Has Lower Columbia School Gardens had a positive impact on you or your family in 2020? As you probably know, we were unable to do our regular Spring garden programs with students so we shifted to growing food, helping our community grow food, and giving away fresh produce. We’d especially love to hear from people who received container gardens, plants, seeds for their home gardens, and/or free produce this year. Email us at info@lcschoolgardens.org or call/text 360-200-8918 if you’d be willing to speak to a School Gardens staff member about your experience, or fill out this survey to share your story with us. Thank you!
With limited opportunities to work with students this summer, we turned our focus to growing as much good food as possible for our community.
Our average harvest from school gardens is 250 pounds of food per week, most of which is distributed free at farm stands as well as through Family Community Resource Center, South Kelso Neighborhood Association, Radical Love, and others.
Harvest Day
Summer squash
“Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye” tomato
Peaches, plums, figs
Beets
Garlic!
More garlic!
Suffolk Red grape
New this year: Free Farm Stands
Free Farm Stand – Highlands
Free Farm Stand – Highlands
Free Farm Stand – Highlands
Free Farm Stand – South Kelso
Thank you for supporting this work! We are grateful for this beautiful community.
It can be hard to talk with kids about racism. But we know that by preschool age, many kids have already learned racial bias. It’s so important to start talking with kids about race and racism early and often, even if we do so imperfectly.
If you want some help figuring out where to start or how to continue to engage with your kids about race, check out these two videos. The first is from Dr. Kira Banks and a panel of parents with varying perspectives and helpful tools for engaging in conversations about race with kids. And the second is a Sesame Street town hall Q&A both kids and adults can enjoy and learn from.
LCSG cares a great deal about the health of our community; it’s a core part of our mission to promote healthy eating, and provide access to fresh produce in Longview and Kelso. We also know that fighting racism is an important way to ensure everyone can thrive.
Pervasive and systemic racism is the reason Black, Indigenous, Latinx and other communities of color suffer disproportionately from completely preventable conditions like chronic diseases, shortened life expectancy, poor birth outcomes, and increased mortality from COVID-19.
Racism is a public health crisis. While our organization can and will continue to grow nutritious and delicious food, we will also work to undo our own implicit biases, and address the racist systems that prevent communities of color from accessing education, employment, safe and affordable housing and healthy food so that they can expect the same quality of life that white communities do.
To learn more, check out this article from Pew Trusts:
As our team continues to learn and act on what it means to be anti-racist, we feel called to consider the perspective and experiences of Black and Indigenous people and communities, both historically and in present day.
As a staff of white people, most of us have positive and pleasant memories of Fourth of July celebrations. Most of us also did not learn until much later in life that the phrase “all men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence did not actually mean ALL people. That same well-known document also refers to Indigenous people as “merciless Indian Savages”.
Not until 100 years after that first Independence Day in 1776 were some African American people granted freedom from enslavement. Countless Indigenous people were violently displaced from lands that were their home, or were murdered by those who colonized this continent that some know as North America, but so many still recognize as Turtle Island.
In the midst of a holiday weekend of national celebration, LCSG is committed to meditating on and learning about the many ways our country continues to perpetuate injustice, and the oppression of so many.
We look forward to the day when this nation is a place where all beings can thrive and we want to play an active role in bringing that to life.
The Edible Schoolyard Project recently sent out another email that echoed a lot of what our team has been feeling over the past few weeks.
Families may be wanting to talk about racism and the issues surrounding it, but aren’t sure how or where to start — this link will take you to the full message from Edible Schoolyard Project, which includes some questions and ideas for engaging in conversations with the young people in our lives. Even if you aren’t having conversations about racial injustice and the protests happening all over the world, the young people in your life are almost certainly aware of what’s going on to some degree, through social media and their friends.
“Instead, we are offering prompts for engaging your young people in processing and reflecting. The act of preparing and sharing a meal together creates the opportunity to engage organically in difficult or emotional conversations. Cooking for and with others can be an act of care, and holding space and time to eat together can bring comfort and deepen connections. If you are a parent or guardian, call a family meal. If you are an educator, hold a virtual meal/table discussion.
These prompts are in no way exhaustive or comprehensive. Rather, they are meant to provide a starting place for conversations and create openings for processing.”
Juneteenth (today) marks the anniversary of the day in 1865 when federal officials arrived in Texas to inform approximately 250,000 previously enslaved people there that they were finally free and to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation, even though Emancipation had been declared more than two years prior to that day.
There are ongoing efforts to have the day designated as a federal holiday, and yet there are still so very many in this nation who are not familiar with it or have never heard of it at all.
