Neighborhood Farm Initiative

Save the date for NFI's Midwinter Faux Barn Dance - January 28!

2012-01-02T14:39:00.001-08:00

News Flash: New Truck can prevent backaches!

2011-12-23T22:00:00.000-08:00

The COLOR of FOOD

2011-10-26T06:14:00.000-07:00

Former NFI and Rooting DC volunteer has started her own photographic documentary. The Color of Food tells the stories of our Black, Latino, Asian and Indigenous farmers and the history, fight for survival and beautiful culture that makes up our agriculture.

To learn more about the documentary and to donate, visit The Color of Food website.

Dear Mr. President,

2011-09-22T11:28:00.000-07:00

I heard that you brew your own beer. That's pretty awesome!

The Neighborhood Farm Initiative, a small urban agriculture non-profit here in DC, would like to invite you to participate in our upcoming homebrew competition. Brew-masters and beginner brewers alike are invited to participate in this friendly competition. We'll have some fun prizes as well!

Since you are the president, you can also come as our guest of honor or master of ceremonies. That would be pretty rad if you MC'ed our event. Either way, you'll have the opportunity to taste and support other local homebrewers!

We hope you'll consider coming to our homebrew competition.

Thanks!

- Michelle Wong, NFI Super-Volunteer

NFI wants YOU

2011-09-13T19:54:00.000-07:00

...to brew for our second annual Homebrew Harvest homebrew competition.

We're looking for homebrewers for our second annual homebrew competition. Whether you're making your first batch or your 100th as a seasoned brew master, we hope you'll enter a batch this friendly competition - a perfect way to enjoy the fall!

The event will be on Saturday, October 23 in the afternoon (exact time TBD), at American Ice Co (917 V St NW) in the U Street neighborhood.

It's free to enter your brew and you'll have the opportunity to compete for fun prizes while supporting the Neighborhood Farm Initiative! Prize categories include:
- Best brew
- Most exotic
- Sustainabilist
- Best backstory
- Most "Columbian" (the District, not the country)

If you made it to last year's event, I'm sure you remember all the fun we had. If you couldn't, check out pictures from last year. This year, we're going bigger: Homebrew Harvest is one of the events celebrating Food Day, a national movement to raise awareness about what we eat and how it affects our environment, our health, and our communities. We're excited to be a part of this event!

Register for the event here: http://bit.ly/raNJgr
E-mail neighborhoodfarm@gmail.com with any questions.

Post by Michelle Wong, NFI Volunteer

Beets and Cake?

2011-09-07T06:25:00.000-07:00

The other day I was pondering over how I can use up all the beets in our CSA and tried my luck doing an internet search for beet cakes and/or cupcakes. I was surprised at how many recipes are out there for beet desserts. This was surprisingly very tasty and moist. Give it a try and see for yourself!

CHOCOLATE BEET CAKE
Original recipe found at Straight From the Farm

1 c. margarine, softened
1 1/2 c. packed dark brown sugar
3 eggs at room temp
1 1/2 oz. dark chocolate
5 medium beets/2 c. pureed beets
1 t. vanilla extract
2 c. all-purpose flour
2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. nutmeg
confectioners’ sugar for dusting

I made the beet puree by roasting the beets. I individually wrapped them in tin foil for about 40-50 minutes. You know they're ready when you can easily poke a knife through them. It's just as easy though to quarter and boil them. Either way, wait for the beets to cool before removing the skins, which should slide off easily at this point. If not, place them back in the boiling water (or oven) and cook them a bit longer. Once the skins are removed you can place the beets in the blender and puree until smooth.

Mix 3/4 cup butter and brown sugar in a bowl until creamy and then add the eggs; mix well. I used a double boiler to melt the chocolate with remaining butter(take any pot and put about 1/2 inch of water in it to boil; place the bowl you're going to use to melt the chocolate on top and stir constantly while watching it melt. Resist the urge to eat all that chocolate). Cool slightly. Blend chocolate mixture, beets and vanilla into the creamed mixture (mixture will appear separated). Combine flour, baking soda , salt, cinnamon and nutmeg; add to the creamed mixture and mix well. I poured the batter into a bundt cake pan because I was afraid it would spill over in a normal cake pan. It would be fun to use two 9-inch cake pans and make a layered beet cake (maybe with red frosting!). Bake at 375 degrees F for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack. Cool before any any additional toppings. I made a quick powdered sugar and water frosting (you can easily make this by adding just a little water to powdered sugar and add more sugar or water to make it the consistency you desire) or just sprinkle powdered sugar on top!

Announcing Urban Ag on the Move! A Film and Food Event

2011-07-22T05:18:00.000-07:00

Our 3rd annual film fundraiser is coming up! This year we're screening Truck Farm, a documentary about the adventures of a New Yorker who is determined to grow his own food New York City’s concrete jungle, and his creative solution: a mobile farm in the back of his old pickup truck.

Plan to stick around for a discussion after the movie: it'll feature our very own Bea Trickett, plus Robert Egger, Joelle Johnson, and Karli
Hurlebaus from DC Central Kitchen. We'll be talking about ways urban agriculture brings fresh food to city-dwellers - including a peek at DC’s very own truck farm!

Here's the details:

Doors open and refreshments served at 6:30 pm. Film screening will start promptly at 7:30 pm, with discussion to follow.
The Letelier Theater is located in the Georgetown neighborhood at
3251 Prospect Street, NW, Upper Courtyard. For directions and parking information, visit http://leteliertheater.com/directions/.
Tickets are $20, with small surcharge for online sales. Buy your tickets at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/187781. Letelier has limited seating, so buy your tickets before we run out.

Want to help out? We need volunteers for set up and clean up, preparing food, serving drinks and more. Email NFI at NeighborhoodFarm@gmail.com.

At the garden, there is always something new

2011-07-20T06:37:00.000-07:00

The first time I volunteered in early June, I weeded around what were then stubby melon plants just sprouting from the soil. Two weeks later, my fellow volunteers and I were laying mulch around tomato plants and basil—everything needed mulching. Last Saturday weeding and mulching were on order again, but there was also harvesting. Those stubby melon plants from early June? Why, they’d grown up to be juicy edible melons. Cucumbers, cabbages, collards, and swiss chard were ready to be freed from the soil too.

Here’s what stays the same: when I arrive, I go to Liz, who runs the joint. She knows what needs to be done. Last Saturday, she took me and fellow volunteer Lauren to beds covered in dullish, golden mulch, and this mulch had been invaded. “See that grass?” she said. “That’s not supposed to be there.” She speculated that the hay may have been harvested too soon and carried some grass seedlings. “So if you’ll just run your hands under the mulch and lift those blades up, they’ll dry out and that should take care of it.” All righty, then. We set to work. No sense in grass growing where it isn’t meant to grow.

There are always new people too. Last week, I mixed up my usual Wednesday evening volunteering and came on Saturday morning instead. Clara, the committed intern with an earthy-elegant style was there, this time with her summer-hatted mom and friend Rachel. They planted beans. Also there was Nora, 33, with short black hair, mod sunglasses, and a ready smile. She’s thinking about a career change from the non-profit sector to farm school; and there was Lauren in a baseball cap who’s going through big changes herself. A recent college grad, she just moved from Chicago to D.C. for a job at the Brookings Institution. These women went after whatever needed to be done.

Pulling up grass, putting down mulch, and pitching in stakes to twine up sprawling tomatillo plants, we worked and talked. The time passed quickly. Gardening, like other creative endeavors, is one of the closest approximations to childhood play I’ve experienced in my adult life. At the garden, I do not wear a watch. I do not keep my phone on my person. I’m meeting people. I’m discovering, I’m seeing what’s growing and seeing what might impede that growth. While digging a hole for a stake to raise the tomatilloes, I unearthed a Japanese beetle. “Squash it!” pronounced Nora. Now, I am one of those suburban-raised sentimentalists who feels guilty about squashing anything, but Nora, who remembers picking corn from her parents’ garden when she was a girl, knows about the tough mother love a gardener must give to her own. Harmful species, be gone!

This garden is a community. I’m always learning from the plants and the people who make it.

How to run a farmer's market booth, Volunteer Coordinator Intern Sam

2011-07-17T20:20:00.000-07:00

Since it was my first time EVER being in charge of a booth this past Saturday at the Mt. Pleasant farmer’s market, I thought it might be helpful to share with future booth masters some tips, advice, things to do and things not to do!

First, I could not have done this alone; thank you Courtney for helping me operate the booth! Along with Courtney, I asked plenty of near by booth masters for help, which brings me to…

Tip # 1: Don’t be afraid to ask for some assistance, especially since it’s nearly impossible to set up a canopy tent by yourself.

Tip # 2: Set up the tent first; the sun’s heat quickly creeps up on you.

Tip # 3: Bring with you the following: tape, scissors, tape, empty baskets and containers for produce and herbs, tape and….tape!

Tip # 4: Ask someone who is predominantly right-brained, (i.e. creative and arty), to arrange and decorate your booth. Courtney hung two Rooting D.C. t-shirts on the tent, which not only looked groovy, but we sold a t-shirt, YES!

Tip # 5: Don’t forget to eat breakfast

We had a lot of people shuffle over to our Field to Fork booth; it was a blast to converse with people about growing food, community gardens and the local food scene in D.C. Getting back to my shoddy advice…

Tip # 6: Every time someone expresses interest in your booth, have them sign up for the NFI online monthly newsletter. I don’t know what it is, but everyone loves signing their names on clipboards!

Tip # 7: Do walk around the farmer’s market and chit chat with other booth masters. The longer you talk to them, the more likely they will feed you.

Tip # 8: Remember who you borrowed tape from and give it back to them.

Tip # 9: Don’t solicit….it’s illegal for a reason. Courtney tried walking around the farmer’s market to promote NFI, but our general consensus was that people don’t want to be disturbed while they are shopping; it was best for people to come up to the booth for information about F2F, NFI, etc.

Last thought on my farmer’s market booth experience: closing down shop is MUCH easier than setting it up!

Recipe: Sautéed Green Cabbage and Shallots in a White Wine Sauce

2011-07-14T04:55:00.000-07:00

Thanks to volunteer Andrew for sharing this recipe! Our cabbages have produced big, beautiful heads this year and Andrew took one home to make for dinner. We also donated about 25 pounds of cabbage to our friends at Bread for the City!

The aroma and tastes of the shallots and cabbage together are fantastic and it's a breeze to make. I am also betting you could substitute white, yellow or vidalia onions in a pinch.

1 head cabbage (1-1 1/2 lbs)
2 shallots
2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup White Wine - I used a Pinot Grigio, but for less sweet use dry white wine or sherry
1 tbsp lemon juice
Sea Salt
Cracked Pepper

Prep:
Blanch* and shred the cabbage and slice the shallots thinly.

Cook:
1. Heat 1 tbsp oil and 1 tbsp butter together in saucepan
2. Add cabbage and shallots and saute for 5 minutes over med-high heat. Add a pinch of salt.
3. Cover and cook over medium low heat, being sure to stir occasionally for 5-6 minutes.
4. Move the veggies to one side of the pan and drop in 1 tbsp butter, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp lemon juice and 1/4 cup white wine mixing together in one side of the pan.
5. Return to medium high heat and mix sauce and cabbage well in pan, sauteing for another 3-4 minutes or until sauce has reduced. Salt and pepper to taste and serve with a brown rice and a glass of wine!

*Blanch cabbage by bringing a pot of water to a rolling boil. Use a steamer basket or tongs. Add the cabbage and wait for it to return to a roll. Once it does stir the cabbage so it boils evenly and let boil for 1 1/2 minutes on high heat. Remove promptly and place into bowl of cold water (<60 degress Fahrenheit so just throw some ice cubes in the tap water before hand).

Blanching halts enzyme action in picked vegetables to improve flavor, increase vitamin retention, preserve color and clean the vegetable surface. Blanching also prevents indigestion particularly in the case of cabbage. Here's a good link for other veggie blanching times from the University of Georgia.

Baby Tomatoes, Melons, Rosemary, Oh My!

2011-07-13T11:04:00.000-07:00

NFI's Fort Totten garden is full of hidden surprises at this point in the summer. Our rosemary is just poking out of the ground. Our melons and squash are still tiny and hidden. Our tomatoes are appearing and beginning to look delicious.

I spent some time this past week, walking around the garden, searching for what might not be noticed at first glance, here is what I found:

Hungry for more? Come to volunteer work days: Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings. Hope to see you at Fort Totten!

- Clara, Volunteer Coordinator Intern

Swimming in vegetables

2011-06-30T03:11:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Volunteer Coordinator intern Sam for the following blog post - especially the recipe for cilantro pesto!

Look at all these glorious greens picked from the Ft. Totten garden site! Due to the heat, we had to harvest loads of kale, chard, carrots, cilantro and collard greens during our garden workday, which resulted in volunteers leaving with lots of produce. So…what did I end up doing with all this spectacular food?

Although I had enough produce to have my own miniature farmers’ market, I first reached out to non-profit organizations with foodie tendencies. ARCADIA Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture graciously took the carrots off my hands and the chards and collard greens were dropped off at Food For Others, a wonderful non-profit food bank in Fairfax, VA.

That left me with the cilantro…now, I get that most folks either LOVE cilantro or HATE it, but I assure you that the following recipe is worth sampling.

Cilantro Pesto
2 cups fresh NFI cilantro
4 cloves garlic, peeled
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup pine nuts (or as Kat suggested, walnuts will suffice)
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
½-¼ cup olive oil

Place cilantro in a food processor until finely chopped. Add garlic, salt, pine nuts (or walnuts) and Parmesan cheese, blend well. Finish off the dish by dripping in the olive oil while the food processor is on (attachment piece needed) and voilà, a twist on pesto!

If you haven’t volunteered yet, maybe taking home a bag of fresh organic vegetables might twist your arm to help out one day.

Farewell to Kat

2011-06-28T05:33:00.000-07:00

We're bidding adieu to our beloved School Garden Liaison Kat this week as she leaves DC to attend grad school at UNC-Chapel Hill. We'll miss her almost as much as the students in garden club will.

The thing about Kat is that she is not just a great garden teacher, but she has also been crucial to NFI's success in all sorts of ways. From starting up the Field to Fork market table to leading our youth crews at Lederer Youth Garden last summer, Kat's been a huge part of our small staff.

At a recent volunteer appreciation celebration, super volunteer Kristin G. made this awesome Strawberry Rhubarb Cake for Kat, since we heard she's into the strawberry rhubarb combo. (Pssst: Did you know that rhubarb is a perennial vegetable? The stalks are edible but the leaves contain oxalic acid, which is toxic to humans.)

Thanks to Kristin for sharing the recipe!

Strawberry Rhubarb Kat Cake
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for buttering pan
1 pound rhubarb, trimmed and cut on a very sharp diagonal about 1/2 inch thick
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon finely grated orange zest plus 1 tablespoon fresh orange juice (I used a lemon because I didn't have an orange. I'm not sure how much a difference it made, but it tasted good to me!)
2 large eggs
1 cup sour cream

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make the topping: Stir together butter, flour, sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt until moist and crumbly.

Make the cake: Butter a 9-inch round cake pan (2 inches deep) (I used a bundt cake pan and I was happy I did because it definitely grew higher than 2 inches) . Dot with 4 tablespoons butter (cut into pieces). Toss rhubarb with 3/4 cup sugar; let stand for 2 minutes. Toss again, and spread in pan.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. Beat remaining stick butter and cup sugar with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Beat in zest and juice. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, until incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl. Beat in flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with sour cream, until smooth. Spread evenly over rhubarb. Crumble topping evenly over batter.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and top springs back when touched, about 1 hour. Let cool for 10 minutes. Run a knife around edge of cake, and invert onto a wire rack. Let cool completely.

