, and aloof cat Sasha. And then there is Sunshine. The family does not usually name chickens, but this one has earned herself a name. Sunshine is the leader of the hens that Suna keeps along with her garden. Ben describes Sunshine as a “very personable, very smart chicken.” “She used to escape out of the well-secured coop,” Suna said, “and peck around the garden and even tries to get into the house. We’ve had chickens as long as we’ve lived here and never have we met a bird like Sunshine.”
In addition to running Flowerwork Farm, Suna currently works for Grow Food Northampton where she makes food deliveries in partnership with the Survival Center. She enjoys getting to know neighbors who she normally would not get to know, through her deliveries. The local agricultural scene is very active, and Suna enjoys the program as it engages the community as well as the farmers. She emphasizes the importance of gardening and supporting local farmers during a time when we are faced with food shortages due to the pandemic. She describes the program as “full circle,” as produce is delivered in the same crate that eventually gets returned to the farmer, eliminating shipping and packaging processes that both increase the price of food and have a negative impact on the environment. She sees Flowerwork Farm as a place where people can learn vocational skills, grow flowers, get exercise, and reap the therapeutic benefits of gardening.
