Our high school interns who started in early June have been hard at work in the ASPI demonstration garden as well as in the Mt. Vernon Community Garden. Throughout the summer the interns will be working in the gardens, maintaining their own community garden plots, working at the farmers market, participating in weekly gardening classes with Tisha, and even going on a few trips. Needless to say, our interns will be very busy while they are with us. Our interns consist of experienced farmers as well as one who is brand new to gardening. The interns will also be pursuing independent projects of their choice over the course of the summer. They recently outlined project ideas, and I’m excited to share what they come up what they come up with in next month’s blog after their projects are completed.
This week, the interns and I visited our fellow partner site at the Laurel County African American Heritage Center. We were very fortunate to have Wayne show us around their gardens. I love talking to other Grow Appalachia partners because I always learn something new and get great ideas! Now I have a plan to fix the water situation at the community garden and have some ideas to improve our high tunnel. The interns especially enjoyed learning about beekeeping, one of them seems seriously interested in getting some bees for his family’s farm. The interns and I look forward to more great trips in the coming month!
In June ASPI held a Cooking with the Throw-Aways class where Tisha taught how to cook with the parts of vegetables that we sometimes throw away or may not know are edible. Class participants learned how to cook new things while also not wasting what they grow! Here are a few edible throw-aways and how to eat them:
Radish pods- raw, stir fries, soups, pickled
Pea shoots- stir fries, pestos, salads, sandwiches, pastas
Beet greens- salads, sauteed, pastas, stir fries, sandwiches, soups, chips
Radish greens- salads, sauteed, pastas, stir fries, sandwiches, soups, chips
Carrot tops- garnishes, salads, pestos
Broccoli stems- slaw, salads, stir fries, pastas
Enjoy one of the recipes that we tried:
Broccoli Slaw
6 broccoli stems, peeled and julienned
4 carrots, peeled an julienned
3 celery rubs, julienned
1 red onion, julienned
1 Granny Smith apple, skin on, julienned
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 clove garlic, smashed and finely chopped
Kosher salt
Mix all, let stand in fridge at least one hour
-Sarah
Leave A Comment