Let the cake cool for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan. The rhubarb will be too hot to handle safely right after baking. But if the cake sits much longer, it may stick. (I think it would look pretty if you dressed it up with powdered sugar once it's flipped on a plate and cooled)

Carrots Galore at the Ward 8 Market!

2011-06-27T11:27:00.000-07:00

The following post is by Volunteer Coordinator Intern Clara. Thanks to Clara, Michelle and Whit for tabling for NFI!

This past Saturday, NFI made an appearance at the Ward 8 Farmers Market as a part of the market booth project led by DC’s Field to Fork Network.

From 9 AM to 2 PM NFI and other farmers welcomed children and adults (and everyone in between) to THEARC parking lot to peruse vegetables, berries, breads, and meats. A nutritionist was also available to patrons. Every child was soon toting around a vegetable stuffed animal, a healthy granola snack AND a carrot! (Or three!)

In addition to spreading the word of NFI’s mission and inviting volunteers to the Ft. Totten site, we distributed carrots sticks freshly harvested from the garden on Wednesday - and they were delicious! Thank you to the volunteers who came to the workday on Wed! None of the farmers selling produce had carrots available, so we took it upon ourselves to share the love!

Although we collected emails and donations and shared knowledge of NFI and the Field to Fork Network, our main exchanges were that of carrots and stories. We shared our carrots and market-goers shared their gardening stories (or lack thereof). We discussed work done in personal backyard gardens, the need for a community garden in the area surrounding THEARC and the occasional fear of dirt. One elderly woman, when asked if she would be interested in gardening at the NFI Ft. Totten site, replied: “No thank you, I am far too young for that.” The most common comment we received from children and adults alike: “This is the best carrot I have ever had!” Why? Because they were grown in DC soil, of course.

Inspired? NFI will be at Mount Pleasant Farmer’s Market on July 18 and Ward 8 Farmer’s Market on July 23. Email us at neighborhoodfarm@gmail.com if you want to help out!

D.C. Film Premiere Showcasing Attacks on U.S. Farmers

2011-06-17T07:44:00.000-07:00

This post is by Volunteer Coordinator Sam. Thanks for sharing!
Mark the dates, June 17th-23rd at the West End Theatre in D.C., new documentary about real food, the farmers that produce it, the consumers that eat it and the government agencies that are hell bent on destroying it!

Farmageddon is a documentary that highlights several families across the U.S. whose farms have been under attack by the USDA and FDA in recent years for producing and/or selling real food. Watch the movie trailer: http://farmageddonmovie.com/ and read why director Kristin Canty decided to become a food freedom activist!

While the film interviews small dairy farmers who have fallen victim to legal harassment by the FDA, viewers will be shocked to learn that FDA federal agents unlawfully performed violent search and seizure operations on their farms…..the culprit: unprocessed food!

Oh no…..not natural and wholesome food!

Not to preach to the choir, but I believe that we have a fundamental right to be healthy and for me, that means having access to local farm food and thus, knowing my food source. (Thank you NFI). However, the USDA and FDA are harassing small-time farmers that are producing healthy and totally safe food to the point where I, as a consumer, might not be able to access it. Doesn’t make much sense?

If you are at all interested in governmental policy toward farmers, agriculture and the broken American food system, Farmageddon is a must see!

Deer fence - finally!

2011-06-16T06:34:00.000-07:00

After a few seasons of battling deer in our gardens, we're finally building a deer fence at our Fort Totten site!

Check out the photo slideshow below to find out more about the process. It was hard work! Thanks to all the volunteers and community gardeners who dug holes, pounded stakes, hung gates and made it happen.

Want to get in on the action? There's still work to be done, so join us this Saturday from 9-1. Email neighborhoodfarm@gmail.com if you need directions.

Double digging at NFI

2011-06-02T07:49:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to super volunteer Neil Z. for the following blog post and photographer friend Ellie for the spectacular images.

The past few weeks, as we prepare the beds for the spring planting, I've been introduced to a new technique called "double digging"; I thought other people might also be interested in this. There is a very nice (short) article with a cute animation on Wikipedia.

As explained to me by Liz and Kat, amongst the reasons that we are pursuing the double digging are:

1) In order to help with the drainage in our low-lying fields, we are making beds which are raised quite a bit above the grade and even more above the drainage ditches, by loosening soil and adding compost.

2) By loosening not only the top area but also the very clayey section below, we are substantially increasing the ability of the soil to drain water directly down from the top.

3) By keeping the top layer of soil at the top (after mixing with compost), we are optimizing our soil's ability to grow good plants, because we are keeping the same biota at the same vertical level. In contrast, if we were to dig the top layer and then use that dirt to fill in a hole in a lower layer, the microbes would not be the best ones for that deeper layer of soil.

4) It is fun!

Over the course of a couple of Saturdays (and possibly more in the future), we worked with shovels and forks and a wheelbarrow, digging the top layer, chopping it up, loosening the deeper heavy-clay layer, and moving compost from the piles at the southeast end of the site.

This past Saturday, we had a large group of new volunteers from the QED group, and it was cool to work with new Volunteer Coordinator Sam on this project.

Healthy Food Access - What's the Farm Bill got to do with it?

2011-05-31T14:06:00.000-07:00

Every five years, Congress gets to work on the nearly 300-billion dollar piece of legislation known as the “Farm Bill” - an “omnibus” bill that addresses everything from farm subsidies to commodity growers to SNAP and other programs to support those in need, from foreign food aid to grants from community food programs.

These policies combined set the framework for what and how we eat, and whether our food is nourishing and affordable, what assistance our society provides to feed hungry people. Set to expire in 2012, the most recent Farm Bill included some improvements, but still disproportionately supports a food system dominated by the large-scale, agribusiness approach to agriculture.

At the same time, here in DC, folks have been talking about how our food system is broken - more than one in eight families classify as food insecure, and nearly half of DC residents are overweight or obese. While the NFI & the DC Field to Fork Network believes that community gardens and urban food production can be part of the solution to these challenges, we can also join our voices together to demand systemic change.

Across the country and here in DC, the support for local farmers, fresh and healthy food, gardening, and farmers markets has reached new levels of enthusiasm. That enthusiasm for a new food system, however, has yet to be translated into new food policy. To achieve a Farm Bill that supports the kind of food system we want – one that nourishes our bodies, our land, and our communities – we’ve got to get involved!

Here’s one opportunity: the Neighborhood Farm Initiative is hosting Food and Water Watch for a conversation about the Farm Bill at our next Saturday morning workday! Join us for the Mamie D. Lee Community Garden clean-up day on Saturday, June 4th from 10 a.m. - noon. Then, stick around for a potluck and discussion beginning at noon!

The garden located right between the Mamie D. Lee school (100 Gallatin Street NE) and the Ft Totten Metro Station (Red, Yellow, & Green Lines) From the metro station, turn left (north) and walk up the sidewalk past where the buses stop.

Want to learn more? Check out Food and Water watch's website, or one of my favorite facebook pages - Understanding the Farm Bill. Want to have one of these discussions in your garden or garden spaces? Contact khuynh@fwwatch.org or dcfieldtofork@gmail.com for more.

This post is cross-posted with the DC Food for All and Field to Fork Network.

Recipe: Fresh radish sandwich

2011-05-31T05:11:00.000-07:00

Thanks to new Volunteer Coordinator intern Samantha for sharing this easy recipe!

While I was picking these delicious radishes last night, at the Fort Totten garden, my mind was conjuring up fast & easy radish recipes so that I could eat them as soon as I got home.

Why? What’s the rush? It’s not that I necessarily crave raw radishes as a late-night snack, but rather I get a kick out of eating freshly harvested goodies; so the sooner I ate those radishes, the tastier they would be! Also, by eating fresh, raw foods, the body is receiving the maximum amount of nutrient-dense substances. In the case of radishes: calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, zinc, not to mention omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins A, C, and K…..wow, I’m impressed!

Since I got home after 9PM and I was tired, I decided to simply toast some excellent rye bread with melted butter that I ordered from Meadowbreeze Farm and topped it off with the NFI radishes. (A fellow volunteer at ARCADIA told me about this easy radish concoction). Total time from field to plate = one hour!

If you are securing your vitamins and minerals via another fresh source and want to use your radishes a couple of days after they’ve been picked, try this satisfying radish dip that consists of making your very own cream cheese, (I promise you it is super easy to do)!

8 ounces plain cream cheese
4 cloves garlic, peeled
6 radishes, quartered
Process ingredients in a food processor

How to make the cream cheese:
1) Buy a container of whole buttermilk and let it sit out for up to 4 days; when the buttermilk starts separating into curdles, then you’re at step 2!
2) Line a large strainer set over a bowl with a clean dish towel. Pour onto the dish towel the contents of the container. The whey will run into the bowl and the milk solids will stay in the strainer. This step will take several hours until the whey stops dripping.
3) When the whey stops dripping, tie up the towel with the milk solids inside. [Hint] Tie the dish towel sack to a wooden spoon placed across the top of a container, so that the very last remaining whey will squeeze out.
4) When the dish towel sack stops dripping, the cream cheese is ready!
5) The cream cheese lasts 1 month in the refrigerator and the whey, (a nutrient-dense substance) lasts up to 6 months, refrigerated.

Hoophousing

2011-05-20T11:23:00.000-07:00

Are you ready to plant your garden? We've got home-grown, hoophouse-raised seedlings for you!

Here's a picture of our new hoophouse, surrounded by spring blooms and greenery. The scene is a bit different than during construction (photos to your right).

Getting to the hoophouse is an adventure in itself, involving walking through a backyard guarded by a large barky dog and a small yappy dog and trekking across a (sometimes very muddy) field. Now that spring has sprung, it's definitely worth the trouble! It's a beautiful walk through all sorts of flowers and medicinal weeds, including dandelion, pokeweed, mugwort, and some giant, juicy plantain that I hope to harvest one of these days. (Plantago major, a leafy plant; not the banana-like fruit.)

Discovering the ins and outs of hoophouse management has been a serious learning curve over the past few months, as we've tried (and sometimes failed) to create optimal growing conditions for our plant babies. Cold March weather prevented the germination of most of our herbs, and a few extra-hot and sunny spring days fried a few of our tomato seedlings. To regulate the temperature inside the hoophouse, vents in the plastic siding need to be propped open or tightly closed. This means we have to keep our eyes on the weather forecast, and be available to adjust the vents accordingly. (Some days I've thought it would be much easier if I slept in a yurt next to the hoophouse!)

Despite our growing pains, our plant babies are thriving! We've got nearly 20 types of tomatoes, more than 10 types of peppers, plus beans, peas, squash, basil, dill, and parsley. Lots of these plants will be used for our educational programs. The rest are being sold at our plant sales, held every Saturday in May, 10:00am-1:00pm at Community Forklift in Edmonston, Maryland (right near Mt Rainier).

Come out and say hi, and take home some hoophouse seedlings for your garden!

Happy spring,

Hoophouse Manager Tricia

Support NFI and DC's Field to Fork Network on Kickstarter!

2011-05-18T05:51:00.001-07:00

Every season, there's more and more good food growing in the District and the new market booth project, led by DC's Field to Fork Network, will help bring it to the public - and encourage them to grow their own!

A shared Field to Fork market stand at select markets throughout DC will connect urban gardening, small-scale farming, food security, and education efforts and opportunities for involvement with a larger DC audience.

The booth will rotate among 6 nonprofit organizations - including NFI - and many of these nonprofits will be donating their produce and goods, focusing more on cooking demonstrations, education, and information-sharing.

Our very own Kat Bawden is featured in the video - check it out now!

We need your support! Donate now.

Ode to Kale: 5 ways to love this vegetable

2011-05-08T06:26:00.000-07:00

Editor's note: As many readers of this blog may know, kale is my favorite. So when reader Abbie S. sent this blog post in, I was ecstatic! Plus, the Red Russian kale at our Fort Totten site has also bolted and flowered recently, so I'm happy to share all of Abbie's suggestions about how to use it.

As the days get longer and especially as they get warmer, some of those glorious cold season crops can get really stressed out. One of my favorites is Kale, which loves cool weather and tastes especially sweet after a light frost.
This Red Russian Kale was planted from seed in my garden just as the temperatures began to get cold last fall and it began to sprout upwards just as they began to get warm again early this spring. Now that we have had some 80 degree humid days, they are starting to Bolt and though I have pulled off their flower heads to keep them focused on their leaves a bit longer, pretty soon all my plants will be shooting up to the sky with hopes of blooming. Before that happens, I plan to use it all and what follows are some of my favorite ways to eat Kale!

#1 – Raw!
Kale can be really tender and sweet, and tastes great fresh out of the ground. It is an excellent source of nutrients that are most readily available in this unadulterated form. If you haven’t eaten kale this way, grab a fresh cut piece and give it a try.

#2 – Massaged!
Giving Kale a nice, luxurious rub-down really helps to bring out its flavor and soften its texture. My roommates ate the above Kale massaged with just a bit of olive oil and lemon. Add a bit of garlic and you will have a finger-lickin good start to a salad. Using freshly cleaned hands, toss the whole business together (salt and pepper are good additions), squeeze and rub the kale and let the flavors mix together.

#3 – In a Salad!
Take either raw or massaged kale and throw it together in a salad. This Kale, crouton, pepper, corn and egg salad made for a delectable dinner. We topped it with a garlic, mustard, lime and olive oil dressing (with a dash of salt, pepper and sugar) and couldn’t have been more pleased with the product.

#4 – As Chips!
A great alternative to the potato variety, kale chips are really tasty and really easy to make. Though many people use a dehydrator, it is also easy and quick to make them in your oven. Remove Kale from their stems/stalks and rip leaves into small even pieces. Toss those pieces in a bowl with seasonings of your choice. My favorite combination is olive oil (not too much or else the chips will be soggy), salt, paprika, garlic and nutritional yeast. Once each piece is evenly coated, spread them in one layer on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Cook in an over preheated to 350o for 12 to 14 minutes or until crispy! Then enjoy!

#5 – Kale Pesto!
When you are overrun with a lot of Kale (which I am now! Eik!), making it into a pesto or spread is a great way to preserve it and continue to enjoy it. Wash and cut your kale so that you have about 3 cups with out stems. Toast a ¼ cup of cashews in the oven for about 10 minutes. Peel 2 cloves of garlic and cut them in half. Gather all of your ingredients together in a food processor (kale, cashews and garlic plus ½ tsp lemon zest, 1/3 cup olive oil, 1/3 cup parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste) and blend until smooth. Enjoy on crackers, pasta, grains or right of your spoon!

If all this talk of Kale is inspiring you to grow your own, remember that Kale doesn’t love the heat of the summer (which doesn’t mean it can’t be grown with proper care). That being said, mark your calendar to plant it from seed in the end of July or in August or September for a fall harvest. Or, do like my roommate and spread around the seeds just before it gets really cold and you’ll be pleasantly surprised when new plants pop up next spring.

Plant sales start this weekend!

2011-05-04T09:30:00.000-07:00

Spring's here and it's time for our annual seedling sales!

We've got Tomatoes, Peppers, Basil, Kale, Collards, Peas, Squashes, Cucumbers, Cat Grass, and more. Plus, it was all grown locally at our hoophouse in Adelphi, MD. (Shout out to Tricia, our super awesome hoophouse manager!)

Seedling sales are happening every Saturday in May, 10 am – 1 pm at Community Forklift (4671 Tanglewood Drive, Edmonston, MD 20781).

Seedlings are $1.50 - $3.50, and all profits help support our programming. For pre-ordering or more information, contact NFI at NeighborhoodFarm@gmail.com

Recipe: Asparagus & Roasted Garlic Tahini Dressing

2011-04-29T05:43:00.000-07:00

Growing asparagus is pretty magical. This recipe from Barbara, a new participant in our 2011 Garden Education Program, is a great way to celebrate one of spring's first crops. Editor's note: If you've been helping out at the farm, you've probably helped weed out some stubborn wild onions - these are a great addition to the tahini dressing below.