The 13th Amendment may have been ratified more than a century ago, but it did not put an end to the oppression of Black people in many different forms, or to the systemic supremacy of whiteness.
For the first time since School Gardens started, we’ve been doing Online Produce Sales (instead of the in-person sales we’re so fond of and used to). Even though we probably won’t do it this way forever, we are pretty sure this information will be handy. We wanted to compile some resources about how to work with different kinds of produce in your kitchen as well as some recipe ideas.
Some of the recipes we’ve linked to are recipes we’ve actually made, and others are recipes that just sound really good to us. We’d love to hear about recipes you might know of for specific fruits or vegetables as well.
You can always send us an email at info at lcschoolgardens dot org
Pretty (delicious) Produce (Photo from LCSG)
This is also the first time that we’ve sold something we’re calling the Super Bag (aka The Bag of Abundance) which includes a variety of pre-selected produce all in one bag, for a set price each week. The contents of these “Super Bags” will change as the season progresses (and the price may increase as well based on contents), but right now they include:
A bag of Leafy Greens (hearty greens – kale, collards and/or chard)
A handful of other seasonal items – could include some of the following: snap peas, fava beans, rosemary, rhubarb, lemon balm, basil, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, berries, plums, potatoes, tomatoes and/or arugula
Recipes, info and tips
We may figure out a better way to organize this information at some point. If you use CTRL + F on your keyboard a box will pop up – you can type in a specific fruit or vegetable that you’re looking for and it will show you where that item shows up on this page.
Arugula
Wild Arugula (Photo from LCSG)
We’ve also been harvesting some incredibly beautiful arugula from one of our gardens…
Arugula has a slightly bitter, somewhat spicy flavor that goes well in salads (with walnuts, hazelnuts or almonds + pear or apple slices), to top a cooked pizza, mixed in with hot pasta just before serving, added to sandwiches, or eaten with peaches and hard cheese. So fancy!
It has been tradition to have “Asparagus Week” during Spring Garden Clubs each year; harvesting the fresh spears with students, mixing them with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper and sometimes some minced garlic and throwing them in the camp stove to roast for a bit. They’re usually served alongside freshly toasted bread with garlic butter. Each year we are delighted when students taste asparagus for the first time and proclaim just how much they love it. We usually aren’t surprised – it is really really delicious. Here’s a recipe that’s somewhat similar to our style of preparing asparagus at School Gardens.
Basilsure has a way of brightening a meal, and just the fragrance seems like it can sometimes brighten a day. There are so many ways to enjoy this herb, but pesto definitely has to be near the top of the list for us, along with Caprese salad.
We often make Caprese salad (on a toothpick!) as a snack for our annual September Volunteer Training. That’s a time of year when the basil and tomatoes are both pretty abundant.
This isn’t the specific recipe that we use, but it’s pretty darn close:
These light and fresh Caprese Sticks are a quick protein-packed snack! They’re colorful, flavorful and ready for summer. PREP TIME 10 minutes TOTAL TIME 10 minutes YIELD 24 STICKS
Ingredients
24 long toothpicks
8 ounces fresh Ciliegine mozzarella balls
24 cherry tomatoes (about 1 pint)
12 large basil leaves, cut in half (or 24 small leaves)
Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
Thread a mozzarella ball, basil leaf (cut in half if large), and a cherry tomato onto a toothpick. Repeat with remaining ingredients.
Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Notes Serve with a drizzle of olive oil or balsamic reduction for an easy and fresh appetizer platter.
Another dish that includes basil and often can include a lot of summertime freshness (cukes, tomatoes, peppers, onions) is an Italian salad called Panzanella. There are a whole lot of ways it can be made, but we’ll add a few versions here soon…
Snap peas are so delightfully crunchy and sweet in the early summer — and they are abundant in School Gardens during that season! We really like eating snap peas fresh (you can eat the pod and all!), added to a salad for some extra crunch, roasted with other veggies in the oven, or added to a batch of pesto.
Snap Pea Pesto Recipe adapted from https://www.lifeasastrawberry.com/5-minute-pea-pesto/ 2 cups fresh snap peas (the whole pod, w the “strings” and stems removed) 2 cloves garlic, peeled and lightly minced 1 tsp lemon juice 3/4 cup basil leaves 1/4 cup walnuts, pine nuts or almonds salt and pepper to taste 1/2 cup olive oil optional: 2 TBSP shredded hard cheese like parmesan or pecorino
1. Place snap peas, garlic, lemon juice, basil, walnuts (and cheese if you’re including it) into a food processor. Pulse a few times until everything is coarsely chopped.
2. While the food processor is running, slowly stream in olive oil and let the processor run until everything is incorporated into a smooth paste. Scrape down the sides of the food processor with a spatula and pulse one more time to incorporate those bits.
