Although some of this week’s days were cut short due to either the high temperatures or thunderstorms, we still managed to make it to all four of our sites. With this hot and congested week came a newfound appreciation for the duality of work and reward across the sites.
There is seemingly always something to be done when tending to the land. We may entirely weed two rows of cucumbers one week and come back to it lush with those same weeds only a few days later. It goes to show the pace of regeneration and weed pressure in particular, but crop growth is not exempt! So many crops have completely shot up since we got to the sites three weeks ago. At Red Hook, the tomatoes, sunflowers, certain squash varieties, and so many more have been very successful in the late weeks of June. Kelly Street Garden, which is substantially smaller than the above and follows a different bed arrangement and structure, has had a variety of other crops, and herbs see success. Cucumbers and garlic have been very obvious successes in terms of rapid growth this past week.

Conversely, the youngest farm of all of our sites so far (New Roots in Woodside Queens) has not seen much growth throughout their beds with the exception of some beautiful tomato varieties. There remain many places where alternative infrastructure or resources are needed to help their crops flourish, but for the time being, community members have largely been taking assuming the huge role of weekly crop care (though most remain in their vegetative state). Lastly, the New Roots Farm in the Bronx is seeing most of its crops flourish. The abundant food distribution Fridays which Sammi and I have been present for over the past three weeks are a true testament to the farms’ productivity and beautiful teamwork. Our work taking photos for the virtual reality project in Red Hook Brooklyn was halted this week, but the weather made room for us to hunker down and attempt to make our first models in our respective computer programs. The learning curve for the various forms of novel technology remains, though we are continuing to work out the technological bumps. Each week it seems as though we become more familiar with the photogrammetry photo-taking process, program usage, and intent of the completed VR world we are building towards. The latter of which can only be fully grasped when interacting with those volunteering, working, and stewarding the land at the Red Hook farm.

Harvesting beets on Friday after food distribution was not a new experience for me, but it was still so much fun! Below is the recipe for a homemade creamy beet and balsamic salad dressing that I developed over the weekend (pictured below)!

 

Creamy Beet and Balsamic Salad Dressing

Ingredients:

1 large beet (cubed and roasted with olive oil and salt until tender) 

balsamic vinegar 1/4 cup

2 anchovies

olive oil mayonnaise 1/3 cup

cracked black pepper 2 tsp 

Juice of 1/4 lemon

honey 2 tsp 

4 cloves of roasted garlic (roast whole bulb with top cut off and olive, oil salt, thyme, rosemary, fresh oregano)

Instruction:

Mix everything together in a blender or food processor, run through a sieve (if a smoother texture is desired) and jar or serve!