Ingredients
1lb of Asparagus
Eggs
1 Bulb of Roasted Garlic (optional, minced garlic can be used as well)
1/4 cup of Olive Oil
2 TBS cup of Vinegar (any vinegar will do)
1 – 2 tsp of Tahini
1 tsp of chopped anchovies (optional)
Salt & Pepper

Instructions
1. Roast Garlic
Break the bulb of garlic into multiple cloves. Do not peel them.
Place into a baking dish
Drizzle olive oil onto cloves.
Bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for 20-30 minutes. While garlic is roasting, prepare eggs & asparagus.
2. Prepare Medium Boiled eggs
Bring water to boil.
Using a spoon, gently lower each egg into the boiling water. Lower heat to where the water is just simmering. Cook for 7 minutes.
Remove from stove immediately after desired time. Run cold water over eggs to stop cooking.
3. Steam Asparagus (depending on the size of your skillet or dutch oven, this may have to be done in batches)
Prepare asparagus for cooking. Snap the bottoms off the asparagus (you can also cut about an inch off the bottom to save time). Lay the asparagus in an inch of salted (optional, unsalted water is fine) water in the dutch oven/skillet. Turn heat to high and cook until a knife can get through one of the thickest stalks. If they are pencil thin, cooking time is about 5 minutes.
Remove the asparagus and shock them by putting them into a bowl filled with ice cold water. This will stop the cooking process and keep the asparagus nice and green.
4. Prepare Dressing - The dressing can be used for salads, meat (great with lamb) and other vegetables.
Place the olive oil, vinegar, tahini, anchovies (optional), 4-6 roasted garlic cloves (or more, if you prefer) and black pepper into a blender. Blend until a creamy dressing forms. With regard to salt, do not add until after blending the ingredients. Vinegar/lemon juice can add a “salty” taste. If using anchovies, you will likely not need to add salt.
Place the asparagus onto a plate. Peel and lightly slice the eggs and put onto plate (I prefer on top of the asparagus to let the yolk run onto the tender stalks). Pour dressing onto asparagus.
Optional: add extra garlic and chopped anchovies.

Registration now open for 2011 Garden Education Program

2011-04-26T05:43:00.000-07:00

Get gardening this year with the Neighborhood Farm Initiative’s Gardening Education Program!

The gardening education program is a season-long,hands-on training course in organic vegetable gardening. The course includes your own garden plot, everything you need to grow your garden, and bi-weekly instruction in all aspects of starting and maintaining the garden, from testing and preparing the soil to planting, maintenance, and pest management!

What’s included in the program:

Your own 12’x12’ community garden plot for the 2011 growing season
All seeds and transplants
Compost and soil amendments
Seasonal use of drip irrigation system, trellises, stakes
Your own trowel and a pair of gloves, plus seasonal use of NFI’s communal
tools
Bi-weekly hands-on classes to provide you with the knowledge you need to
grow your organic garden
Weekly staffed hours at the garden where you can receive one-on-one assistance in applying class lessons and caring for your garden

The class takes place alternate Saturdays, May 7–September 10, 10am-noon and we hold it at two sites: near the Fort Totten Metro station and at Fort Dupont Community Garden.

Email neighborhoodfarm@gmail.com for more information and registration instructions!

Recipe: Eco Farms Stinging Nettle Pesto

2011-04-25T06:37:00.000-07:00

Thanks to our friend Laura at EcoFarms for this fantastic seasonal recipe!

Hold on! How to do I get stinging nettle?
EcoFarm sends out a weekly "produce-for-sale" email each Thursday and stinging nettle has been the star for a few weeks now. Produce purchased is picked up in Adams Morgan on Friday between 3-11 pm, and folks can email Mike if they'd like to start receiving the list of local available produce: mpap@msn.com.

Ingredients:

1/2 lb bag Eco Farms Stinging Nettle
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
3-6 cloves garlic, depending on your taste
1 cup (or so) grated Pecorino Romano cheese
Squeeze of lemon
Red pepper flakes
The best olive oil you've got

Method:

Blanche Stinging Nettle in boiling water to neutralize the sting. Drain, cool, and squeeze dry.
Toast walnuts in a dry fry pan over med high heat. Keep 'em moving 'til they color a little.
Add Walnuts and Garlic to a food processor and pulse. Add Stinging Nettle and pulse. Add cheese, the squeezing of a lemon, pepper flakes if you like 'em, and pulse.
Then, with the processor running, add a stream of olive oil until the pesto is the consistency you want.
Taste for salt.

NFI presentation at Mount Rainier "Build a Better Block" Day

2011-04-21T06:45:00.000-07:00

Neil Z. shares a short post on an NFI outreach activity.

On Saturday, April 9, 2011, Mount Rainier held a Better Block Project. Mount Rainier is a small but cool neighborhood in PG County on the east side of DC; it's best known to me for i) where Bea and also Gabe Popkin live, and ii) where GLUT and Joe's Movement Emporium are located.

To quote from the website, "The Better Block project is a community-driven, one-day festival celebrating, energizing and showcasing a vision of the vibrant, pedestrian-friendly retail cluster of the Mount Rainier Arts District on 34th St."
NFI set up a largish information/demonstration area in a vacant lot.

Amongst other interesting activities:

i) Tricia, the new hoophouse manager, set up a table to sell her homemade balms, etc.

ii) We sold, amongst other items, asparagus crowns (I had to ask Bea how one plants these).

iii) A variety of demonstrations, including:

a) Herb drying and tincturing

b) Pickling

c) Composting

iv) A scale model of row cover (thin fabric stretched over hoops, to keep a row warmer but which allows in sunlight).

v) A petition to allow chickens in the County.

We had a fair number of visitors, including between ten and fifteen at each of the demonstrations. It was rewarding to see so many people interacting with their neighbors, and the sense of added community that that engendered.

Tomato soup for fickle weather

2011-04-19T11:59:00.000-07:00

As we wobble back and forth from cold rain to warm sunshine, here’s a recipe that works for either temperature. This tomato soup can either be served warm with comforting herbs like basil, thyme, and cinnamon, or as more of a spicy ceviche with cayenne pepper and lemon. I used my totally awesome hand-blender (thanks, Mom, for the domestic present!), but you can also use a regular food processor or even eat it chunky (but it tastes better blended). Enjoy!

Warm Ingredients:
-Generous ½ tsp dried basil
-Generous ½ tsp dried oregano
-Generous ½ tsp dried thyme
-Olive oil
-2 medium-sized onions, chopped
-Salt and pepper
-3 large garlic cloves, minced
-Generous ¼ cup tomato paste
-2 pounds fresh tomatoes, chopped
-1/3 cup white wine
-28 oz of vegetable broth
-Generous ¼ tsp ground cinnamon

Cool ingredients:
-Generous ½ tsp dried basil
-1 tsp cayenne pepper
-Olive oil
-2 medium-sized onions, chopped
-Salt and pepper
-3 large garlic cloves, minced
-generous ¼ cup tomato paste
-2 pounds fresh tomatoes, chopped
-1/3 cup white wine
-14 oz of vegetable broth
-Juice of half a lemon

Directions:
-Combine the dried herbs in a small cup or mortar and crush them until they become fragrant. Set them aside.
-Cover the bottom of a large pot with olive oil. Heat over med-high heat. Stir in the onions, season with salt and pepper until the onions are golden brown.
-Add the garlic and the herbs and cook for 30 seconds.
-Blend in the tomato paste until it’s not very lumpy. Then add the tomatoes and simmer for a minute or two.
-Add the vegetable broth and wine. Adjust the heat to a light bubble and cover the pot tightly. Cook for 20 minutes.
-Warm: Stir in the cinnamon and taste for seasoning. Cool: Turn off the heat, add the lemon, and season with more salt, wine, or herbs as necessary.
-Use a hand-blender (or food processor) to blend the ingredients until as smooth as you prefer.
-Warm: Serve it up! Cold: Ladle into bowls, put in the freezer for 10 minutes or so, then serve.

Recently unearthed video about NFI

2011-04-13T14:45:00.000-07:00

This video was shot last fall, but we're glad to share it with you now!

A day at the Neighborhood Farm Initiative from Carrie McCloud on Vimeo.

Join Young Growers!!!

2011-04-12T08:08:00.000-07:00

Wait, what's Young Growers?Neighborhood Farm Initiative (NFI) is starting up a weekly training program seeking to help young adults aged 17-21 who are currently unemployed/underemployed learn organic gardening skills that would help them secure green jobs in and around the District of Columbia. The program runs April – October, 2011.

How often would we meet, and where?

Meetings take place 2-3 times/week at various urban gardening and workshop sites. Most sites will be metro & bus accessible. Ride sharing to less-accessible sites would be coordinated within the program and its participants.

Does it cost anything? Do I have to interview?

This program is free to participants! There is no formal interview, though we will give you a short survey in order to assess what you already know or don’t know about growing vegetables. If you want to be in the program, then we want you there too!

What will I get from all this?

Not only will you garner the knowledge to grow, prepare and preserve your own organic produce, you will also gain valuable job skills to help secure future employment in

green jobs. These skills can be applied in fields ranging from gardening to farming to farmer’s market work to non-profit work!

Who do I contact? Is there a deadline? Go to neighborhoodfarminitiative.org or email younggrowers@gmail.com by April 30th to get started!

2011-04-06T08:44:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Neil Z. for conducting this survey and sharing his findings with our blog readers!

On Saturday, April 2, 2011, NFI volunteers joined with the Mamie D. Lee Community Gardeners for the monthly garden-wide cleanup day.

Mostly for fun, but also as an opportunity to meet some of the Community Gardeners, I went around and asked everyone on-site the following four questions:

What is your name?
What is your favorite plant to grow?
What is your favorite plant to eat?
What is an interesting/fun/other fact that you would like to share with the NFI community?

Please note: your faithful reporter claims no responsibility for the veracity nor the accuracy of the answers.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Name	Favorite to grow	Favorite to eat	Fact to share with NFI community

Foster G.	eggplant	bok choy	He has a paternal relationship with plants, is obsessed with eggplant, wants to get an eggplant tattoo and learn to breed eggplants, and writes songs for worms
Jenna B.	peppermint and tomatoes	chard	She joined the NFI to impress her now-boyfriend Bailey; she keeps growing plants in her window sill, but they look so pretty that she never harvests them, so they go to seed and are dying
Kayley W.	vines and tea herbs	butternut squash	Thinks more roller derbyers should garden, is a member of the DC Roller girls, loves Martha Squashington
Kristin G.	jalapeno peppers	tomatoes	I have an awesome laugh
Kat B.	cucumbers	red peppers	I do a good Woody Allen impression, and has eaten almost every part of a goat
Bob L.	pole beans	corn	Like worms
S. D.	sunflowers and okra	pumpkins	Mother taught him how to garden
Sophie K.	potatoes	kale	Entered DC State fair with a cucumber she grew last year at the Garden, and won second place in the ``funkiest-looking vegetable" category
Michelle W.	basil	Swiss chard	Really dislikes worms, but is trying to get used to them
Seth S.	carrot	watermelon	Used to work in Arizona at the biosphere
Brian R.	sunflowers	tomatoes
Harry B.	green beans	green beans	Has participated for six years at the Mamie D. Lee Garden
David P.	tomatoes	tomatoes	Left the Mamie D. Lee Garden for five years and is happy to be back
Milagros H.	tomatoes	basil
Elisa F.	peas	tomatoes	It's amazing how much work people can accomplish in one day
Morgan P.	perennials and garlic	tomatoes	Dogs will eat organic fertilizer, especially if it comes from chickens
Aaron L.	chili peppers	sweet potatoes	One can move a lot of manure in the back of a Toyota Corolla; the sweet potatoes he grew last year were awesome
Stacy L.	tomatoes and beets	tomatoes and beets
Eva S.	arugula and tomatoes	arugula and tomatoes
Gabi O.	tomatoes	kale	One of the many carnivorous plants native to this area is drosera, which is really cool. It has spatulate leaves with red hairs that secrete a sweet sticky fluid; the sweetness lures in the insects, and the stickiness captures them. Then the leaf rolls up like a carpet, secretes enzymes that dissolve the insects bodies, and then absorbs the nutrients.
Susan Y.	honeydew melons	green peas	It's a nice morning
Bea T.	garlic	eggplant	She is a dual citizen of the USA and the UK
Sophie S.	tomatoes	squash	This is the first time she has ever done any agricultural- or gardening-related work
Cathy A.	basil	vine-ripened tomatoes	Wants to try growing Peruvian peppers
Tim S.	spinach	spinach	Radioactive rain is falling on the United States right now
Brook D.	lettuce	lettuce and carrots	The radiation that is falling on the United States is only in trace amounts, and not at all hazardous
Allison B.	sweet potatoes and okra	sweet potatoes and okra	Over 60,000 birds die each year in New York City due to their flying into buildings
Sarah M.	cherry tomatoes	watermelon	Cherry tomatoes taste better than candy

Class on bio-intensive agriculture this Saturday

2011-04-05T06:33:00.000-07:00

As part of our regular Saturday workday, we'll be joined by Laura Toscano from EcoFarms for a discussion of the principles of biointensive agriculture and a double-digging demonstration. It's from 9-11:30, so come early!

We're experimenting with the biointensive approach at our Fort Totten garden this year by making one set of plots a biointensive demonstration. Check out this Farmer's Mini-Handbook on the Grow Biointensive method to find out a bit more.

Hope to see you Saturday!

NFI Welcomes New Staff in 2011!!

2011-04-01T11:23:00.000-07:00

Rachelle Ellis - Young Growers Program Coordinator

Originally from Mississippi, agriculture has been part of my family's history for generations. After 3 years of working on a small family farm, I am very happy to be with NFI now, helping others empower themselves through learning to grow their own food. My favorite veggies to eat are tomatoes, sweet peppers, and summer squash, and I think I have a talent for perennial herbs. I hope to use what I've learned over the years to increase the accessibility of fresh, local, and

naturally grown produce in and around the District.

Tricia McCauley - Hoophouse Manager

Tricia McCauley is an herbalist, nutrition coach, lotion & lip-balm maker, and obsessive gardener.
She is passionate about connecting plants and people, and is thrilled to grow leafy green loves with NFI.

Abel Russ - Adult Gardening Education Program Teacher

Abel grew up in Maine and learned about gardening next to the ocean. He also experimented in Worcester, Massachusetts and in the happy hollows of Vermont. He is afraid of melting in the D.C. summer but looking forward to seeing the growing season in a new place. When he has to go inside he works for the Environmental Integrity Project.

Meet the Interns!!

2011-03-28T11:11:00.000-07:00

NFI is pleased to welcome all our spring/summer 2011 interns on board!

Whit McClure, Outreach & Partnerships Intern

Hello! My name is Whit McClure, and I'd like to describe myself through a haiku:

Hails from Kentucky //

Loves her food from seed to plate //

Crazy for earrings

Fay Augustyn, Fundraising Intern

Fay is a recent graduate from the University of Wisconsin -
Madison. While in college she developed a passion for local food, and
helped establish a garden at a summer school program in her home town.
Fay is excited to begin fundraising for NFI as a volunteer and help to
others appreciate the local food movement.

Allison Burket, Special Events Intern
After growing up in the suburbs of DC, Allison is now excited about living, growing food, building community, and transforming political landscapes in the city. She enjoys working in the dirt out at the Fort Totten site, as well as researching grants and organizing fun fundraisers. She's also looking for tips about pickling, printmaking, and sourdough bread.

Sarah Howell, Field to Fork Networking Intern

Sarah Howell is originally from semi-rural Maine (not quite rural, not quite suburban), came to Virginia for college, moved abroad after graduation for two years to work, and now has found herself back in Virginia teaching high school Biology. She is a lover of science, the environment, fresh fruit and veggies, and is very excited to be working for NFI and the Field to Fork Network as one of the new interns. She enjoys cooking, teaching, learning, being outside, gardening (though she is worried she is not blessed with as green of a thumb as some). She is interested in possibly pursuing graduate school in the near future to get into working with environmental policy, specifically food policy, and hopes to eventually make access to good, healthy, clean and natural food a real, affordable possibility for everyone.