The pesto will be thinner than your usual basil pesto — this is because of the moisture content in the snap peas. Another way to make the recipe would be to roast your snap peas in the oven before including them.
Delicious on toast, mixed in with hot pasta, or used as the base for a salad dressing.
A salad that includes carrots and snap peas, with a dressing made of hoisin, lime juice and fresh ginger (if you don’t have hoisin on hand you could substitute soy sauce or miso paste, and powdered ginger could work in place of fresh) https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/carrot-sugar-snap-salad
Shiso plant (Photo from LCSG)This variety of shiso, called ‘Oriana’s Tia To’ is green on top and the underside of the leaves are a purple/crimson color. (Photo from LCSG)
In years past we have tried to grow shiso but have done so with donated seeds and often had some trouble with germination. This year our Horticultural Coordinator ordered shiso seeds from one of our favorite seed growers, Uprising Seeds in Bellingham, WA.
The variety they grow is called Oriana’s Tia To and the description from their website reads:
Perilla frutescens An eye-catching plant notable for its beautiful color contrast of green leaf tops and vibrant purple leaf bottoms, with a pleasantly pungent aroma. This particular variety likely stems from the Vietnamese Tia To, although Chicago-area Paw Paw and Asian Pear farmer Oriana Kruszewski has let it self-sow on her farm for 20 years now, and its original provenance is lost to history. Eric and Erica loved the deep flavor and vivid color of Oriana’s shiso, but she had no seed, so they set a flowering bunch in a glass of water and matured seed on a Chicago windowsill. Oriana reports that it is excellent for making umeboshi, all kinds of pickles, and tea. A surprising hit in the heat of summer is fresh leaves brewed as a sun tea, lightly sweetened with honey and carbonated to make a shiso soda. The serrate leaves may be picked at any stage, and both flowers and leaves may be dried and used in tea. 2-3′ plants when grown outdoors, but reaching head height if left to mature in a greenhouse. And if you find, like we do, that your plants are overly abundant, the addition of them to a flower bouquet is as pleasing as it is fragrant!
We’re still learning new ways to use this beautiful herb, but we do know that it is sometimes called ‘Japanese mint’ or ‘perilla’. A Garden Friend recently shared this link with us after noticing our shiso plants when passing by the Northlake Garden one day.
Please let us know if you are familiar with this lovely herb and have some favorite ways to use it.
Grape Leaves
Grape leaves still on the vine (Photo from LCSG)
Recipe for Dolmas This is another delicious dish that has become a tradition to make for our annual Volunteer Tea. (Unfortunately because of covid regulations, the Volunteer Tea did not happen as normally scheduled. We’re hoping to still find a good way to honor and acknowledge the folks who have been helping out with keeping the gardens going through this strange season.) The recipe was passed along to us by a dear friend (and founder) of School Gardens, Dr. Lee Ann Gekas. We usually scale the recipe up in order to make about 150 dolmas, but the recipe below makes 40 – 50 instead.
Adapted from Adele Gowdy — Lebanese cook extraordinaire!
1 lb fresh grape leaves 1 cup uncooked short or medium grain rice 2 bunches parsley chopped 1 can (15 oz) chickpeas 2 tomatoes chopped 1/2 cup olive oil lemon juice from 1-2 lemons 3-4 cloves garlic 2 tsp salt 1 tsp allspice 1 yellow onion finely chopped can also add mint, and pine nuts or walnuts
Pour hot water over the fresh grape leaves and set aside for 10 minutes. Rinse and drain chickpeas well.
Rinse and drain rice well.
Saute garlic, onions in olive oil. Take off stove. Mix with rice, parsley, chickpeas, tomatoes, and nuts and/or mint if using them. Add salt, allspice and a bit more olive oil and mix well.
Stuff leaves with mixture – clip stems off with scissors; start with the shiny side of the leaf down (inside of the grape leaf is the inside of the dolma). Arrange in rows in a deep cooking pot. Add enough water or broth to cover the top of the dolmas. Place a round flat plate on top of dolmas then a glass jar of water on top of plate to prevent the rolls from loosening while cooking. Squeeze half a lemon’s juice over each layer, plus a few extra cloves of garlic for more flavor.
Simmer for 90 minutes. Check on amount of liquid part way through cooking to be sure it hasn’t all evaporated. Add more as needed.
Tips on harvesting grape leaves: Bigger is not better – 7 or 8” across is plenty big. Leaves should be light green, and very tender. The best are those below the new growth at the top of the plant and above those close to the grapes. Rule of thumb: count down three leaves from the new growth at the end of the vine, and pick the next 2 to 3 leaves, then move on to the next stem. Store covered in fridge. To prep for assembly, cover leaves with boiling water for 10 minutes.
