Meet Your Neighbors: Paul & Chelsie Fleischer
Interviewed by Christy Cerrone.
Continuing our series of interviews with our Southern Gables neighbors, to help us get to know and appreciate each other. If you know a neighbor you’d like to have featured, contact Christy, information below.
How long have you lived in Southern Gables? We’ve been here 4 years.
Can you tell us a little bit about Fleischer Family Farm– how you got the idea, how it came to be, what are your goals?
We started the farm as a means to teach our children hard work and provide high quality food for our family. Since the inception though, the passion we have for producing food and flowers has only grown along with the support from our community. We are now one of the largest CSA farms in the entire Metro area with 92 families in our program this year. We hope to be able to provide high quality, nutrient rich food for our family and our community without the use of pesticides or other harmful chemicals and to spread education about the life cycle of food all while acting as responsible stewards of this earth.
What are a few things that you like the most about the Southern Gables community?
Oh boy! Where do we start?!?! We LOVE this community. Everyone here seems to really look out for one another and support each other in different ways. Neighbors of different political opinion, socio-economic status, religion, sexual orientation and age, all come together as one community. It is really beautiful to see. It seems like every Saturday at our community market we get to meet another new neighbor, and each time we do, we are so pleased to know this new acquaintance from our area. The Southern Gables Sustainable neighborhood program is also extremely important to us. We love that the community around us values this planet and we are so happy to be a part of a program that pushes for positive change.
Do you have a favorite memory with your Southern Gables neighbors?
We have lots of great memories with these neighbors, but last year’s neighborhood leaf collection day was one of our favorites. Being able to keep hundreds and hundreds of bags of leaves out of landfills and instead work it into the soil of our community farm to improve fertility and make better crops for years to come, was a wonderful experience. Seeing all different members of our neighborhood coming out and volunteering their time and working together because it is an important thing to do for our planet was beautiful. We’re looking forward to that special event this year too, on Saturday, November 7.
What is the most neighborly experience you’ve had or seen in our neighborhood?
It is hard to pin down just one experience. Instead, we should collectively point out the consistent weekly neighborly actions of all of the people that come to our farmstand each week. These people are so kind hearted and polite. You all patiently wait in line and maintain an appropriate social distance while wearing a mask. Our neighbors pass the time while they wait by engaging in real conversations with new friends they meet at the market and everyone gets along and has a nice time. The support you all show us and the genuine kindness you exude to fellow patrons and my family is amazing.
What are your hobbies?
We both really love hiking, camping and being outdoors. Chels is a big runner and Paul loves all sports. Aside from that, we both place ultimate value on family time, love to cook, read and cuddle.
What is your favorite quote or saying?
A friend once told me of his family’s long time saying to “Keep chopping wood.” That has always stuck with us especially through the hard times. You can’t give up. You can’t give in when times get hard. Unless you want to just throw in the towel and freeze yourself out, you’ll need to “keep chopping wood.”
Contact [email protected] to nominate a candidate for the “Meet Your Neighbor” series.