Joanna Karavolias, Volunteer Coordinator Assistant Intern
Bio coming soon!

Planning, prepping, planting

2011-03-28T06:44:00.000-07:00

After spending the winter hunkering down and planning our 2011 growing season, we finally put our first seeds in the ground this past Saturday! Now we're anxiously awaiting the arrival of the first new leaves of our radishes, carrots, and lettuce.

Many thanks go out to the fantastic volunteers, both old and new, who have helped our garden grow so far this spring.

Photos of our March workdays are below! You're always welcome to join us, every Wednesday at 4:30 and every Saturday morning from 9-1: no need to RSVP, just show up and get your hands dirty.

Humans 1, Concrete Slab 0

2011-03-22T06:22:00.000-07:00

The land at NFI's Fort Totten site is full of interesting old stuff: rusty pipes, sprinklers of gardeners past, aluminum cans, and more. In a couple of places, we have found largish concrete slabs, which we would prefer to remove. We have never been successful at this before, but this past Saturday was our first victory!

A week and a half ago, while digging drainage ditches for one of the raised beds, Alex and others discovered a fairly large slab of concrete. It was about 10 inches thick, 5 feet long and 3 feet wide. It was perfectly placed to prevent digging the drainage ditch, and also extended into the beds on both sides of the ditch.

On hearing of this slab, and the desire to remove it, the destructive impulses of some of our team were excited. This past week, we bought a sledgehammer, two masonry chisels, and also borrowed a hand mallet. This past Saturday morning, one of us (Neil) worked for about an hour with the hand mallet and the chisels, and succeeded in breaking off some small pieces but not making progress on the main piece.

When Alex showed up, he was excited to see work proceeding on the slab, because he had spent all of the last Saturday trying to excavate it. Within about 10 minutes of his arrival, we were very excited when we succeeded in splitting the block in half. We were able to make such rapid progress because, with two people there, it was possible for one person to hold the chisel and the other person to use the sledgehammer -- sometimes, brute force is the solution.

At this point, the pieces were small enough that we were able to carry them out by hand and stack them at the edge of the field. We ended up making a small cairn (see photograph) from the pieces -- we hope this serves as a type of "scareslab", so that in the future concrete slabs decide not to use our fields.

It was very very satisfying to be able to remove this slab. Working with NFI provides some great opportunities!

Congrats to Neil Z. on his victory against the rock and many thanks for this blog post!

Compost workshop this weekend

2011-03-20T09:46:00.000-07:00

Come one, come all to NFI's annual community compost workshop! We'll start with a discussion about home and community garden composting through an urban lens with Kaitlin Rienzo-Stack, Master Composter and educator through DC DPR's Urban Compost Corps training. So bring the questions you've always wanted answered, and we can set you on the path to turning humble humus into black gold.

Then we have the opportunity to put our skills to use immediately as we tackle the renovation of Mamie D. Lee's community compost piles. Maintaining a working composting system is one of the biggest challenges DC community gardens face, and its success is well worth the effort to close the nutrient loop, conserve topsoil, prevent priceless organic matter from entering the landfill, and (last but certainly not least) provide fertilizer for future crops. We'll bring handouts and resource sheets for you to take home. Please bring a water bottle and gardening gloves.

It's all happening from 10-12 this Saturday 3/26 at Mamie D. Lee Community Garden near Fort Totten metro station. Email neighborhoodfarm@gmail.com with questions.

Garden Art

2011-03-14T10:02:00.000-07:00

If I had a seed for every time I’ve been asked “What do the garden clubs do in the winter?” I’m not sure how many seeds I’d have, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have to order any.

The main goal in the winter has been to instill enough knowledge about soil, water, and seeds so that when the time comes to actually work in the garden, the kids can apply what they’ve learned and work more independently. So when the weather is beautiful again we can have less "classroom" time and more garden time.

Learning about plant and soil science without the hands-on application of a live garden can be a challenge only overcome with creativity. To make things a little more challenging for the teacher, the garden clubs are after school, and most kids do NOT want to sit down and learn more after the bell rings at 3:15. So we learn and demonstrate our new knowledge with activities, games, cooking healthy snacks, and adding observations, drawings, and poems to our garden journals. Which is more fun than sitting around regurgitating facts, anyways.

In addition to being enjoyable (and feeling less like school), drawings and writings are also great ways for teachers to evaluate students' comprehension of what they're learning. When we draw parts of the plant or write a poem about bugs, it's a way for me to assess how much the kids are observing, learning, and applying, and how effective of a teacher I am.

And because they're just so whimsical and great, I've decided to post some of my favorite drawings and poems from the year so far. Feast your eyes on some of the best the garden clubs have to offer!

-Kat Bawden

Powell Elementary 1st graders

Activity: Draw parts of the plant -- the roots, stem, leaves, seeds, flower, and/or fruit.

Activity: Draw what a plant needs to grow.

Activity: Pull random words about soil/gardening out of a bag and make a poem with them.

MacFarland Middle School 6th graders

Activity: Draw your future garden bed

Activity: Label the parts of a plant

Coming soon... pictures of us starting our seeds!

Wintertime Lasagna

2011-02-07T08:51:00.000-08:00

So it's winter, and you still have these lasagna noodles staring you in the face every time you open the cupboard, but how the heck are you gonna use them up and make something seasonal? You want the shelf space back, but you don't want to go buy a bunch of imported tomatoes & basil from goodness-knows-where. You could probably just toss em in the compost cardboard box & all, or donate them to a worthy cause. ORRRRRRRRRRRR experiment & make up this delicious wintertime lasagna!!!

First get a butternut squash and peel it - whoa, I know it sounds crazy but a regular veggie peeler should work if it's reasonably sharp. Cut the squash in half & scoop out the innards (separate the seeds & roast em! my boyfriend did this in the toaster oven - super easy & fast, & sounds like popcorn popping! he added chili powder - delish.) Then chop the squash halves into little cubes, maybe 1/2" throw em in a pan with a little olive oil & roast on 425 for a few minutes, stirring every so often. I threw a whole bulb of garlic in the top of the pan too, bc roasted garlic is one of the best things ever, so any time I have the oven above 400 I throw in some garlic to get it roasty & delicious.

Meanwhile, I should let you know we just hit the jackpot on dumpstering cream cheese. Seriously we have an entire shelf full (Safeway's power went out during a recent snowstorm so their fridges were out)... So you could use some normal type of cheese like ricotta, but we used a tub of cream cheese and it worked great. I started heating up a little milk in a saucepan and added the tub of cream cheese, stirring until it was melty & gooey.

Also - the amazing folks at the Washington Youth Garden just hooked us up with an ENORMOUS amount of rosemary to use as center pieces at our waltz party. The rosemary was beautiful & delightfully fragrant in bouquets arranged in mason jars!! But now we have literally a bush of rosemary drying in a homemade "herb dryer" (aka a window screen taken out of its frame, and hanging with twisty-ties from a hook)..

So I chopped & threw probably about a 1/4 cup of fresh rosemary in with the tub of cream cheese and milk in the sauce pan. Pretty much there's no reason to use that much rosemary unless you have some extenuating circumstances. Anyway - it worked out delicious.

Once the squash is done roasting, I peeled & mushed about a quarter of the bulb of garlic & mixed it in a big bowl with the squash and melted cheesey mixture. Meanwhile I grabbed a block of frozen spinach & defrosted & drained it as a wave of inspiration struck.

Layer the noodles in the pan with squash/cheese mixture, then spinach layer, then the rest of the squash/cheese goo. Sprinkle the top with mozarella & parmesan, and garnish with (you guessed it) rosemary!!

Cover with tin foil & cook at 350 for 30 minutes, then uncover and cook 10 more minutes. Then enjoy!!!! The only complaint I got was that it looks so much like peaches and cream, but then it isn't dessert. Once your eaters know it's a squash lasagna, I bet you won't have anyone disappointed!

NFI's first ever Midwinter Ball is a smashing success!

2011-02-01T06:07:00.000-08:00

Many thanks to our fantastic sponsors for making the event possible:

The Bethesda Co-Op

David Shewmaker, Meridian Pint
Dennis Cook, Creative Engineering, Inc.

Herron Printing

Mom's Apple Pie Company

St Andrew's Episcopal Church of College Park

Takoma Park Silver Spring Co-op

Pearmund Cellars

Trader Joe's

We're also very grateful to the stellar team of volunteers that made it happen, especially Neil Z., who put it all together - and taught us how to waltz! And of course, Christin Boggs, who took the lovely photos above.

How to make dried apple rings

2011-01-14T07:14:00.000-08:00

By Bea Trickett

Some of you may remember Jamie, who was NFI's volunteer coordinator back in the summer of 2009. Her family maintains a "large garden" at their home in Vermont, which is probably at least double the land area NFI calls our urban farm. It currently boasts half an acre of garlic alone! When she was living in DC, her family was always sending her these delicious homemade treats - sundried tomatoes, venison jerky, and my personal favorite - dried apple rings. I asked Jamie's mom for the recipe, and she linked me to her husband Steve's page devoted to the making of dried apple rings. I didn't realize it was such an art that you could feature a whole photo gallery of apple rings, but they're beautiful! I tried to emulate, and ended up with a totally different but equally delicious product: apple-half-rings.

First task was to find a great deal on apples. I went to Riverdale Park Farmers' Market, which is my favorite market close to where I live. I talked to a couple of farmers and explained that I was looking for a large number of apples for a preservation project. I was thinking I'd get a half-bushel crate of 2nds for $25 or something. A nice farmer lady sold me that many fresh Jonathan apples for only $10 - a crazy deal!!! It wasn't until I got them home that I realized quite the task I had ahead of me: it was Thursday night, and on Friday I was hosting a DJ'd dance party, followed by Saturday morning I would get on a plane to visit family in England for 10 days! I had a helluva lot of apples to process, and had to get it done before I left town!

Enter Stephanie. She came up for our party with DJ Kyle Precise from Newport News, VA and was really excited about these apples. I showed her the apple corer that I just bought from Value Village for $2 - she said she had just seen one for sale for over $30! (here) My goal is pretty much always to make something as cheap/affordable as possible - which usually takes a lot more time. So you could refer to Steve's page on how to slice/core/partially-peel the apples by hand - or try to get lucky and find a used corer - or spend $30 on this tool you'll probably use once a year.

Anyway, back to the apple rings. Here's a photo gallery of our process

I've outlined our apple-ring-drying process below. But also check out Steve's site for more info, he's been making apple rings way longer & so he explains each step a bit more in depth. Have fun!!

STEP ONE: Make the apples into thin, ring-like slices - with or without peel, but definitely without cores.

STEP TWO: Pour equal amounts cheap red wine (aka Carlo Rossi) and orange juice in a large bowl, add some lemon juice and maple syrup for tartness and sweetness - to your taste. On his site, Steve lists a whole slew of other liquids you could add, feel free to experiment to see what you like!

STEP THREE: Put the apples on the dehydrator trays. Now I was lucky here too - because I got a food dehydrator for Christmas. It was a gift, so I can't look up how much it cost to tell you but I know they come in a wide range of prices and styles. You can also make your own solar dehydrators, this website has a lot of different versions from simple to complex, large to small.

STEP FOUR: Add cinnamon sugar if you want

STEP FIVE: Turn the food dehydrator on and wait. Or rather, go do something else and come back to check on it. Drying time varies by make & model, but ours took between 4-4.5 hours depending where you wanted the rings on the chewy-to-crispy scale.

STEP SIX: Allow to cool in a colander before storing in airtight jars or ziplocs. If you add them right away, residual moisture will allow mold to grow & then it'll all just be a time-consuming addition to your compost pile. So don't skip this step!

STEP SEVEN: Eat em up!!!!

Check our progress on the hoophouse!

2011-01-10T12:46:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a slow and chilly process, but with the help of a few dedicated volunteers, we're finally nearing completion of our hoophouse construction!

We can still use help on Saturday this weekend, so please email us if you're interested in helping out - we'll let you know directions and exact times for the workday.

HUGE THANKS to consistent volunteers Neil Zimmerman and Chris Maxwell, who have come out to work almost every weekend since Thanksgiving!!!

Also thanks to our hoophouse consultant, Vinnie Bevivino of Seed and Cycle, who helped us with on-site consultations throughout the process. Check out their new website!

More Kale! Kale Mashed Potatoes

2010-12-05T16:28:00.001-08:00

Looking for something new to do with kale? Look no further than kale mashed potatoes! I tried this at a friend's thanksgiving last week and adapted the recipe to make it vegan.

Step 1: Boil 2-3 lbs of potatoes for about 20 minutes so, or until tender enough to mash
Step 2: Saute a bunch of kale (as much as you like) with 5 cloves of garlic in olive oil
Step 3: Mash potatoes and add sauteed Kale!
Step 4: Add 1/2 to 3/4 cup of soy milk
Step 5: Add vegan margarine, salt, and any mashed potato seasonings you like.

Enjoy!

-Foster Gettys

photo credit: ginger-beat.blogspot.com

Hoop – there it is (soon)! NFI's new hoophouse is coming!

2010-11-24T11:10:00.000-08:00

For any farmer or gardener looking to get started growing fresh vegetables, step one is finding some suitable land. Once you've got that figured out, there's some fairly routine seasonal preparation you'll tackle like soil testing, digging or tilling or otherwise prepping the area, adding soil amendments, and then you're finally ready to plant!

For spring crops, here in DC you can pop those seeds right in the ground – but for summer crops, those seeds need to get started no later than March 1st if you want a productive crop of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and lots of herbs. However, it's waaaaay too cold for those summer babies to make it in DC's cool spring weather – so you're going to need to do one of two things. Either you can spend thousands of dollars on purchasing organically-grown seedlings from various retail suppliers, or you can find a way to start your own seeds indoors.

In the case of NFI, we have been truly lucky to find donated greenhouse space for the past two seasons, and we're incredibly grateful for that. Everything considered, for next season, NFI has decided to partner with My Organic Garden to construct our very own hoophouse on a donated half-acre site in Adelphi, Maryland. The land is privately owned and not subject to restrictions by the DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, which means we can actually grow enough plants to sell our own seedlings in a series of spring fundraisers!

Our goal is to have the hoophouse pay for itself in the first year of operation, as well as provide us a permanent place to grow our own seedling starts for the cumulative acre or so that we manage in gardens scattered across NE, SE, and now NW DC.

Help us out!
We need volunteers to help assemble the structure! The site is accessible by Bus Routes R1, R2, or R5 which leave DC from Fort Totten Station (red, green & yellow line trains & loads more bus lines). There's also plenty of street parking around the site. Most of the work will be done on Sundays in December and January, but the first hoophouse workday is this Sunday, November 28 at 10am. Email Bea at neighborhoodfarm@gmail.com for directions and details.

Also, our hoophouse site has no water or electrical hookups, so we've been playing with some creative designs for heating, water collection, and water pumping. We've got a plan – but we'd love some feedback from engineering types over the next couple of weeks!

Are you part of a garden club, community garden, spring festival organizer, or other group that would like to commission us for a seedling order? We can grow varieties of your choosing, and work out the details. Or we can send someone to come sell plants at your springtime event. Get in touch if you'd like to discuss specifics!

NFI Ingredients: Coconut Kale

2010-11-17T07:12:00.000-08:00

This recipe comes from supervolunteer Michelle Wong!

I originally didn't know what to do with kale, but then came across this recipe in the NYTimes.

I didn't have 3 bunches of kale since I was just trying out both the recipe and kale.

Heated enough coconut milk to fully cover the kale over the stove until luke warm -- want to keep this step quick and over low to medium heat. Too hot and it will curdle the milk.

