A celebration ensues!

On Friday the 12th, Roots of Peace held its first major event of the season, a community potluck dinner and documentary showing at the garden and on the adjacent park, Bedford Green. Over fifty gardeners and community members came together over home-cooked dishes, some of which included produce harvested last week right from the garden! The celebration started with dinner and garden tours, and was capped by a showing of  "A Thousand Suns", a documentary film about the Gamo tribe of Ethiopia and its centuries-old sustainable farming practices.
The beautiful, cool evening was slightly bittersweet; as the summer comes to a close, Merry and I prepare to leave Staten Island to continue university classes. The potluck provided a great opportunity to reflect on the establishment and growth of the garden in the past few summer months, and to spend time with the members of Stapleton who will continue to grow food and create friendships there. As the two of us start our last week at Roots of Peace, it's a comfort to know that the garden has been, and will continue to be, in caring hands.

Stapleton Meets Mother Nature

On Monday the garden harvested an eggplants, a dozen hot peppers, cherry tomatoes and radishes. Our gardeners were so excited to see their hard work and patients pay off. When people harvest their crops for the first time they always have this magical reaction, almost disbelief. It seems almost to good to be true that the tiny seeds they planted months ago gave way to healthy plants. Its the most direct way to see our planet at work. Gardening allows people to see the connection between their work and nature's work. Trust me the payoff can be huge, we have eggplants to prove it.

This Friday the garden is celebrating its first open season with a community potluck. We are using a liberal definition of community and opening up our gates to anyone that feels moved to come by. I hope to see many new and familiar faces. Maybe some of this season's harvest will even end up in some of the dishes!

Rain, Rain

After the success at last week's BBQ we are planning another at tonight's workday. This part of the summer has allowed me to lay back and literally enjoy the fruits of our labor. With all the raised beds built, soil shipped and seeds sowed I have gotten to sit back and watch our plants grow. I've also gotten to enjoy meeting new community members everyday. On Wednesday 4:30pm sharp the sky opened up and started to rain. Usually I would pack things up and retreat inside almost mechanically, but this time I was genuinely disappointed. Rain means that most of our members take the day in the garden off, meaning I won't get to see them and talk with them. The people in this neighborhood have been so kind and generous. With only two weeks left I invite every opportunity I get to see them.

Below is a preview of tonight's BBQ. I will be making pumpkin brownies, by replacing the eggs and oil in a regular boxed brownie mix, with a can of pumpkin. It's really easy and tasty.

1 Box Brownie Mix

1 Can Pumpkin

Preheat oven according to directions on brownie box. Combine pumpkin and brownie mix. Mix until smooth. Place mixture in a greased tray (4x12) and cook for approximately half an hour. The cook time may be more or less depending on the size of the tray and the type of brownie mix.

Zucchini Cookie Recipe

Last week the garden hosted a last minute BBQ. Some of our members contributed hotdogs, burgers, drinks and even a grill. Once the grill got going lots of community members followed their noses into the garden. We had plenty of food and even harvested some basil to top off our burgers. I contributed some zucchini cookies which pleasantly surprised everyone. Adding veggies, like zucchini to cake, muffin, brownie and cookie recipes is a great way to cut down on saturated fats and add in vitamins and minerals.

Zucchini Cookies:

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons honey

1 cup grated zucchini

1 egg

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375

Add the butter and sugar, beat until creamy. Beat in the egg and honey then stir in zucchini.

In a separate bowl combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Gradually add flour mixture to wet mixture and stir until well blended. Chill the dough for 1 hour OR freeze for 15-20 minutes. Scoop teaspoon size balls of batter onto a greased cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.

Vegetables and Visitors

A busy week with many guest!

With Margaret off on vacation the garden was short a hand this week. Lucky for me, I had some great friends come and help out. Three of my friends from Connecticut College will be making an appearance in the garden and offer some of their gardening expertise to the project.

We also began to the process of handing the garden over to the community this week. On Monday night I met with a few, committed garden members to discuss the future of The Roots of Peace Garden. There enthusiasm assured me that the Roots of Peace Garden will live on after I leave and continue to have a positive impact on the community.

This week also welcomed new eggplants, peppers and ripe tomatoes. We had two tomatoes and three peppers harvested on Monday!

If a garden could talk...

We have now been in business at the Roots of Peace Community Garden for over a month and a half. With all necessities in place (soil, plants and raised beds) we are starting to beautify the space. This past week we added some hydrangeas and holly along our back fence. A local landscaper even showed us how to use bamboo in the garden and how to keep it under control (I still have my reservations.)

With all have-to's aside its been nice to sit back and really get to know the community members better. I'm learning everyone's styles of work. Turns out you can really tell a lot about a person from their garden plot!

Some Pictures