The Food Project: Youth. Food. Community.

[The first part of this blog was written by Sylvia, a TFP summer intern. In the second part, Sylvia is the featured gardener in this month’s installment of "A Week in My Garden."]

TFP Intern Sylvia at work on her raised-bed garden.My name is Sylvia and I am one of the twelve Boston interns at The Food Project. Our internship is divided into three groups in which we rotate: Agriculture (AG), Teaching through Agriculture (TAG), and Build-a-Garden (BaG).

During our time in AG we get the opportunity to teach community members about the food system through our Food Choices Workshop. As part of TAG, we have the opportunity to educate and inform children from the ages of 5 to 18 about healthy food choices at our Urban Learning Farm (ULF).

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A head of freshly harvested garlic with many more to clean!

With all of this talk about harvesting garlic, I'm sure many of you are eager to grow it for the first time or plant even more than last year! We will be announcing our Compost & Garlic Fest in next month's newsletter, and in the meantime plan ahead. We'll be ordering seed garlic for planting. To guarantee garlic, you must pre-order.

How to Pre-Order:

Each head of garlic will be $5, and generally 1 head covers about 1 square foot in a raised bed. To pre-order, please mail a check made out to The Food Project by August 31. Please include your name, email and/or phone number, and # of garlic heads you'd like.

Send checks to:
The Food Project
Attn: Kathleen Banfield
555 Dudley St
Dorchester Ma, 02125

Questions? Email buildagarden@thefoodproject.org

James Modi has a unique gardening arrangement at his Lynn home. Through a partnership with the GRO Project (Gardening through Refugee Organizations) and The Food Project, he shares 20 raised beds with almost 20 gardeners from his native Sudan, many of whom were small scale farmers in rural areas back home. Stemming from a need for their ethnic foods (think sweet potato leaf) and a desire to continue their farming tradition, the garden is tended and harvested communally - extra produce is sold at the New American Center in Lynn, providing supplementary income for many.

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My first cucumber of the season.

Container Kit Update

A few tasty snacks came from my container kit in June. I harvested several cucumbers which had the best crunch and were so tasty! And I had several ripe tomatoes so I made a delicious batch of salsa, which calmed an anxious group of friends joining me for a Bruins hockey playoff game.

Cucumber plant strangling my tomatoes.

One alert I have for container gardeners - if you are growing cucumbers and using the attachable cage that we gave you, note that the vine will most likely outgrow the cage. You should still be able to get a decent harvest. Be careful to keep the cucumber pot away from other plants - in this picture, the cucumber vine is wrapped around a tomato plant. I cut it off and moved the cucumber pot about 5 feet away from the tomatoes.

Those hardy greens that grow on a stalk through late fall are an awesome plant to have in your garden. They can provide you food well into the winter. For many southern families these "greens" are a staple. Here is a recipe adapted from my mother's kitchen.

Southern Style Collard Greens

by Joy

1 tablespoon Butter
1 tablespoon Olive oil
2-3 Bunches of collards
1lb smoked turkey necks or any smoked meat (i.e. bacon, duck breast, etc.)
3-5 quarts of vegetable stock
onions
garlic
salt and pepper (to taste)

In a large pot over medium heat, heat oil and butter. Saute the onions until slightly softened, about 2 minutes, then add the smoked turkey necks and garlic, cook another minute. Add collard greens and cook another minute. Add the vegetable stock, cover and bring to a simmer. Cook until greens are tender, about 40 minutes. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and serve.

Collard greens sauteed in coconut oil

by Kathleen

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ToRena checks on the bounty of her garden

Dorchester resident ToRena Webb invited me into her garden this past week. She has a number of projects going on in the backyard. From potatoes being grown in a trash can to the herb garden on the patio, ToRena is making the most of the space she has. She told me of how her father introduced her to gardening at a very young age. As an expecting mother, she plans to continue the tradition both with her children and her nephew. This week she will have her nephew help her harvest strawberries.

With such a busy schedule, how do you (plan to) incorporate gardening into you life?

I'm a Teaching and Performance Artist and am able to plan my schedule according to my own needs. I like to garden in the morning and early afternoon. This still gives me plenty of time to do many other things in my day.

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For those of you following my container-gardening adventure, these past couple of weeks have been full of harvests, which is always exciting. Here are a few updates:

* After three cuttings of salad mix, I pulled it up and planted a pepper in its place.

Lettuce out, pepper in.

* I also pulled up the salad greens around the collard plant because it was getting too big. If you recall, growing salad greens around and under the base of the collard plant was an experiment for me. Looking back, it's safe to say that I was able to grow "microgreens" and get two cuttings.

* At the end of May, I harvested seven of the outer (bottom) collard leaves and had plenty for a side at dinner!

* My rectangular planter has offered me much to eat too.

Harvested radishes.

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Kun, walking through his newly planted food forest. Some of his fruit trees include pears and nectarines.While Kun Xu is new to our Build-a-Garden program, he is not at all new to gardening. He changed his yard to provide food for himself and his family and to inspire the community.

As I walked along his property I was amazed by the changes he had made in just four months. His house is lined with fruit trees, herbs, and vegetables. Passersby stop to admire the beauty of his budding food forest. Here's a peek into Kun's garden.

With such a busy schedule, how do you (plan to) incorporate gardening into your life?

Since I like to do gardening very much, I am trying very hard to squeeze some time for myself. Usually, I get up at 6:00 a.m. and work for one hour before breakfast and work for one more hour after work.

How many years have you been gardening in Massachusetts (northeast U.S.)?

I did gardening for six years in Maine.

Top two reasons to have a garden?

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Join us this Saturday at 100 Munroe Street in Lynn

11am - 2pm

Workshop:
Planning & Planting your Raised Bed Garden
held twice, starting at 11 am & 1:30 pm

Build-a-Garden Plant Pick-up:
If you are a participant in the Build-a-Garden program and received your garden between July 2010 - present, you are eligible to pick up transplants at no additional cost (first come, first choice).

Plant & Garden Sale:
Come for plants, seeds and garden supplies! 

download a flyer to share

In addition to The Food Project's Plant Sale, we are expecting a second vendor who will have an assortment of flowers, herbs and more!

Are you looking for vegetable plants for your garden?  If you missed our City Farm Fest, it's not too late!  We will be holding a second plant and garden supply sale this week. Here are the details!

Additional Plant & Garden Sale 

• Date:  Thursday May 12
• Time:  4 - 6pm
• Location: Dudley Greenhouse, 11 Brook Ave., Roxbury

Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, basil, collard greens, & more! 

Here's a list of what's available today.

Available Food Project plants:

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