The Food Project: Youth. Food. Community.

Come celebrate spring with The Food Project! The Food Project will be holding its annual City Farm Fests in Lynn and Boston this Saturday, May 12, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. All members of the community are invited to join us for gardening workshops; plant, seed, and gardening supplies sales; children’s activities; food; and more. Come learn how to start your garden, get expert tips on maintaining your garden, buy essential garden supplies, or simply enjoy the festivities!

Lynn City Farm Fest

WHERE: TFP's Munroe Street Garden, 100 Munroe Street, Lynn, Mass.

WHEN: Saturday, May 12, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

WHAT:

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Come celebrate spring with TFP! The Food Project will be holding its annual City Farm Fest at the Dudley Greenhouse in Roxbury on Saturday, May 12, 2012. The festival will kick off at 10:00 a.m. with a workshop entitled "Pests, Diseases, and Harvesting Tips." From 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., TFP staff and youth will be selling plants, seeds, and gardening supplies. The festival will also feature children's activities and food for everyone.

An additional plant sale will be held on Saturday, May 19 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Dudley Greenhouse. Stop by to purchase cold-tolerant plants to get your garden started early this year! 

For more information about the City Farm Fest, please download a flier or contact Community Programs Coordinator Kathleen Banfield.

Attendees prepare to transplant.On Saturday, March 24, 15 community members enjoyed a day at the Dudley Greenhouse for The Food Project's tomato planting event. First, the group helped to plant tomato seedlings in the greenhouse’s enterprise bay. The tomato plants were started as seeds at Atlas Farm in Western Massachusetts, which belongs to The Food Project's former urban grower.

On Saturday morning, TFP intern Emily Walls explained how to plant the tomato seedlings to the group. She demonstrated digging a deep hole where there was a patch of fertilizer, gently placing the tomato in the hole, and patting soil firmly around the plant. After the demonstration, volunteers worked in pairs, speedily getting all 800 tomatoes in the ground.

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The Food Project will be presenting a new "Grow Well" gardening workshop entitled "Planning and Planting Basics." The workshop will take place three times in the upcoming month. We will also be repeating two popular workshops from earlier in the spring: "Tips for Getting Started Early" and "Pests, Diseases, and Harvesting Tips."

Don't miss out – these workshops are essential season-starters for the many container gardeners in our neighborhood!

Grow Well: Bringing your gardening skills to a new level

Planning and Planting Basics

* Saturday, March 31, 2:00 - 4:00 P.M.

* Saturday, April 14, 10:00 A.M. - 12:00 P.M.

* Wednesday, April 25, 6:00 - 8:00 P.M.

Tips for Getting Started Early

* Saturday, April 7, 10:00 - 11:30 A.M.

Pests, Diseases, and Harvesting Tips

* Saturday, May 12, 10:00 - 11:30 A.M.

Download a flyer for more information.

A Student Plants CollardsStanding in a misshapen circle in the center of the Dudley Greenhouse's community bay, 12 middle school girls share their favorite food memories. They share delicious stories about eating new foods during their travels, sweet stories about cooking with their families, and funny stories about sharing snacks with their friends at school.

It is the first day in the greenhouse for a new group of 5th through 8th grade girls from the Mother Caroline Academy in Dorchester, Mass. Girls from Mother Caroline have been visiting their four raised-bed gardens in the community bay of the greenhouse each week since the fall of 2011. The students grow vegetables in the greenhouse, learn about food systems and food justice, and visit Cooking Matters to learn to cook some of the vegetables that they have grown.

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RIAC coordinator Saida helps with the workshop.Greenhouse gardeners Fadumo Khiere and Rahma Farah led friends, neighbors, and cooking enthusiasts in a cooking class about Somali food on Saturday, February 25 in the kitchen at The Food Project's office in Dorchester.

Fadumo and Rahma are gardeners from the Refugee and Immigrant Assistance Center (RIAC) who have been tending three garden plots in the Dudley Greenhouse for the past five months. In their plots, they are growing a variety of cold weather crops, including lettuce, spinach, collard greens, broccoli, cilantro, and cauliflower. Recently, they planted peas and green beans to be harvested in the coming months.

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Due to the snow forecasted for this evening, tonight's Grow Well Workshop 2: "Start Your Own Seeds" has been cancelled. The workshop has been rescheduled for Wednesday, March 7, from 6:00 - 7:30pm at the Dudley Greenhouse, 11 Brook Ave, Roxbury, MA.

Please contact Community Food Coordinator Danielle Andrews for more information about the rescheduled workshop.

TFP staff Jennie Msall works with BCRHHR members.Each Friday, a group of refugees and clinicians from the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights (BCRHHR) meet at the Boston Medical Center and walk the mile to the Dudley Greenhouse together. At the greenhouse, they are welcomed by TFP staffers Jennie Msall and Danielle Andrews, who lead them into the community bay, where they have been hard at work all winter. Soon, they sink their hands into the dirt and settle into the work of cultivating their three raised-bed gardens, in which they grow a variety of vegetables, including plants from their home countries. As they tend their crops, the refugees discuss their lives in Boston, methods for growing food in small spaces, and what they cook and eat here in Boston and in their home countries.

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Eat Well: Somali CuisineThe Food Project invites you to learn about Somali cuisine with Fadumo Kheire, who will present the second session in our “Eat Well” series of workshops. Fadumo is a community gardener with RIAC, one of nine groups working in the community bays in the Dudley Greenhouse. She will lead us in preparing two Somali dishes.

Eat Well: Connecting to gardens through culture and cooking
Cooking with Your Neighbor - Somali Cuisine
* Saturday, February 25, 12 - 1:30 p.m., RSVP REQUIRED

Download a flyer for more information.

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Maria Barros prepares bacalhau.Local gardener Maria Barros led friends, neighbors, and food enthusiasts in a cooking class about Cape Verdean cooking at The Food Project’s office this Saturday, January 28.

The ten participants included Cape Verdean Bostonians eager to learn about their traditional cuisine, as well as many local gardeners. As they chopped vegetables for the class, the gardeners discussed last year's cabbage crop and their excitement to plant collard greens for the spring.

Barros led participants in preparing two traditional Cape Verdean dishes called Cachupa and Bacalhau. Cachupa is a stew that contains collard greens, beans, and corn. Bacalhau is a stew containing salted cod. After preparing the two dishes, participants dined together to taste their creations.

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