Cultivating Community

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The garden on my last day. I really enjoyed this internship and learned a lot from it. 

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The tomatoes and their new trellises. One of my friends helped me trellis these for a couple hours and he was a huge help! The tomatoes look much better. He also helped harvest produce and then we drove it over to Food Gatherers, a Washtenaw County organization that works to fight hunger in the area. We donated 15 lbs of food, which included kale, chard, cucumbers, zucchini, basil, radishes, and broccoli. My friend who helped out works for an organization that receives the food donations, so it was cool for him to be on the donating end. 

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We hung up the banners that the kids made last week.

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Learning how to harvest husk cherries. The kids loved their sweet, pineapple flavor! Searching for them underneath the plant and learning how to open them was fun too. They learned how to harvest a bunch of vegetables so that they can come back to the garden even after the summer camp is done and take home vegetables. 

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More salad-making

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The kids making Meaghan a salad. They kept pretending to eat the zucchini but they were secretly putting it in her salad!

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It's not only fun to eat veggies - it's fun to share them too!

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...although some of the flavors may have been a bit strong for some of the kids!

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The kids were really excited about their vegetables!

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The kids at Focus: HOPE did a veggie tasting day! It was a great last day in the garden. 

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Me and Meaghan with our zucchini babies.

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At Eden Gardens 

"Eden Gardens is a collaborative effort of Eden Gardens Block Club and the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue. In its first year as a community garden, neighborhood residents (adults and children) and Synagogue members are lending their support, labor and expertise to grow healthy foods." -Keep Growing Detroit handout

The neighborhood residents will eat at the Synagogue one week and then the next time the synagogue will come eat in the neighborhood. Through these meals and their collaboration in the garden, the Jewish community and the black community get to know each other and encourage mutual understanding. 

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Bee hives at Feedom Freedom. A girl named Dijonay showed us the hives and explained that the container at the bottom is full of straw so that the bees can drink without drowning. 

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Trellised grapes at Feedom Freedom

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Tomatoes in a hoop house at "Feedom Freedom," a community garden we stopped at on the tour.

From the packet given to us at the tour: "Feedom Freedom Community Garden was established in 2009. Myrtle Thompson and Wayne Curtis, longtime social activists, are the driving force behind the garden. They created the garden as a vehicle to make a difference  and empower the neighborhood they live in... In 2011, a new market garden was established by the gardeners, which focuses on getting more healthy sales at East Warren Farmer's Markets and with the Grown in Detroit cooperative." The money that they make goes back into the neighborhood, specifically to the kids who help in the garden. 

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"Young Sprouts" selling produce and popcorn at a market stand. These high schoolers learn business skills from working in the garden at the Genesis Lutheran Church in Detroit.