Once warm, poured the milk into a ceramic bowl.

Added a healthy dash of both paprika and cayenne pepper, a squirt of lemon juice and salt to taste.

Although not included in the NY Times recipe, I also added in a dash of curry powder; I'm obsessed with curry powder.

Cut the kale into thirds (1.5 in strips)

Added the kale to the coconut milk mix and left it in the fridge for about an hour to marinate. Ideally longer would be better, but I was hungry for dinner and I was planning to have kale as the veggie serving.

The Times article says to grill the marinated kale or sear it over a cast-iron grill pan. I have neither, but instead put the strips of kale in a single layer onto a hot pan and let it sizzle quickly (about 1 minute) on each side. In the process I accidentally set off the fire alarm in my apartment, but it was well worth it. The coconut milk gave it a sweet flavor, with a bit of kick and just the right amount of tangy from the spices and the lemon.

Before serving, I drizzled a bit more of the coconut milk marinade over the "grilled" kale.

2010-11-14T10:48:00.000-08:00

There’s something really relaxing and calming about being at the farm in the late fall. The leaves in the surrounding woods are deep orange, there is a bite to the air and our delicious kale and greens are flourishing (guess how excited Liz is about the kale!). There’s also something a little sad about the end of the season. After all the hard work, the summer sweating, the amazing experiences and the tremendous growth, the days are getting shorter and the ground requires less of our attention. I miss being out there every day, planning for the next beds, the next planting, or the next harvest. At the same time, winter gives us all a time to reflect on the growing season, to give our bodies a break, and to plan for next year (seed catalogues are already piling up at my house!) and this has been a wonderful year at Fort Totten.

We decided to put much of the ground under cover crop—a mixture of oats, peas and vetch--to improve the quality of the soil and to “lock” in the nitrogen and other nutrients for the winter. Some of the plants will die and add a layer of organic matter to incorporate in the spring. The vetch will overwinter and we will till it in come spring. This is a great way to give the soil a little winter vacation and give back some of the nutrients taken during the growing season.

There’s also still vegetables growing and our kale has done very well after a brief fight with pests. The mustard greens and arugula are spicy and huge and we’ve had all varieties of radishes grow and flourish in earnest! (My new favorite is the large white “carrot” radish, less of a peppery bite and more like a turnip!) We’ve been able to donate many pounds of winter greens, bok choi, radishes, kale, collards and mustards to Food and Friends (thanks Ken!) And, much to my surprise, the spinach has finally started to grow and seems to be doing well. We’ve even found a rogue KOHLRABI or two! Even with winter winds and snow on the way, I am already excited for all the possibilities of spring.

I want to thank everyone—all the volunteers, all the green summer staff, our new interns, Bea, Liz and Kat for a stellar 2010 growing season! It was fun. Really fun. Now, to get ready for all of NFI's winter activities....

-Mo

Sweet Potato Soup

2010-11-08T08:56:00.000-08:00

While my favorite part of fall is definitely the leaves, warm soup on a windy day is a close second. I just made sweet potato soup for the first time, and it was so good the recipe needs to be shared. If you try any variation of this, leave a comment! I'd love to know what you did.

Start with 2 tbsp of butter and sauté 1 cup of chopped onion for 5 min in your large soup pot. I didn't have any celery or leeks on hand, but if you do, add 2 small chopped celery sticks and 1 medium sliced leek (only the white and pale green part) and sauté for another 5 min. Add 1 large chopped garlic clove and sauté for another 2 min. The goal here is for the onions to be translucent.

Next, add 1.5 lbs. of sweet potatoes (about 5 cups, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes), 4 cups of vegetable or chicken broth, 1 cinnamon stick, and 1/4 tsp. nutmeg. I also added 1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped, just for fun and a little extra sweetness.

Cook for 20 min, until the sweet potatoes are easy to stick a fork into. Then remove the soup from the heat and purée in manageable portions in a blender or food processor.

Reheat the blended mixture and add 1.5 cups of milk (or you can use half and half for a creamier flavor), 2 tbsp brown sugar (or maple syrup would probably be even better!), and 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese.

At this point, you can serve it immediately or stick it in the fridge and reheat it later. This soup keeps really well, so why not make double and freeze half? Enjoy!

NFI's Work with After-School Garden Clubs: MacFarland Middle School in Petworth

2010-11-03T10:17:00.001-07:00

The most exciting part of the Garden Club at MacFarland Middle School is when a student asks the question, “Can you eat this?” We will be in the middle of weeding and watering, and everyone stops what they’re doing and huddles around. Some students are brave and ready to eat, others hesitant, waiting to see what happens to the front line of tasters when I say yes.

Yes to the ripe cherry tomatoes, eaten excitedly and confirmed “yummy.” Yes to the hot peppers, eaten by one brave girl on a dare who afterwards chugged water while her classmates cheered. Yes to the herbs, little corners of leaves nibbled by the curious, or made into olfactory bouquets, taken home to their parents to add to spaghetti sauce. Yes to the beets, cooked and brought the next week, and eaten with some hesitation and unenthusiastic, but still positive, response. Yes to the carrots, split into samples and eaten right there on the spot.

These fifteen sixth graders and two eighth graders manage eight four feet-by-three feet raised bed gardens once a week after school. I say they manage it, because although technically I’m leading the group, they’re the ones doing all the work (and sometimes reminding me what to do). They vie for jobs, just as eager to harvest as to weed and dig. And they know why they do things like weeding, watering, and, as we approach the end of the season, turning the soil and adding dead leaves.

On the first day I was impressed with how much they already knew about taking care of plants. Many of them had gardened with their parents or grandparents, and they already knew that plants need sun, air, water, and healthy soil. (And worms. Definitely worms.) I’ve heard horror stories about DC public schools without science programs, and while I'm not familiar with their school's program, these kids sure are retaining -- and applying -- what they learn in class.

They're also wildly excited about gardening. While I tried to start off the club’s first meeting with name games and ice breakers, one girl said to me, “Ms. Kat, can we just garden?” followed by cheers from the group. Each week, I can barely keep the group in line as we walk through the school, and once we get outside the kids run to the beds, digging and weeding and picking vegetables and flowers before I even have time to ask, "Who wants to do what?"

But why wouldn’t they? Gardens, even ones as confined and modest as our raised beds, can reveal Amazon-sized mysteries. Gigantic electric-green and -blue caterpillars appear from between the weeds. Flowering herbs give off unusual and sweet smells. Worms lurch from the soil. Lifting the branches of lush plants reveals the vegetables we are so used to seeing chopped up in salads and sauces.

So many people want to start a garden and grow their own food, but never quite get around to it, imagining themselves burdened with work, or overwhelmed by the diverse information yielded by one internet search. If you find yourself in this position, you should stop by MacFarland Middle School’s Garden Club on Thursday evenings. I know a few kids who will be able to explain to you all you need to know.

-Kat Bawden

Happy (late) Halloween!

2010-11-01T06:06:00.000-07:00

Attack of the Killer Squash is a three-minute thriller created by our Green Summer youth crews at Fort Totten. Just in time for Halloween, the movie is available online.

Gather 'round children, and check it out below:

Here's what Maya Dunbar, one of our team members, had to say about it:

"The movie was so fun! We started by coming up with an idea for what we were gonna do and we just went from there. It was so funny to watch everyone act."

Thanks again to super volunteer Caroline Hauser for producing the film.

Celebrating the season: NFI's Fall Open House

2010-10-18T12:46:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all our wonderful volunteers for helping us celebrate a heck of a season at NFI at our open house this weekend!

After a potluck - which included radishes from our garden and apples from a nearby orchard - we were joined by a group of volunteers from Share our Strength's Cooking Matters program.

By the end of the day, we'd sifted our compost, weeded our front field and planted lots of cover crop seeds.

Here's what's still growing: kale, collard greens, lettuces, mustard greens, radishes (including icicle radishes!), kohlrabi, arugula, collard greens, a little bit of okra, chives, cilantro, onions, sweet potatoes, bok choi, broccoli, and more.

We've just got a couple more volunteer workdays coming up - join us soon! And check out the latest photos from our workdays here.

Open House and Potluck!

2010-10-12T08:22:00.000-07:00

Join us at the Neighborhood Farm Initiative's end of season open house!

We'll be giving tours of the garden, eating a potluck lunch, and celebrating the end of a successful 2010 growing season from 12-2. Later in the afternoon (2-6pm) we'll be working in the garden with a group of volunteer chefs from Share our Strength, a national organization working to end childhood hunger - so feel free to stay later in the day to get your hands dirty!

This is an outdoor event, so canceled if raining.

Hope to see you there!

Beet green kim chi? You bet.

2010-09-30T09:31:00.000-07:00

So now you know the basics of pickling from the pickled okra post, but have you tried old school fermenting? Well, have you? I was a bit hesitant to write about how wonderful fermented foods were until I'd tasted a batch I made myself. And others had tasted it. And nobody had died.

Last night my friends Vinnie and Jenny stopped by for dinner and the appetizers I put out on the dinner table included my first ever batches of fermented pickles and a jar of beet green kim chi -- experiments that I'd started about two weeks ago with some greens from the Petworth farmers' market and cucumbers from the Ft. Totten garden. These two are among the more adventurous eaters among my friends, even tolerating the watermelon radish on shallot bread finger sandwiches that I'd been fiddling with, so I figured they would at least try them and give me some feedback. Try things they did, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Hooray!

According to Wild Fermentation, one can ferment just about anything. Should you want to try out an easy recipe, I recommend beet green kim chi -- a spicy, vegan variation on the Korean classic inspired by my fridgeful of beet greens and a little fresh ginger I had lying around. I don't actually have a copy of the book, so this recipe is loosely based on the more traditional napa cabbage kim chi we made at a fermentation workshop I attended at nearby Common Good City Farm a few weeks ago....

"If You Can't Beet 'Em, Join 'Em" Kim Chi

Ingredients:

- the chopped greens from 8 -10 beets

- 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced

- 1 inch of ginger, peeled and minced

- 2-3 green onions, finely sliced

- 1 tsp red pepper flakes

- salt (maybe 2 tsp total)
- water, as needed

The basic process is as follows: combine, mash, cover, wait, enjoy.

In a glass pint jar (or other glass/enamel container), combine the ingredients, mashing ingredients with a wooden spoon as greens are added in roughly 1-inch layers. (See that picture of my first addition of ingredients? All of those beet greens mashed down to about an inch. True story.) Make sure there is a layer of liquid covering everything when you're finished. If you mash intently enough -- c'mon, rise to the challenge -- you won't even need to add any water, as the salt and mashing will draw a sufficient amount of liquid out of the greens. Then cover with a glass or small plate (some folks like to weight the lid to keep veggies submerged) and keep on the counter for a few days. Then dig in. See? Now how easy was that?

A few notes:

- It is critical not to use metal containers or utensils while making fermented foods, and plastic has the possibility of leaching chemicals into the food.

- Unlike traditional pickling, when fermenting one can use any kind of salt. Sea salt, iodized salt, kosher salt.

- I like to layer beet greens between sections of the various other ingredients to be sure they get nice and infused with the spicy flavors.

- After about 2 days, start tasting your fermented foods. Once they taste the way you want them, put them in the fridge to slow fermentation. (In fact, I had to head out of town for about a week and a half, so I had mine on the counter for a day, then in the fridge for 10 days, then back out on the counter, still covered, for about 2 days. I transferred things to smaller jars, though, as my fridge couldn't accommodate the flower vase I initially used. That gave me the opportunity to layer in a bit more minced ginger and garlic....)
- If a layer of mold develops on the surface of your fermenting foods, just skim it off -- no, really -- and add a little more liquid. Unless it smells like a dead animal, the kim chi should be okay to eat (or so I have been told).

- Once in the fridge, you can enjoy your fermented goodies for up to a couple of months. But, really, they're so tasty I'll bet they won't last a week....

NFI Ingredients: Radish Leaf Pesto

2010-09-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

Our radish crop has been super productive this year, and we've planted lots of varieties: French Breakfast, Cherry Belle, Round Black Spanish, and Plum Purple, to name a few.

They're great to eat raw and in salads, but instead of discarding the leaves, use 'em!

Super volunteer Michelle shared this recipe for radish leaf pesto, which she made for our Home brew Harvest event last weekend.

Take
2 cups of radish leaves
1/3 cup of nuts (I used toasted walnuts).

Blend a little bit.

Add in 1 thai chili pepper (I also roasted this because I had them in the freezer), then
slowly pour in 1/2 cup olive oil and pulse intermittently.

Add in 1/2 grated Parmesan (or other hard cheese).
Add in 1 clove garlic, chopped.

Blend.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Try it with bread, crackers or pasta and let us know what you think!

NFI Ingredients: Pickled Okra!

2010-09-23T18:51:00.000-07:00

This fall, NFI volunteers’ cupboards have been bursting with what’s been growing out of our plot at the Mamie D. Lee Community Garden. With the particularly bountiful okra harvest, I decided to use it as an opportunity to explore the production side of one of my favorite types of foods - pickles!

While somehow “pickle” has come to refer primarily to pickled cucumbers, it turns out that you can pretty much pickle any vegetable you want. Pickling is one of many processes of fermentation, processes that, overall, encourage growth of "good" microorganisms in a food, while preventing growth of those that cause spoilage.

Pickling, which has been used as a technique for food preservation for over 5,000 years, involves soaking vegetables in a salt brine. The acidity of the brine prevents harmful bacteria from growing, and the fermentation produces lactic acid, giving the vegetable a salty or sour taste and a softer texture. Sounds good to me - let's get started!

Grandma’s Pickled Okra (someone else’s Grandma - I found this at allrecpies.com)

3 pint-sized jars
1 1/2 pounds fresh okra
1 clove garlic
3 tsp red pepper flakes (or if you have chili peppers, you could probably add those instead)
3 teaspoons dried dill
2 cups water
1 cup vinegar
2 tablespoons salt

Step one: Sterilizing jars

There are many different ways to sterilize your jars. For me, bringing a large pot of water to a boil and placing the jars in the water for 10 minutes or so was the easiest, though some sources say its fine just to run the jars in the dishwasher. I started the water first, to give the water plenty of time to come to a boil while I was preparing the other ingredients.

Step two: Prepare the Veggies & brine

Wash your okra and garlic. You may have to cut some of your okra in half to fit in the pint jars. Then, in a small saucepan, combine the water, vinegar and salt. Bring to a rolling boil.

Step three: Assemble and Seal!

To prevent any sort of last minute contamination, I removed the jars from the hot water just as the brine was just about ready to go. Stuff the okra & garlic into the jars and then add the red pepper flakes and dill. Pour the boiling brine over them, leaving 1/2 - 1/4 inch headspace. Place the lids onto the jars and screw them on tight! (on one of my jars, I screwed on the lid slightly crooked and the brine leaked into the hot water bath) Return the jars to the hot water bath for 10 minutes to finish the seal.

Different recipes have specific recommendations as to how long the jars should spend in the boiling water based on the ingredients, but the most important this is to make sure the jar is sealed.

Check the center of the lid over the course of the first day - if it pops back when you press in (like a jar of jelly from the grocery story after you open it) it’s not sealed properly. If so, all is not lost - you can still place it in the refrigerator to prevent spoilage and he pickling process will still produce a tasty result. You should also keep your jars in the refrigerator once you open them.

Pickled okra is generally ready 2-3 days, though others have said its better to leave them in for weeks to allow the fermentation to more fully do its work. The above recipe can be altered and tweaked for your own tastes, though because the acidity is an important part of ensuring safe preservation, most sources recommend sticking to ratios of vinegar and water provided in recipes.

Let me know if you have any advice or experiences with pickling to share!

Other resources:
-Another recipe for dill pickled okra
-Are pickles healthy?
-General resources on canning and pickling.