Grape leaves are also used fresh in some pickle recipes to help pickles stay crunchy!
Lavender doesn’t just smell amazing and look beautiful, it can also be used in the kitchen! (Photo from LCSG)
Lavender is often grown as an ornamental, but really has so many uses! At LCSG we mainly grow “Grosso” and “Royal Purple”, but there are a few unnamed varieties growing in our gardens as well. Lavender is beautiful to look at and to smell, but it can also be used in cooking (in small amounts) and craft projects of course.
One of our favorite ways to enjoy lavender is in this recipe for Lavender Shortbread:
Lavender Shortbread
Ingredients
2 tsp dried lavender, and 2 tsp fresh lavender (this recipe only calls for the dried but I added the fresh to give it more of a kick)
2 Tablespoons minced mint leaves
3 sticks (3/4 pound) salted butter, at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 cups all purpose flour
Directions
Finely mince the lavender
Mix together the butter, sugar, mint and lavender until combined and spread around the bowl.
Add the vanilla and mix just until it disappears.
Add flour to the bowl, and mix together until a dough ball forms.
Roll the dough out on a baking mat about 1/2″ thick, then cut desired shapes. Squares, rectangles, and circles all work well. You can also just roll little balls and squish them lightly as a shortcut.
Place the cookies on a sheet tray, and refrigerate for 1 hour
Preheat oven to 350F.
Bake the cookies for 20-25 minutes, until the cookies are lightly golden brown on the edges.
If you’d rather not eat your lavender, you could use it to craft this neat project: Lavender Wands.
If you’d rather not get fancy, you can also just bundle your lavender tightly with a ribbon or rubber band and suspend it from a hook or string in a warm location with good airflow where it can dry. Lavender maintains its fragrance for a very, very long time.
Fava beans are usually a springtime treat. They are often grown as a cover crop in the fall or winter. Cover crops are plants that help replenish the soil and keep it from washing away and/or adds nutrients that have been used up by other plants or crops. Not only are the beans edible, but the flowers and leaves are as well.
Ground cherries are a student favorite in the School Gardens. These cute little fruits from the tomato family come individually “wrapped” in their own papery husk, similar to the husk of a tomatillo.
Ground cherries are also known as “husk cherries”. The variety that we grew this year at LCSG is called “Aunt Molly’s” and the seeds came from Fedco Seeds.
This article from Smithsonian Magazine has some great information and includes a few recipes for using your Ground Cherries. It should be known that they are also just really delicious fresh out of the husk.
Racism doesn’t just impact our food system in the U.S. — our entire food economy was designed to perpetuate racial inequities, and continues to do so. Even though our food system was built through the labor of enslaved Black people on land stolen from Indigenous people groups, white Americans have always been — and continue to be — more likely to own land and to benefit from the wealth that land generates.
There is a long legacy of unfair laws that have prohibited non-white people from owning land. According to the USDA 2012 Census of Agriculture, of the 2.1 million farmers in the U.S., only 8% are farmers of color and only half of that 8% own land. As Leah Penniman of Soul Fire Farm pointed out in a Civil Eats article from 2018, “If African-American people [had been] paid $20 per week for our agricultural labor rather than being enslaved, we would have trillions in the bank today.”
Most U.S. farm-workers and food production workers are people of color; the average hourly pay for the people who physically grow and harvest a majority of our food in the U.S. is below $12/hr. Poverty leads to food insecurity, which is tied to a whole host of health disparities and chronic diseases. Ironically, a majority of those who work directly with food in the fields or in restaurants also experience some of the highest rates of food insecurity.
Our team has been learning together about the history and present day issues of racism within our country’s food system. We are also looking for tangible ways we can support Black farmers and other farmers of color, and organizations that champion a just and equitable food system.
It is a drop in the bucket of actions we still need to take, and learning that we still want and need to do, but proceeds from this week’s LCSG Produce Sale will go to the Black Food Sovereignty Council & Coalition. From their donation page: “The Black Food Sovereignty Coalition (BFSC) serves as a collaboration hub for Black and Brown communities to confront the systemic barriers that make food, place, and economic opportunities inaccessible to us.” One of their projects is ‘Grandma’s Hands’, and it “seeks to pass on Black cultural food traditions to the next generation”. Please read more about BFSC’s work by visiting their website, and if you are able please give: https://blackfoodnw.org/donate/
Would you like to do more learning on this subject, or find more Black-led food organizations in the U.S. to support? Check out these articles from Civil Eats:
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