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| Admit it, we got your attention with the "lettuce," right? It was just a ploy. There is no lettuce yet, but all sorts of bio-dynamism is taking place under the snow blanket at the FRESH Urban Farm and Education Center and we are gearing up for Spring. Hey, it is technically about a month a way, right? So, grab a cup fo something warm and curl up with this latest edition of the FRESH e-Newsletter and envision Spring with us! |
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In this issue, - T-shirts for Sale
- Update on McDonald Park
- Gearing Up for 2017 Growing Season
- Update from the FRESH Advisory Board
- Makeeda Shares Her Lunch
- Recipe of the Month
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| The Perfect Pick Me For the Winter Blues! A FRESH T-shirt on SALEnec |
| | We have a very limited supply of FRESH t-shirts left and need to clear out our inventory to make room for the new crop we're growing!
If you want to flaunt your FRESH pride and keep a fat wallet at the same time, this sale is for you. $10 gets you a t-shirt! Send an email to info@freshnewlondon.org if you want to take advantage of this great offer.
Please indicate color and size. Here are the choices: Men's XXL, XL in dark blue or khaki, youth small or medium in bright blue. I will arrange to get the t-shirt to you and collect payment. And thanks! |
| | | Our Valentine to McDonald Park: A Progress Report |
| | | A scale model of one vision for McDonald Park. Thanks to the Conn design class for making these adorable cardboard components. |
| | There was a rousing round of applause at the February 6th City Council meeting after a FRESH member and McDonald Park area resident took to the microphone.
"Good evening. My name is Carol Booth, and I am here on behalf of my McDonald Park community and FRESH New London. We have worked hard to pave the way for improvements to McDonald Park, through an extensive neighborhood survey, outreach to the broader community, and design ideas. We would like to invite the City of New London to help in our efforts to transform a desolate city lot into a vibrant public space by incorporating McDonald Park maintenance into its 2018 budget. This would help us keep an improved neighborhood asset attractive and useful. Thank you."
Neighbor residents have been working in many different arena to lay the ground work for the renovation of their community park: attending Police Community Relations Committee meetings, learning about the City budget process, working with design students at Connecticut College to produce renderings of their visions and plans (like the black and white "perspective drawing" above), pouring over seed and tree catalogs, hashing out issues around fencing and safety; and getting to know their City, one another and their neighbors better.
This community process has been and will continue to be as important as whatever ends of being established at the intersection of McDonald and Connecticut.
Over the next month, we will bring your interviews with and profiles of the McDonald Park Leadership Team, we'll share the results of the community meeting being held today where neighborhood residents will decide on a design for the park, and we'll invite you to participate in the work of building out their vision on Saturday, April 15th. Onward! |
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| | | | | LOVE AND LETTUCE: Gearing Up to Grow! |
| | The FRESH Urban Farm is blanketed in snow and all entrances are closed off with huge mounds of ice-ey whiteness. The compost pile is hidden under another mountain of snow, and we haven't been inside the gates in weeks. But activity continues at the microbial level! The earth is getting ready to grow again and we are getting ready too.
A small group of community gardeners has brainstormed a series of workshops for the upcoming growing seaon. These will take place once a month, starting in April, and will cover all the basic techniques and skills needed to grow vegetables and herbs, flowers and fruit. Watch this place or our website for a full and finalized list of workshops, coming soon!
Current community gardeners at the FRESH Urban Farm and Education Center (Williams and Mercer) will be renewing their plot agreements by the middle of March and then we will go through our gardener wait list and invite those people to join. If you would like to be put on the wait list for a plot at Mercer or McDonald, please email info@freshnewlondon.org. FRESH charges $20 for each 3x8 plot, with a sliding scale option for low-income gardeners. Please be in touch for more information. |
| | | FAB FAB: An Update from the FRESH Advisory Board |
| | | The FRESH Advisory Board met at the end of January for an annual retreat and even the youngest among us had a lovely time (see left). Our intrepid advisors made plans for fundraising, outreach and discussed different designs for FRESH water bottles, t-shirts and other branded items.
We had a long discussion about the larger contexts within which FRESH grows food, empowers youth and connects communities and commited to developing a values statement for FRESH's work in 2017. We had a potluck lunch and shared delicious food together.
We made plans to build our membership, so watch this space for more information on the roll out of our membership drive coming soon! We laughed, we planned, we wrote on big pieces of paper, we wove a strong and colorful web of our individual strengths. Thanks to our FAB members, youth and staff for participating in this great day of retreat! |
| | | CHEFS IN SCHOOLS: Delicious and Nutritious, The New Normal |
| | by Makeeda Bandale-Assante |
| At the start of my junior year at New London High School, I was introduced to a new food initiative called “Chefs in Schools Program”. The head of it, Chef Dan Giusti, founded Brigaid, a company whose mission is to make school lunches healthier, serving six in the district. Complete with a variety of fruits and veggies, our new menu is more colorful and creative than it has been in the past.
Turkey burgers, BBQ chicken pizza, penne with garlic bread. These are just a few new lunches now served at my school. My favorite sides are the chili and kale salad, two of many available every day. Not only do we have more items to choose from, it seems there are healthier options that leave out things like excess salt and fat.
Sausage, egg and cheese and banana bread are two new breakfast choices. Sometimes the kitchen staff visits tables to ask if students are enjoying their meals. Though some have expressed their dislike for dishes like curry chicken and beef and broccoli, the overall feedback is positive. I dig the new dishes and appreciate our new food program. Go Whalers! |
| | | Recipe of the Month: A Potato Soup to Bring Warmth and Joy |
| This recipe is adapted from one shared by our friends at Provider Farm who have receipes for every vegetable and every season. Not much is growing in our garden plots these days, but farmers (of both the urban and rural varieties) who grew potatoes are still working through their stockpiles and always looking for a new way to prepare the sturdy spudsy old standby. This soup is filling, full of flavor, healthy and easy to make.
Potato and Green Chile Soup A hearty meal for two or a side dish for four.
Ingredients:
3 long green chiles or poblano chiles, roasted and peeled
2 tablespoon sunflower seed oil or other vegetable oil
2 small onion, diced
1 teaspoon teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon teaspoon ground cumin
2 garlic clove, minced
2 large russet or 10 smaller potatoes (two pound) peeled and chopped into 1 1/2-inch chunks
Salt and pepper
2 cup stock or water
Sour cream (or Greek yogurt) to finish
Chopped cilantro to finish
Squeeze of half a lime
Directions:
Chop the chiles coarsely. Heat the oil in a wide pot; add the onion and cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently until softened, about 4 minutes. Add the coriander, cumin, garlic, and potatoes, followed by the chile, along with a teaspoon salt and give a stir. Cook together of a few minutes, then add the water or stock. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer.
Cook and cover until the potatoes are completely softened, about 25 minutes. Taste and season with salt and pepper. At this point you can mash the potatoes, or at least a few of them to give the dish a creamy sort of background, if desired. Add a squeeze of lime.
Pour into bowls; add a dollop of sour cream or yogurt and finish with chopped cilantro. Delicious, nutritious, easy and warming!!
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WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT
Interested in supporting FRESH with a tax-deductible donation? Of course you are!! http://www.freshnewlondon.org/donate/ |
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