The pump system that sends water to nearly 200 plots at the Sycamore Community Garden was suddenly dry. Volunteers checked on the problem and discovered the solar panels that powered the system had been stolen, the wires cut. 

Ruth Heath, president of the garden’s board of directors, looked at the empty frame of the small array on Tuesday with a mix of shock and disappointment.

She understood when the panels were installed three years ago that someone might try to take them. Placed at a remote corner of the property, she thought they’d be safe. There’s been some food theft over the years, but never anything major — it’s the groundhogs who’ve been the biggest issue for Sycamore.

“I’m the kind of person that expects the best from people… I thought, 'who would come all the way out here and take these?’” she said. “I was proven wrong.” 

Sycamore, founded in 2009, is a community garden located on NHTI property, and its volunteer base wants to make gardening accessible to all city residents by providing a space to grow food organically in an area that is also accessible by public transportation. The vast majority of those who use it are people who came to Concord as immigrants or refugees. It has expanded twice over the years, growing from 54 garden plots up to 168, with more expansion on the way.

Up until 2022, people had watered their crops, like corn, potatoes, mustard, tomatoes, melons and hot peppers, with what they got from a hand pump well and lugged to their plots.

The installation of solar-powered well pumps changed everything, said Heath. 

Over the weekend, someone cut the wires and walked away with those panels, as well as a few tools from the garden’s locked shed. 

Heath said they’re looking into replacements, but gardeners will have to go back to moving water by hand in the meantime.

“People were so, so grateful that year we put the water system in,” Heath said. “It made so much of a difference to them.”

Because the college is on state land, it’s state police who are investigating. 

The solar panel and pump system was bought and installed with donated time and money, and a quote from a California panel company that said it would take a little less than a week and around $700 to replace the panels. Even if police solve the crime and locate the original panels, she figures they’ll be held as evidence, and the growing season waits for no one. 

“It was heartening, the way the community responded and made the system happen in the first place,” she said. She’s optimistic that community support, maybe even a local solar company, will lend the garden a hand again. 

Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com. You can subscribe to her Concord newsletter The City Beat at concordmonitor.com.