Homebrew Harvest: Join us for a home brew how-to and tasting

2010-09-13T11:43:00.000-07:00

We're teaming up with the Mamie D. Lee Community Garden are teaming up to host a home brew contest and how-to workshop this Saturday, September 18th at La Casa Community Center in Mount Pleasant from 7-10pm.

The evening will begin with two home brewers leading a one-hour workshop on how individuals can brew their own beer at home followed by two hours of home brew tasting. With their newly-informed taste buds, participants will sample the creations of numerous local brewers and vote for which brewer wins in the categories of Best Beer, Loveliest Look, Most Exotic, Best Back Story and Garden Fresh. Fresh, local crudités will be available as well.

Gardeners at the Mamie D. Lee Community Garden (located in Northeast DC) and NFI have seen their vegetable crops destroyed by deer grazing in the area. They hope to use the proceeds raised at this event to construct a permanent deer fence to protect plants for years to come.

A suggested donation of $10 will get you a seat in the workshop, a cup for sampling and a ballot for voting.

Hope to see you there!

An update on Saving Seeds

2010-08-10T07:28:00.000-07:00

Right now the staff and dedicated volunteers of NFI are gearing up for Saving Seeds! With the event two days away, we're all a-twitter with excitement around what we know will be an inspiring and fun evening.

We can't deny it – one of the most exciting parts of planning this event has definitely been compiling the menu of local and season hors d'oeuvres. We've been gleaning donations from local farmers, harvesting our own farms and gardens, and scouring our favorite cookbooks and websites. Our apartments are full of crates of peaches, our fridges stuffed to the brim with yellow squash. We've just finalized the menu, and we want to give you a little preview of the savory treats you'll enjoy at Saving Seeds:

Tomato-cucumber gazpatcho

Tzatziki dipping sauce

Frittata with chard and herbs

Bruschetta

Summer Succotash with pepper, corn, squash, and herbs

Green salad with tomatoes and nectarines

Cantaloupe salad with cucumber, mint, and feta cheese

Stuffed pattypan squash with parmesan cheese and herbs

Peach cobbler

In case that isn't enough for you, did we mention there will also be a Squeeze-Your-Own-Lemonade stand? We'll have lemons, sugar, and herbs on hand for you to make it just how you like it, or to try a new twist. We hope you're as excited as we are, and we look forward to seeing you there!

If I could teach the world to cook...

2010-08-05T14:02:00.001-07:00

My friend Liz is really into urban farming. She is one of NFI's fearless volunteer coordinators, and this summer one of her tasks was to help manage students doing community garden work as part of Mayor Fenty's Green Summer Job Corps. What a program! (You can read more of my gushing about it here.) In any case, I stopped by one of the community gardens within Liz's purview to help out with some weeding a few weeks ago and we got to talking. The conversation eventually turned to cooking, as it invariably does when I am around, and Liz invited me to come and teach a cooking class to some of her summer charges. It would be a meal that involved ingredients we could harvest, but also had to be something we could make without the use of heat. (There was no stove, oven, or even a grill at our disposal. Sure, I could have brought along the beercan stove, but I decided to approach the challenge head on. A seasonal, heat-free, vegetarian dish. Hmmm....)

Soon after I rolled into the garden, the NFI staff invited me to talk a little bit about my recent bicycle trip around the country to learn about sustainable farming. (Between you and me, I think the kids perceived me as a total wacko, but they were friendly enough and willing assistant chefs.) We took a lap around the garden to scout out and harvest what ingredients we could -- sweet mint, spicy chives, and as much parsley as we could find amid the sprawling beds. Then it was time to wash up and start chopping. Together we would be making tabouleh.

It is a delicious dish that bridges traditional categories -- most view it as a salad, but if you make it with a greater proportion of bulghur (a hearty grain used in Middle Eastern cooking) it becomes more of a starchy side dish. "What do you eat it with?" (The kids had lots of questions.) Well, traditionally it is part of a meal that includes grilled veggies, fish, or kabobs. And it's often served with dolma, hummus, baba ghannouj, and pita bread. (Oh, if only we had access to a commercial kitchen I could show these guys how to make a real Mediterranean feast....)

In the end, I think the young adults enjoyed the tabouleh, though there was a general consensus that the big bowl of it needed more lemon juice. But that's good. That means they're tasting things and developing food preferences. And, hey, I am certainly not one to turn down the addition of lemon juice. After a big hug from Keshawn, I left as the young gardeners (and aspiring cooks) took out their journals to do a little writing. But I did promise to send along the recipe, so here it is.

In honor of my young culinary assistants, I give you...
Green Summer Tabouleh

Soak:
- 1/2-1 cup of bulghur in a bowl of clear water for 1-2 hours.

Wash and finely chop:
- leaves from 2 large bunches of fresh parsley (about 2 cups of leaves, loosely packed)
- leaves from a small handful of fresh mint (about 1/4 cup, loosely packed)
- 2 spring/green onions (or substitute 2 TBSP fresh chives)
- 2 small cucumbers, peeled
- 3 medium tomatoes (or about 2 cups' worth of cherry or grape tomatoes)

Drain bulghur, pressing out excess water. Toss with chopped herbs and veggies.

Stir in:
- 2-4 TBSP fresh lemon juice
- 2-3 TBSP olive oil
- salt and pepper

Enjoy your tabouleh with friends while admiring your garden! (And if you need a good recipe for hummus, drop me a line....)

Summer Youth Program: Fort Totten's Top 5

2010-08-04T13:14:00.000-07:00

With our youth program winding down, we asked our teens to share the highlights of their summer on the farm. Here's what some of them said:

Destiny

This summer, for me, the top 5 things we did were

1)Field trip (We visited UDC's Muirkirk Research Farm.)

2) Speakers (We heard from nutritionists, cooks, farmers and more.)

3) Farmer's Market

4) Meeting the volunteers

5) Making a movie about zombie squash

(It shows next week at our fundraiser film screening!)

Maya

1) Going to the market

2) Harvesting for the market

3) Planting watermelon

4) Eating the food Caroline brought yesterday (It included pesto, locally made salsa, and fresh mozzarella.)

5) Presenters

Eric

This summer we have...

1) Worked at the Farmer's Market (We set up a stand every Tuesday at Brookland Twilight Farmer's Market.)

2) Visited a farm in Greenbelt

3) Been visited by the Lederer Team

4) Had many guest speakers

5) Eaten lots of good food

Saving Seeds: A Night Of Food, Film and Conversation On Urban Farming Through The Generations

2010-08-01T16:52:00.000-07:00

Please join us for an evening of film, local light fare and beverages, with a focus on intergenerational urban farming.

The Neighborhood Farm Initiative (NFI) will present the documentary short, Corner Plot, the story of one man’s dedication to work his land, share his produce, and enjoy the farm life he’s always known, inside the DC beltway. In addition to Corner Plot, NFI will present a short film featuring the next generation of urban farmers, the NFI Green Summer Teens. The screenings will be followed by a 30 minute panel discussion/Q&A session.

6:30pm, Thursday evening, August 12, 2010

Letelier Theater (3251 Prospect Street NW)

For directions and parking information, please visit leteliertheater.com/directions. Doors open & light refreshments served at 6:30 pm. Program will start at 7:30 pm.

Tickets: $25. Details and presale tickets available online at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/119951. Cash/checks accepted at the door, if seats/tickets are still available

Introducing the NFI Fort Totten youth crew!

2010-07-17T12:20:00.000-07:00

These days, NFI's farm at Fort Totten is being tended by teenagers. Teenagers planting watermelons, beans, squash, peppers and carrots, eating kohlrabi and zucchini, digging out out over 35 wheelbarrows full of weeds. They're sweating their way through their 14th and 15th summers, and slowly, it's becoming their farm, too.

And they're learning: Much like the team at Lederer Youth Garden, the Green Summer youth crew at Fort Totten is learning about urban farming, environmental science, cooking, health and nutrition, and marketing. We've had visits from Ellen Kittridge, a nutritionist, Sharon Gruber from Bread for the City, and Christopher Washington from Engaged Community Offshoots.

Here are some of their impressions:

Malcolm: My first week was good. I learned alot about planting and harvesting and I made new friends. I also developed job skills that will last a lifetime.

Maya: My first couple of weeks have been pretty good. The heat was a little overwhelming, but you learn to get over it. Yesterday was fun. I went to the market and had some really good food. Next week I think is going to be really fun because we get to take care of the plants we planted today.

Keshawn: Well, my first week of working with the Green Team was fun and interesting. First off, it was fun because I learned some new things. I pulled weeds, I met new people, and I made new friends.

Eric: So far this summer, we have weeded, composted, turned over soil, planted and harvested. I now know what different plants look like while they're still growing. What I want to do this summer is plant some more and harvest some of the plants we already planted.

Destiny: So far, what I've been doing is not so fun, but it's a good experience for me. I don't mind working sometimes, it's just that if it weren't so hot, I'd probably be sounding a little more optimistic. So far, I've been looking forward to my help in the garden paying off and watching the fruits and vegetables grow.

Introducing: The Lederer Youth Garden Crew!

2010-07-12T12:06:00.001-07:00

This summer, the Neighborhood Farm Initiative is hosting a team of 6 youth at the Lederer Youth Garden in the Deanwood neighborhood in northeast DC. The youth are members of DC Department of Environment's Green Summer Job Corps program. The Lederer Youth Garden was established by DC Parks & Rec in the 1970s, and today it includes 20 plots used by members of the community, as well as almost an acre of communal plots, a greenhouse, and recreation center.

The Green Summer program is 8 weeks long and includes lessons on urban farming, environmental science, cooking, health and nutrition, marketing, and media, all in hopes of providing a positive experience and new job skills.

Every day the Green Summer crew write about their experiences in journals. At the end of our first week, we asked everyone to write about their experiences for our blog. Here are some of their journal entries.

Salah, 19 years old.
Working in a garden drains a lot out of you, but it is one of the heathiest ways to live. I've heard that organic foods are the best and I'm excited that I am getting the chance to grow and cook some for mysef. I believe that weeding is one of the most soothing and relaxing thinds a person can do. Being in a garden alows you to take deep thoughts about nature and al the living things it has to offer. I'm just gratefu that I get the chance to work with some great supervisors and coworkers that work as hard as me.

Katrina, 19 years old.
I work at the Lederer Youth Garden. I can say that the first day of work I was a little skeptical about the job. I had a tour of the garden and saw what was being grown. The garden looked a little rough with weeds everywhere. But when we started working on it, it looked a little better each day. And every day I tried harder to make it look beautiful.

Jasmine, 16 years old.
The first few days were back-breaking work. Today our garden was looking wonderful. This program has given us a chance to experience this wonderful piece of the earth and to make it look better than ever. Very soon our garden will taste as good as it will look. Each and every one of us did our part to make this experience different.

Avery, 14 years old.
Throughout this first week I have learned a lot, such as how to place transplants in the ground. I learned that although the vegetables that can be grown in DC are more limited than other places, the vegetables that can be grown are awesome. I was suprised when I saw squash, lettuce, cabbage, corn, and watermelon.

Also, check out the Lederer Garden website!!

Volunteers make our farm work: Thank you!

2010-06-13T12:05:00.000-07:00

You dug alot. You yanked countless tiny weeds. You unloaded 93 bales of straw. You spread wheelbarrows and wheelbarrows and wheelbarrows full of compost. You planted tomatoes, okra, potatoes, collards, broccoli, lettuces, eggplants, rosemary, basil, marigolds, cabbage soybeans, carrots, chard, onions and fennel. You hacked back weeds taller than small children.

You, our volunteers, got our garden growing this spring and we’re incredibly grateful. We can say without reservation or exaggeration: we couldn’t have done it without you.

Soon, teenagers will be invading our garden. We’re partnering with the DC Department of the Environment’s Green Summer program, where we'll teach them to grow food, to cook food, and to eat well. They’ll be doing much of the work you’ve been doing, but we still want you to come out to the garden.

We're hosting our first Field Day of the summer on July 10 from 10-2 - come! If you want to cook a dish for our Field Day potluck, email neighborhoodfarm@gmail.com.

We'll resume regular volunteer workdays in August, but in the meantime, if you want to get involved, email us: neighborhoodfarm@gmail.com.

NFI seeks both qualified & unqualified professionals!!

2010-06-09T19:18:00.000-07:00

By Bea Trickett

You know how Liz & I are always asking you to come out and volunteer for NFI? And sometimes you just aren't the type of person to spend all day digging in the garden, or you already did that and kinda feel like well, that was harder than I thought it would be & I'm ready to move on to some other cool-sounding project.

NOT SO FAST!!! Likelihood is NFI can utilize your skills no matter what they are!!! We often find ourselves seeking both qualified and unqualified "professionals" to help us do things only tangentially related to our work in the garden, but tasks that are critical to providing us with the behind-the-scenes support we need to keep our work going.

Maybe we have asked you to brew beer for a fundraiser, bake cupcakes, help with graphic or web design, repair bicycles, map GIS coordinates, edit or act in videos, repair computers, play a banjo or a fiddle, squeeze lemonade, repair small engines, paint artistic things, build databases, design surveys, analyze data, rebuild our accounting system, or do any number of things you wouldn't necessarily think you were signing up for when you initially logged on as potentially interested in volunteering for the Neighborhood Farm Initiative.... but turns out, the possibilities for involvement are virtually endless.

Running a small non-profit on a shoestring budget often means being extremely creative with resources, both material-wise and skill-wise. If you are looking for a way to get involved but just haven't made it out to the garden yet, there are still plenty of ways for you to get involved as a volunteer. Simply send an email to NeighborhoodFarm(at)gmail.com with a little bio outlining some of your skills, and sooner or later we will have a project for you!

Let's take new volunteer Chris for instance. Little did he know that several months ago, Glut Food Co-op had generously donated a broken electronic scale to NFI for purposes of tracking how much produce we grow. However, our main garden site has no electricity and so we needed to convert the scale to run on battery power.

After some "simple" math - and a trip to RadioShack - we had all the supplies we'd need to experiment on this project. The original transformer converted the 120V AC current into 12V DC and the scale says it draws 300mA. Chris figured that 8 D-cell batteries should do the job. But while looking for battery holders, Bea spies some "lantern batteries" that say 6V and says can't we just buy 2 of these? Chris says brilliant, and grabs some alligator clips and a "project enclosure", and we hit the road back to the office. While Bea made an elaborate sandwich (with fresh-harvested lettuce and a baguette from our friends at Upper Crust Bakery!), Chris cut up a thrift-store-purchased transformer & assembled everything into a working project.

Hey, presto! A working scale!!!! So now we have a scale that works either plugged in wherever we have electricity, or will run on battery power anywhere that we don't. It weighs up to 30 lbs of food at once - exciting!!!

We tested the scale by weighing various objects around the office, including the power supply we'd just assembled. Chris described this process as simply "meta." Check it out: if a battery supply kit were sold for a mere $7.14/lb, we could have purchased this model (which weighed 2.89 lbs fully assembled) for $20.63 - and WHOOOOOA, that is exactly what price Radio Shack charged us for!!!!

See, it takes all types of skillful folks to make this organization run right :-)

A huge THANKS again & again to everyone who pitches in behind the scenes... we really & truly couldn't do it without you all!!

A Gray Wednesday Work Day in May

2010-05-21T06:04:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we'll be planting.

Wednesday we got ready: spread mounds of compost, dug in alfalfa meal, pulled out old plants and bok choi that had bolted, and of course, we weeded. We will always be weeding.

We have a fantastic crew of volunteers, including intern Tommy, Teshome, Bill, Andrew, Meredith, Julie and Juliana.

Here is what is growing: cherry tomatoes, okra, swiss chard, cabbage, broccoli, lettuces, radishes, beets, fennel, cilantro, parsley, tomatillos, and potatoes. We are still watching thyme, caraway, and strawberries left over from last year.

We are overwhelmed with mint.

Soon, we'll all eat.

A late welcome to our spring season!

