2nd 5th Day
By 8:30 am my car was packed with bbq, trowels, grub hoes, pepper plants, macoroni salad, a stack of reading, my friend and guide for the morning: Robbie Adelberg, and myself. Few people know that combination is the perfect setup to study community based small scale sustainable agriculture with 14 FoodWorks interns. After coming together and discussing the schedule, topics and goals for the day, we jumped on 264 to 3rd St going to the south end of Louisville to visit one of the refugee gardens in the city. Our destination was located behind the New Heights Baptist Church on Southside Drive. A community garden of over an acre made of 30' by 30' plots and a menagerie of ethnic and personal identities. We sat in the shade as our guides Lauren Goldberg and Robbie explained how many refugees end up in Louisville through church efforts, family connections and the city's reputation. Many of the these refugees are coming from camps and situations where the concept of a normal traditional lifestyle is alienated. With the help of dedicated people such as Lauren and Robbie, places with land like the church are linked with the refugees in a relationship where expansive lawns can be tilled and cultivated to provide an outlet for a cultural, historical, ancestral connection that has sometimes laid dormant for decades. The gardeners were from three main ethnic groups: Bhutanese, Karen from Burma and Burundi. Each section of the garden reflected a different agricultural heritage and perspective on food production shown in the inter-cropping of corn, beans and squash in the Burundi plots and the use of complex trellising systems for bitter gourds in the Karen areas. As we toured the garden, the families and personalities came out of the arrangements and the cultivation of the fields. One of the most interesting plots was that of the actual church members who decided to garden with the refugees to whom they had lent the land. The contrast between the church plots with straight lines, wide spacing and recognizable vegetables demonstrated the diversity not only within the garden but in the city.
We traveled to the People's Garden in Shawnee Park, the far west end of Louisville, for the afternoon. There we met Valerie Magnuson and her two Vista volunteers. We arrived at the tail end of a group of elementary age students who were exploring the garden and trying to show their pride in the harvest by boldly biting into fresh raw red onions. Valerie circled us under a tree and, after introductions, told us the story of the garden. It was a story with racial undercurrents, socioeconomic conflicts, public hearings and a gradual reconciliation. Through the story, just as we have seen the complexity and layers behind food, we saw the many cultural connotations residing in a garden and how many feelings may be conjured as one is planted. We then moved to the garden where we loosened soil, weeded strawberries, mulched trees, and hoed ground, but more importantly we talked. We talked about our days and thoughts. We talked about the role of different people in the internship and food system. We talked how people rarely talk now: face to face, bare feet in the soil, over future food.
3rd 5th Day
Many of the interns realized a new appreciation for labor intensive sustainable agriculture as they experienced oddly shaped sun burn cause by shirt straps and acute cases of dehydration this morning. We arrived at Field Day Family Farms at 9:45 am and already walking in the sun was enough to start a good sweat out. Immediately we were shown the finer points of pulling, cleaning and tying garlic by Ivor Chodkowski of Field Day Family farms and set to work. The interns rotated between the garlic stations and pounding steel posts into the ground to help trellis tomato plants in the coming weeks. As the groups progressed, proud smiles of accomplishment emerged from the three generations of workers we had in the field. I fired up the cob oven built by the Food Literacy Project who graciously allowed us to use their beautiful outdoor kitchen. After a presentation by Shadae of the Food Literacy Project on the state of obesity, diabetes, and nutrition in the city, we designed our own pizzas using local squash, beets, leeks, sweet and hot peppers, oregano, thyme, radish, red onion, basil and arugula pesto and garlic. After lunch we piled into the back of Ivor's pick-up and took a tour of the farm. From the bed we picked his brain over his definition of what is local and sustainable, the reasoning behind his choice to not apply for organic certification, his future in farming and the expansion of food systems for local people. In leaving for the day, each with a bulb of garlic from the harvest, we were faced with the many contradictions in American society as Field Day Family Farm is bordered by a massive golf course which to me represents one of the most resource intensive and least productive mono-cultures created by humans.
Numbers for the 2nd and 3rd 5th Days:
-Firsts for Interns: Eating woodsorrel, lambsquaters, rosel, sweetgum......weeds. Riding in the back of a pick-up. Harvesting garlic. Using a post pounder. Traveling to the West End. Using a cob oven.
-Hundreds of bulbs of garlic pulled. More impressively, thousands of cloves harvested.
-27 handmade locally sourced ingredient pizzas cooked and consumed.
-4 ethnic garden personalities observed.
-3 hours and 45 minutes of Rowan at the farm harvesting garlic, beating all of our bets.
-14 sunburnt, dehydrated interns
-1 teacher content to sit inside on a computer on another 94 degree day.
FoodWorks Interns and Others:
Questions for discussion (all are invited):
1) In opening the People's Garden in the west end of Louisville, many issues came to the forefront regarding race, socioeconomic status and the convergence of diverse perspectives. Are these programs such as the People's Garden, Healthy-in-a Hurry groceries, Fresh Stops, etc. a form of cultural colonization? Are they a form of behavior modification? Or are they a concerted effort by a piece of larger community to preserve itself and quality of life?
2) I have an aversion to lawns and golf courses. I see them as resource intensive, inefficient uses of space and time as well as demonstration of wealth. I understand the need for common spaces such as public parks, lawns on campuses and areas for larger congregation for celebration, protest and communion. Can someone please continue the conversation began last Thursday defending the individuals right to their lawn and the use of resources in preserving that space?
3) In discussing many of the issues the interns have been confronting, one of the programs supporters broke all of the issues down to a "class issue." I know collectively we have a problem with reductionist reasoning but can all of the issues we have been dealing with be broken down to a simple case of class disparity?
4) "Good food is truly brain food; it gives your mind something to chew on. It brings new meaning to the phrase 'food for thought.'" -Sam
Last week Sam posted this sentence in response to the second blog posting. In teaching my students at Fern Creek High School, many of them fought tooth and nail against learning the story behind their food. They said I was ruining food for them. Many seemed to appreciate the non-thought that went into eating. How can we mesh the two contradictory definitions of good food?
Check out pics from the 5th Days:
 |
| Rocking out at the People's Garden moments before Robbie river-danced. |
 |
| Using the action hoe and planting. Yeah! |
 |
| Getting intimate with Bermuda Grass. |
 |
| Breaking up the grounds. |
 |
| Ivor shows the proper stance for pulling garlic which is ironically the same for using a pitching wedge. |
 |
| Garlic and squinting. |
 |
| Surprisingly, Charlie made that face after each pull. |
 |
| After removing the bees, we cooked the pizzas. |
 |
| TEAMWORK! |
 |
| Contemplating the mysteries of sustainable ag. |