2010-05-07T13:58:00.000-07:00

It's been a pretty darn busy spring so far - we've had lots to plant, dig and do at NFI.

Right now, we're rushing to meet our May 15 tilling deadline: according to community garden rules, all our beds must be tilled by next Saturday. We're hacking down last year's vetch and digging right in - we could really use your hands!

Special thanks go out to fantastic regular volunteers like Neil, Russell, Caroline, and Teshome, who have been planting, weeding and amending the soil at our half-acre farm.

We've also got seedling sales each Saturday in May at Community Forklift. Get your tomatoes, peppers and basil from us. Find out what varieties are available here.

And the Gardening Education Program! Our season-long, hands-on gardening course starts tomorrow. Check back for updates!

We've also had awesome groups from Weatherize DC, the Latin American Youth Center, McFarland Middle School, KPMG, and most recently, the USDA!

Come out and join us soon! Email neighborhoodfarm@gmail.com to get on our mailing list!

Lights, Camera, Action!!

2010-03-03T11:45:00.000-08:00

By Leigh Crenshaw

Gardening and eating locally can be overwhelming if you are new at it. With this in mind NFI has begun taping a series of garden and food related How-to videos.

We put out a call in early January asking for topics and suggestions on tutorials. Great ideas rolled in, and we roped two volunteers into showing their skills on camera.

Kellie walked us through the steps of freezing stone fruit. Neil preserved a great winter staple – cabbage – by making sauerkraut. Each peppered their tutorials with helpful hints that take the mystery out of putting food by.

As with of all NFI’s projects, there were volunteers behind the scenes helping to lighten the load. Everyone took a hand in chopping, pitting and slicing; together we made quick work of the tutorials and even had time to share a beer.

The videos will find their final home on DC’s Field to Fork Network web site.

For more photos of the film-making process, click here!

Soil Testing

2010-02-10T08:02:00.000-08:00

One of the best investments a gardener can make in the productivity of their garden is a routine soil test. Soil tests are cheap and provide essential information for the establishment or maintenance of a successful garden. An accurate test will give you the pH of your soil, as well as the levels of plant-available nutrients and organic matter. Most routine soil tests will also provide liming recommendations to help you achieve the desired pH for your intended crop.

There are numerous different labs which provide soil testing services, some private, some through Universities. Different labs may have differing requirements for the amount of soil and the packaging, but obtaining an accurate soil sample will generally require the same steps.

Use a clean spade or shovel to collect at least half a dozen samples from various areas of your garden. To collect a sample, dig down about 6 inches and scoop out the soil, placing it in a clean bucket. Mix all the samples in bucket using your spade, but try to avoid touching the soil with your bare hands.

Bring the moist soil inside and spread it out to dry. If you have collected samples from multiple sites, or you want different plots to be tested individually, make sure to keep them separated. Once the soil is dry, carefully measure out the required amount and place in a labeled bag for shipping to the lab.

After the analysis has been conducted by the lab you will receive a soil test report. Most routine soil test reports will include the pH, texture, percent organic matter, Macro nutrient(P,K, Ca and Mg) levels, and if required, recommendations for lime application. Nutrient levels will be indicated as Low, Optimum or High. You can requests addition tests, such as heavy metals, usually at additional cost, but these can be important, especially for urban gardeners. The lab should provide explanations for how the analyses are conducted, and how to read the test report.

With an accurate soil test you can greatly improve the efficiency and productivity of your garden. The information provided can help you choose which crops are best suited for your soil. It will also help you understand how well your soil will hold water and nutrients, and what kind of amendments may be beneficial. And, if you test your soil each year you will be able to track its development. The addition of fertilizers, compost, or cover crops will hopefully be represented in improved organic matter and nutrient levels.

For a list of soil testing labs, click here:
http://www.hgic.umd.edu/_media/documents/RegionalSoilTestLabsCharthg110b.pdf

We use and recommend the University of Massachusetts lab since it includes testing for lead without an additional fee.

Growing the Politics of Local Food

2009-11-03T07:02:00.001-08:00

By Molly Davis, 2009 NFI Community Supported Gardening share-holder

D.C.'s local food movement is blooming. A crowd gathered at the Big Bear Cafe on the night of Saturday, Oct. 24 to listen to live music, drink a few beers, and talk about the issue of healthful food access in the District. The crowd included Neighborhood Farm Initiative growers, teachers, and volunteers, as well as Greg Bloom from Bread For the City, which offers food distribution and other services to low-income residents.

Greg talked about his group's new project, a blog, that he hopes will serve as a hub for all things healthy, with a bent toward social justice and nutrition. Although the DC Food For All blog will focus on broad food access issues, Greg says that growing food locally is definitely one of the solutions to the challenges our city faces.

"I think that all these issues are fairly linked. I'd say for example efforts to localize food production goes hand in hand with efforts to provide access to food," he said at the launch party at Big Bear.

The new blog is being launched by the same coalition of groups that built the DC Food finder, where District residents can search an interactive map of farmers' markets, food banks, cooking classes and other sources.

"What? You mean access to fresh, reasonably priced food isn't evenly distributed throughout the city?"

But the atmosphere at the launch party wasn't all serious. The supporters spilled out onto the sidewalks when the rain subsided, enjoying the warm fall evening. And inside the cafe, local food supporters connected over clinking glasses and shared missions.

That's exactly what Greg had been hoping for. He says that the coalition wanted to bring people together, using technology to create opportunities to talk to one another. "We looked at food as the first and easiest way to explore these opportunities," he said.

District-wide Community Garden Census

2009-10-27T09:18:00.000-07:00

By Katie Cerretani

I grew up with a backyard vegetable garden and have been yearning to have my own ever since I moved to the DC area about six years ago. Being easily distracted and moving frequently enough, I’ve limited myself to container gardening for the most part, but have become intrigued with the community garden concept ever since I had the chance to help out with NFI’s garden census.

Bea interviews a gardener at Melvin Hazen Community Garden

I visited several gardens in the upper reaches of the District with Bea as part of NFI’s effort to map out gardens and interview their denizens. We started at Fort Totten, taking GPS points to get an accurate picture of the garden’s size and location and interviewing some folks tending their plots. When we found people to talk to (rain threatened all day and likely kept people closer to home) Bea would interview the garden managers, and I got to chat up the gardeners themselves.

As I spoke with the gardeners at Fort Totten, I was struck by how peaceful it seemed, despite (or perhaps because of) the reggae music spilling over from a nearby party. I could get used to spending more time out there. And the plots were chock full of vegetables (and some fruits), so many so that when I attempted to record the different crops, I started out writing feverishly and eventually gave up in favor of more general descriptions with a few examples. It never ceases to amaze me how much you can grow in a small space if you work at it.

Throughout our afternoon trek, smaller community gardens dominated, with one exception (Blair Road Community Garden) that was an oasis of ‘open’ space on the edge of town. Standing in the middle of this community garden, I almost forgot I was even in a city – road noise was nonexistent; the dominant sound was wind blowing through crops and the grasses in between.

Blair Road Community Garden is DC's largest garden - over 5 acres!

One of the gardeners I met there had started his plot a few decades ago and was still going strong. He looked confused when I asked where he had learned to garden. He learned it growing up, from his father. Ask the younger gardeners, and they will probably say they learned through trial and error, reading books, or web research. Prod them a bit more, and maybe they’ve observed or even chatted up other gardeners. A couple had even attended NFI courses. Not only can community gardens be a place you go to for your own little space, but they are real places for exchange and even education.

Establishing a Cover Crop

2009-10-21T11:23:00.000-07:00

By Tommy Pyne, NFI Intern

Autumn is now upon us, and with it comes the end of the growing season for the many vegetables and herbs grown this year in our garden. But while the cooler weather marks the end of the vegetables, it also signals the beginning of another important phase in the development of our garden. One of the greatest challenges faced by organic farmers and gardeners alike is providing and maintaining adequate nutrient levels in their soil without the use of conventional fertilizers. The use of winter cover crops is one simple and effective way to add nutrients, while maintaining the complex soil ecosystem we've worked so hard to develop.

Cover crops, which can also be referred to as green manure crops, are traditionally sown at the end of the growing season. They provide numerous benefits including increasing available nutrients, increasing water holding capacity, suppressing the growth of weeds, controlling erosion, providing a habitat for beneficial insects, and breaking disease cycles. The cover crop will grow over the winter and then be incorporated into the soil prior to planting in the spring.

When spring rolls around and we begin to sow our crops for the new year, their roots will begin to penetrate the soil in search of vital nutrients. Most notably, nitrogen. Nitrogen is essential in the formation of amino acids, which are the building blocks of all living organisms. While nitrogen is in abundance in our atmosphere, in fact it is the largest single constituent(~75%) of our atmosphere, this form of nitrogen is not usable by plants or animals. Fortunately we are able to gain access to this reserve through the use of plants which convert or "fix" atmospheric nitrogen into plant available forms. Instead of applying an outside source of nitrogen come springtime, our cover crop will be working throughout the winter to store nitrogen for our crops in the spring. Then when we incorporate the cover crop into the soil in the spring, the plants will begin to decompose, releasing more nitrogen and other important nutrients into the soil.

Aside from providing vital nutrients, the cover crop will also help maintain the soil that we already have. If we were to leave the garden bare for the entire winter our soil would be exposed to the elements for many months. Rain, snow and wind would slowly wash away the most nutrient rich portions of the soil. The foliage and roots of the cover crop will keep hold of our soil and make sure those vital nutrients remain in our garden.

This year we chose to use a mixture of four crops; Bell Bean, Winter Pea, Vetch and Oats. The first three fall into the nitrogen fixing category, and they constituted about 90% of the mix. While the oats do not provide any nitrogen fixation, they provide a wide, fibrous root base which will be essential in preventing erosion. To establish the cover crop we first had to remove the dead plants and weeds and transfer them to our composting heaps. Then in each row we plowed three smaller rows and lightly seeded the cover crop by hand.

Cooking With Fresh, Local Herbs

2009-10-14T13:47:00.000-07:00

Written and posted by Molly Davis, 2009 NFI Community Supported Gardening share-holder

Fresh herbs can fetch a pretty steep price at the grocery store, and that's not the only downside. They're also not likely to have been grown organically, they come with as much packaging as they do flavor, and they traveled long distances to reach my plate. Those tiny bunches carry a big environmental footprint.

So one of my favorite things about having a share in the Neighborhood Farm Initiative has been the abundance of fresh herbs in my weekly sack of goodies. The NFI garden has seen an explosion in delicious basil, mint, chives and other herbs this summer, so much so that I've struggled to use them all before the next bag comes.

But having a small party is a great excuse to cook up some finger foods that incorporate all the most brilliant tastes of summer, as I discovered when some of my good friends recently got engaged. I'm spoiled now! After having big, glorious fountains of herbs straight from the farm, I'll never be able to work within the confines of those 1oz. grocery store packages again.

First, we made a mint julip punch. It was basically one big mint julep -- a punch bowl of freshly mottled mint floating in bourbon, simple syrup, and ice. Make the syrup by heating equal parts sugar and water over the stove until the sugar dissolves. Mix in syrup until you like the way it tastes. Watch out, this is strong!

Fresh picked Basil and Cherry Tomato's included in a

typical NFI Community Supported Garden Share

The following are my recipes for a relatively easy and colorful party menu. Enjoy!

Individual apricot cheesecakes

Make these first because they need the longest time to cool. For both the cheesecakes and the spinach tarts, it's extremely helpful to have a mini-muffin pan.

For the filling, mix 24 oz. cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tbsp cornstarch, 1 tsp vanilla, and mix until it's fluffy. Add two eggs and two egg yolks, and mix until combined. Add 1/4 cup heavy cream and 1 can of apricot pie filling and mix again.

You can make your own pastry (this can be painful) or use the crescent roll dough that comes in cans at the store. Unroll the dough and cut into squares. Flatten them (your fingers work fine for this) and press down into the muffin pan to make the individual crusts. Fill each one almost up to the top with cheesecake batter. Cook at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.

Press a piece of a pecan into the top of each personal cheesecake. Cool in the fridge for at least four hours. Garnish the serving tray with sprigs of mint.

Spinach mini-tarts

Follow the same pastry instructions, but allow the dough to cook in the muffin pan for minutes before adding the filling. Again, 375 degrees.

The filling for this recipe is less exact. Add more cream if you want it creamier. Add more spinach otherwise. Add or remove ingredients depending on what you've got in your fridge. It's going to taste good no matter what.

Chop up a bunch of fresh spinach and chives. Grate a good melting cheese of your choice, and add a little parmesan to the mix if you have it. Add some of your leftover heavy cream from the cheesecake recipe and some whole milk. Add salt and freshly ground pepper.

After cooking the pastry initially, pull out the pan and fill the cups. Press as much filling down into the cups as possible. Don't be afraid to pack it in. The spinach will cook down, but the top will be a gorgeous skin of melted cheese and crispy, toasted greens. Place the muffin pan back in the oven and cook for five more minutes.

For an optional spicy kick, I diced a spicy pepper and mixed it with apple cidar vinegar and a little salt and pepper and let people spoon it onto the tarts themselves from a bowl.

Bruschetta

Make the tomato mixture early and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours if possible. Just chop a bunch of tomatoes and basil and mix with olive oil, salt, and fresh pepper.

Slice a baguette and broil the slices for two minutes on each side. Plate the toast and spread the raw tomato mixture across it.

NFI Celebrates a Fantastic Season!

2009-10-07T07:51:00.000-07:00

On October 3rd we celebrated a fantastic season as a way of thanking our generous volunteers for all their time, love, and energy! We began the day with a fall-prep work day, for which we were joined by a group of 10 volunteers working as part of the South Asian Americans Leading Together’s (SAALT) Be the Change national day of service. We were also joined by countless other volunteers, both new and long-standing, and got a lot accomplished. At noon we wrapped up the work and had a potluck lunch, which was supplemented with fresh picked cherry tomatoes, watermelons, green beans, and other goodies we have in great quantities!

SAALT and other volunteers work in the plot of a Garden Class student who moved away from the area last month. They were excited to find and eat the hidden treasures, including Carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, and basil, growing amongst the weeds.

SAALT volunteers remove Morning Glory from the NFI deer fence. While morning glory flowers can be beautiful, the vines can take over and, if left unattended, could tear the fense down!

Weeding and mulching the fall greens.

Sifting Compost is a lot of work, volunteers took turns using a digging fork to transfer the mix of finished compost and partially composted weeds from the bins onto the Bread Crates above. Then, other volunteers worked and loosened the soil sifting it through the holes in the crate, and into wheelbarrows. Anything not broken down enough to fit through the holes, went back in the pile!

There was plenty of finished compost to go around, and any gardeners who had come for the garden clean-up day were welcome to add it to their plots.

Volunteer Neil harvests some Heirloom Tomatoes to add to our potluck lunch spread.
Volunteers gathered around the food, cooling off from working in one of what could be the last hot days of the season, with fresh picked watermelon and iced lemonade.
After lunch we were joined by a group of dozens of bicyclists who were part of a Harvest Bike Ride, a 26 mile randonneuring bike tour of gardens and worker-owned food cooperatives in the DC area.

This event was a great opportunity for new folks to be introduced to our project, and also for people who had volunteered early in the season to come back and see how much we had accomplished in one summer. It was truly an chance for us to all appreciate the fruits of our labor!

It's been a busy Fall!

2009-09-26T12:37:00.000-07:00

During the month of September, we logged more than 150 hours of volunteer time, and are still working hard to get ready for winter! Our tomatoes have finished for the season and have been removed and replaced with a cover crop, and our compost pile has composted and is ready to spread on newly tilled ground! In addition to working in our garden, volunteers sold produce at the Mt. Pleasant Farmers Market, and also conducted a DC-wide Urban Garden Census! We are looking forward to another busy month in October, and then winding down our work-days by the end of the month. There is still lots to do between now and first frost though!

Our summers work has really paid off, as our September Harvest has been bountiful, beautiful, and delicious!
Our many rows of basil has paid off, keeping our CSG shares large and our freezer full of a years supply of Pesto!

Bea Sifts Compost, beautiful beautiful compost. It's amazing how this rich soil was just a pile of weeds and food scraps just a few months ago!
Volunteers enjoy a watermelon fresh picked only moments ago!
Volunteer, Carolyn, plants winter greens in a special 4’x12’ garden mat, donated to NFI by the office of Vermont Senitor, Bernie Sanders.

Fresh Picked Cherry Tomatoes: Just like candy!

Harvested for Mt. Pleasant Farmers Market

Volunteers remove the tomato plants, in preparation for planting cover crops.

Looks like our fall greens will be plentiful at least up until the first hard frost!

A Month of Harvesting (and Weeding!)

2009-09-01T20:11:00.001-07:00

August has been a very busy month at NFI, we have had more than 100 distinct volunteers dedicate over 350 volunteer hours to making NFI's harvest season a success. We have done a little bit of everything this month (and a LOT of some things!) It is a very rewarding time to be out in the garden as you can really see the entire seasons process happen literally all in a day.

For example, a few Saturday's ago we started at 7AM harvesting bucket-loads of cherry tomatoes to sell at the Mt. Pleasant Farmers Market, and then continued from there to do everything from weeding, turning compost piles, and even hand turning used beds, spreading compost, and planting our fall chard crops.

Below, volunteers Anna-Beth and Katie sample some goodies at the Mt. Pleasant Farmers Market, while selling produce so fresh the tomatoes were still warm from the sun!

We learned the hard way that a lot of rain early in the season can weaken a plants immune system and make them more susceptible to disease. We had an outbreak of the Zucchini Yellow Mosaic Virus kill about half of our cucumbers and squashes. Here, volunteers Neal and Laura examine plants to determine which ones are healthy, and which need to be removed to stop the disease from spreading.

Volunteers and class participants enjoy a cold watermelon at the end of a long day of weeding and learning in the sun. Thanks to volunteer Neil for running out mid-morning to procure our mid-day treat!

We've been fortunate enough to harvest basil pretty much every other day for the last month. As a result Basil has been bountiful in our CSG shares, is often available by the bunch at Glut Food Coop and the Mt. Pleasant Farmers' Market, and we've even had plenty left over the turn into Pesto for the winter!

One Day's Harvest!
On August 15th, we held our 9th (and second to last) class in our season long Gardening Education Program. This class focused on Harvesting and Preparing your Harvest, and was taught by guest speaker Ed Bruske. Throughout the course of the season, Ed Bruske has featured NFI three times on his blog. We encourage you to browse through his blog to learn all about the best ways to turn your harvest, into your dinner. The posts directly related to NFI were made on April 30th, August 17th, and August 28th.

On August 12th, we had a 35 person volunteer crew, ranging in age from 5 to 65, from St. Louis come join us for an afternoon. They spent two hours working in the field, and then we migrated up to a nearby park for a cookout. Everyone had a great time, got some dirt under their fingernails, and enjoyed the fresh air! The crew was on a two week bus trip to visit urban gardens in Chicago, Denver, and Washington DC. They said their two DC highlights included a tour of the White House Garden, and their afternoon with NFI! Below, Bea helps a group of kids find gloves that fit their little hands!

They worked in teams to do everything from mulching with Straw, weeding, and Spreading Wood-chips.

(Click any photo to see larger image)

One group even took freshly harvest basil and turned it into hand-made pesto which we then ate on our veggie burgers for dinner!

We ended the evening with a delicious feast, a discussion of locally produced foods in our respective communities, and a true sense of accomplishment!

NFI's Film Screening - A Huge Success!

2009-08-28T20:15:00.001-07:00

We held our first large fundraiser this week, and everyone we've talked to seemed to have had as much fun as we did! Over 120 people, plus a team of 20+ volunteers spent the first part of Thursday evening eating home-made finger-food and enjoying home-brewed beer and mead. Wandering around the crowded outdoor lobby of the Letelier Theater in Georgetown, I was excited about not only the sheer number of people in attendance, but at the amount of networking and organizing I witnessed throughout the crowd. It seemed everyone in attendance had something to learn, and something to offer to others.

The food, drink, and mingling was followed by a showing of the short film "Food Justice: A Growing Movement," a ten minute film about how an understanding of Food Justice has led to an expansion of community agriculture in San Fransisco.

This was followed by an awe-inspiring 30-minute work-in-progress screening of the locally-filmed documentary "A Community of Gardeners," which explores the vital role of seven urban community gardens in Washington, D.C. The audience got a special sneak preview of the film, documenting four of the seven featured community gardens. The film is scheduled to be released in entirety in Spring 2010. The screening was followed by a Q & A with the filmmaker, Cintia Cabib. It was clear from the questions and conversations following the film that the audience was full of community gardeners and organizers, with true passion for their work. To learn more about the film, visit www.communityofgardeners.com.

The local fare and home-made treats included hors d'oeuvres such as Gazpacho made from fresh organic heirloom tomatoes, and roasted cherry tomato Crostini with Ricotta cheese, and desserts like Vegan Avocado/Cayenne/Chocolate Cupcakes, and fresh Peach Cobbler with ice cream! The produce for the evening was donated by vendors at area farmers' markets, and the gourmet treats were prepared Wednesday evening by a team of 15+ volunteers who gathered at Jamie and Bea's house and cooked late into the night. The bar included a selection of home-brewed beers and meads, made by four local home-brewers.

We owe many thanks to the dozens of volunteers who put in countless hours making this event a huge success, and of course all of you who attended who really brought the event to life!!

Volunteer Katie Rehwaldt (program director of Operation Green Plant American the Beautiful Fund - our fiscal sponsor), and her sister, volunteer head Chef Helen Rehwaldt, admire boxes of local hot and sweet peppers.

Having lots of extra tomatoes, we decided to combine our Wednesday Evening Cooking night with a short and sweet ExtravaCANza Workshop!

With some love and fresh herbs and spices, hundreds of cherry tomatoes and dozens of beautiful eggplants were transformed into delicious toppings for crostini!

Chef Helen and fellow Volunteer KT put the final garnishes on these trays of Roasted Cherry Tomato and Ricotta Crostini!

As the crowd grew, they were entertained by local musicians; Gabe Popkin, Julia Friend and Scott Prouty.

Event organizers and NFI volunteer staff (Left to Right): Jessica Mackow - Intern, Josh Wenz - Education Specialist, Bea Trickett - Program Director, Jamie Moorby - Volunteer Coordinator, and Katie Rehwaldt - on staff at our parent organization, America The Beautiful Fund.

Neighborhood Farm Initiative would like to thank:

~Local Food Project at Airlie, for sponsoring this event as part of the Local Food Film Series
~Cintia Cabib, for providing use of “A Community of Gardeners” and programming support
~Rona Leff, Terrell Holloway, and the Letelier Theater, for programming support
~Mike Marini, our projectionist
~Media That Matters Film Festival, a project of Arts Engine, Inc., for providing use of “Food Justice: A Growing Movement”
~Katie Rehwaldt at America The Beautiful Fund, for programming support
~Chefs Trey Massey and Helen Rehwaldt, for menu development and support
~Guy Schaffer, for vegan cupcakes
~Harold Stone, for freshly brewed red ale
~Aaron Lavallee and Morgan Pinnell, for freshly brewed hefeweizen
~Sera Baghdadi, for freshly brewed mead
~Per Hoel and Rich Dinerman, for technical support
~Robert Mackow, MD, for Virginia wine donations
~Gabe Popkin, Julia Friend, and Scott Prouty, for music
~Vrinda Manglik for taking photos
~Atwater’s Belvedere Square Market, for baguettes
~The Farm at Sunnyside, for food donations
~The Vendors of the Mt. Pleasant Farmers’ Market, for food donations
~Mike Tabor of Licking Creek Bend Farm, for food donations
~Glut Food Co-op, for food donations
~The Vendors of the Silver Spring Farmers’ Market, for food donations
~Through the Kitchen Door, for allowing us to perform their gleaning
~FRESHFARM Markets, for connecting us with farmers’ market gleaners
~DC Central Kitchen & Miriam’s Kitchen, for their generosity
~Chix, for compostable cups
~Marsha Weiner at Food Muse Media, for programming support
~Maddy Beckwith at FRESHFARM Markets, for programming support
~Takoma Park Silver Spring Co-op, for food donations
~P Street Whole Foods Market, for lemonade
~Giant Food Supermarkets, for supplies
~Safeway, for supplies

And a huge Thank You to ALL of our dozens of volunteers who have donated their time and efforts to make the Neighborhood Farm Initiative a success!

NFI to Host Film Screening about DC Urban Gardening

2009-08-14T20:31:00.000-07:00

Please join us for an evening of film, local light fare and drinks, and live music, with a focus on locally-produced food and community gardening. The Neighborhood Farm Initiative will present the short film "Food Justice: A Growing Movement" and a very special 30-minute work-in-progress screening of the locally-filmed documentary "A Community of Gardeners," which explores the vital role of seven urban community gardens in Washington, D.C. The screening will be followed by a Q & A with the filmmaker, Cintia Cabib.

The event will take place at the Letelier Theater in Washington, D.C., on Thursday evening, August 27, 2009. The Letelier Theater is located inGeorgetown at 3251 Prospect Street, N.W. For directions and parking information, visit http://www.leteliertheater.com/. Refreshments at 6:30 p.m. Program and screenings at 7:30. Tickets $15 with small surcharge for online sales. Details and presale tickets available online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/77293. Cash or check accepted at the door, if seats are still available.

Proceeds benefit programming of the Neighborhood Farm Initiative and the production of "A Community of Gardeners." Visit Neighborhood Farm Initiative on the web at http://www.neighborhoodfarm.110mb.com/ and learn more about "A Community of Gardeners" at http://communityofgardeners.com/. This screening is part of the Local Food Film Series, a program of the Local Food Project at Airlie. Special thanks to Media That Matters Film Festival for providing use of "Food Justice: A Growing Movement."

Lots of sun, and Lots of Veggies!

2009-08-09T21:37:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks we've really seen our garden come into its own, and our hard work is starting to pay off. It's not without its battles; we're currently battling illness in our squash, and baffled by the stunted growth of some of our beloved tomatoes, but we have other crops that are flourishing! The deer fence we installed in early July has really paid off, and the students' gardens are lush with green growth and red tomatoes. With only a few classes left before the end of the season we are getting inundated with requests for fall classes, and some folks already trying to sign up for next year! While we regret that we will not be able to offer a fall/wintering-over class, we are starting an interest list for next season for folks who want to get information as soon as we work out the details. Please email neighborhoodfarm@gmail.com to get info as soon as it becomes available!

With the new deer fence, and the entire garden mulched, we're having to spend fewer hours weeding which makes us all happy gardeners!

Bea takes a turn with the hose! We have drip irrigation set up throughout most of the garden, but all newly planted seeds and transplants get a little special attention in the summer heat! It wouldn't take much for the newbies to get dried out their first week in direct sunlight.

Below, Volunteers load many wheelbarrows with wood-chips, to build up the paths throughout the community garden. With the amount of traffic this garden gets, both from our dozens of gardeners, and from hundreds of volunteers and visitors, it is important that paths be very clear to newcomers so that individual gardens don't get walked in.

Students learn about apartment-scale vermicomposting in a large tupperware container!

Guest speaker Tania spreads out the worm castings from her worm bin and generously allowed students to use the castings on their gardens!

Our very first Tomatoes of 2009! They are so pretty and taste just like candy!

And the produce rolls in!

Summer Intern and Class participant, Andrea, harvesting her first large Cucumber!

Now those are carrots! They may be short, but there is simply nothing as sweet as picking produce from the ground, wiping the dirt off on your jeans, and eating it right then and there!

With all the rain we've gotten, disease has spread very easily this year. We luckily averted infection by the Late Blight that spread through tomatoes in the area earlier this season, but we haven't been so lucky with the squash. We are sad to report that we have to remove our primary squash patch due to an infection of Zucchini Yellow Mosaic Virus, spread in wet weather by Aphids. Luckily, our secondary patch is not infected, and is getting close to production size already!

(Left - Before): Jaime tries his luck with the roto-tiller!

(Right- After): If you haven't just looked and admired a freshly tilled, ready to plant, patch of soil....you should. There's nothing quite like it!

(Above and Below) A Youth Crew who came to help out in for a while in June returned this month and had a change to admire how much things have grown and changed from their last visit!! This trip they spent some time removing invasive vines from the woods adjacent to our field, and they finished preparing these beds and planted some seeds!

Early July, 2009

2009-07-14T20:30:00.000-07:00

For the last two weeks we have had plentiful sunshine and lots of volunteers (including two who biked to DC from New Orleans!). We held class number 7 where class participants learned how to identify and organically treat, plant diseases. We took a tour of all the garden plots, searching out examples of sick plants.

In early July we started working with a DC Green Corps Summer Youth Employment Program - SYEP, which has been really fun. They are there every Tuesday and Thursday from 9-2 and have done a fantastic job putting wood chips on paths throughout the garden, using straw to mulch our giant patch of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants, and helping to plant the next round of crops. They will be out for the rest of July, so if you haven't had a chance to come meet and work with them, you really should. Much thanks to them for all their hard work.

As you saw last month we spent lots of time harvesting and cutting bamboo, and we had a huge straw delivery. During the last two weeks it has been very rewarding to see how each fit in to give our garden a much more complete look. As anyone who spent hours weeding the tomatoes in June can attest, the straw mulch is saving us TONS of work by keeping our plants moist, and eliminating weed growth.

Class participants tour the garden gathering samples of diseased leaves and bugs in sandwich bags for identification.

They found examples of cucumbers infected with bacterial wilt, and a few tomato plants infected with the infamous Late Blight that's been making the news lately. (Click here for more info on this serious disease!)

Luckily these plants were identified and eliminated, before the disease could spread to any other plots. It's important that diseased plants not be put in the compost pile!!

Here, class coordinator Josh inspects the cucumbers before removing them.

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We had two dump truck loads of wood chips delivered by the Park Service, and here the SYEP crew is spreading them out to create a solid surface around the garden's group compost pile in an attempt to keep weeds out and allow easy access to managing our compost system.

SYEP folks used a handsaw to sharpen the ends of bamboo stakes, before pounding them into the ground and turning our tomato patch into a maze of 6 and 7 foot bamboo poles.

Bea threads a web of string to keep our tomato plants growing up and tangle free!

Below, volunteer and class participant, John, uses a heavy post-pounder to drive in stakes for our deer fence. In the background, volunteers weed the sweet-potatoes in preparation for laying drip irrigation tape.

Bea Rolls out the deer netting.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT! This will keep the deer from eating our yummy veggies!

June 2009 at NFI

2009-07-01T17:40:00.000-07:00

To continue the monthly updates, June was an exciting month at NFI because IT FINALLY STOPPED RAINING!!!!!!

During June, NFI:
* Continued with classes 5 and 6 in the Gardening Education Program (Pruning, Staking & Good Maintenance, and Pest Management)
* Had do-it-yourself fresh-squeezed lemonade at the garden, thanks to volunteer Neil!
* Re-evaluated our farmers' market involvement
* Spent at least 5 hours every Sunday cutting down a forest of bamboo!
* Had a huge delivery of 85 bales of straw!
* Started work with a crew from DC's Green Corps (Summer Youth Employment Program - SYEP)

A CSG share - lettuces, herbs, onion scapes, and chard

Jamie and Neil at Lemonade Day

We bought a lot of straw

Our intern, Andrea, taking a break

Unloading truckload after truckload of bamboo

Harold and Jamie - urban farmers

Mike and Harold folding our "tarp as big as the ocean"

That's a lot of straw!

Bea mulching some tomato plants

Ranger Richard and the SYEP crew mulching the field of tomatoes