As the summer draws to a close, the finality of both the season and the agriculture in the city CCE internship as a whole becomes more apparent. Certain crops are cut back or left to grow the remainder of fruit that will likely not be harvestable, and the late summer crops begin to go into the ground. The frequency and intensity of daily tasks do not relent and it goes to show the hard work, sweat, and trust that goes into upkeeping communal spaces of agriculture and prosperity.

To begin the week, we planted more mushrooms at Kelly street garden– but this time used a new means of growing by drilling holes into 5-gallon buckets and layering spruce woodchips and inoculated spores! When transplanting cabbage and turnips into the beds which had received oyster spores and straw just two weeks prior, I began to find the tinniest fruiting oyster bodies I have ever seen! It has been fascinating to learn about and attempt differing methods of mushroom growing over these past three weeks at both Kelly street and New Roots in Woodside Queens. I feel as though with the right materials, I now have the confidence and capabilities to grow my own fabulous fungi!

On Tuesday Sammi, Jenny, Perl, and I all shared our thoughts on the development of the internship so far and how we hope to facilitate its growth and usefulness to community members in the future. We began to further explore the presence at various sites and throughout different communities throughout the summer as CCE volunteers. We were honest about the miscommunications and aspects of the interpersonal communication experience which we may not have stressed as much as we should have, along with the inherent imposition that comes with bringing swathes of technology that may cause feelings of separation from individuals and communities at large. Much of what came up during the meeting were thoughts that have been troubling me from the beginning of the summer; especially those involving the intersection of our inherent perceived extractive presence and the overall purpose of the virtual reality project development. However, I have hope that by becoming more aware of these missteps throughout the process and welcoming criticism that the project- and whatever it may turn into in the future- will be something that truly serves the purpose of aiding communities with our abundance of resources. I am grateful for the opportunity to have had such an open and productive meeting!

At New Roots in Woodside, Queens we harvested vegetables, worked on pest control, trellised tomatoes, and built a temporary compost bin from wooden pallets. All of which was followed, of course, by another one of Cameroon’s delicious creations. This time in the form of, sabja seed sweet basil drink (link to a video below!). This relatively relaxed day was followed by an amazing day at Kelly Street Garden where Sammi and I got to finally show off our culinary skills with an in-person cooking demo!

All of the produce that we used (including the beautiful star nasturtium star of the dish) we harvested from both Kelly st. and New Roots Community Garden in the Bronx. Sammi and I had a fantastic time prepping our vegetables for the dumplings and our tea fixings for serving, and had an even better time hand-making over 35 dumplings for pan-frying! We were lucky enough to have an audience and many hungry community members and hard-working Kelly st. employees to eat our creations. It felt amazing to be able to feed people with delicious, healthy, and community-raised food that was made with love-fuelled hands. Below is the amazing recipe! make sure to make it with love!

DUMPLINGS 

Serving size: 20-25 dumplings

Ingredients

• Dumplings
  • 1 c. Kale
  • ¾ c. Nasturtium leaves
  • 1 c. Eggplant
  • 1 c. Carrot, thinly sliced
  • 3 cloves Garlic, minced
  • 3 Leeks, thinly sliced
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • 20-25 Dumpling wrappers*
  • 2 T. Oil
  • ¼ c. Water
• Cilantro garlic soy sauce
  • 1-2 T. Cilantro, chopped
  • 2 cloves Garlic
  • 1-2 T. Purple chili (or serrano if not ripe yet), chopped
  • ⅓ c. Soy sauce
  • 2 T Sesame oil

 Instructions

• Dumplings

1. Finely chop vegetables and mix together in a bowl
2. Add 1 T of filling per wrapper
3. Fold dumpling
4. Heat oil in a pan over medium heat. Sear dumplings for about 2-3 minutes or until the bottoms are golden brown.
5. Pour water on pan and cover dumplings for 7-8 minutes or until all the water has evaporated
6. Plate and serve

• Cilantro Garlic sauce

1.  Mince garlic and finely chop cilantro and chilis
2. Combine all ingredients and lightly mix

*Notes:

• Don’t let wrappers dry out! You can avoid this by placing a kitchen towel over the wrappers as you wrap one at a time.
• Both square or round dumpling wrappers work. You can choose which one you prefer/is available

BLACKBERRY MINT TEA

Serving size: 20-25 glasses

Ingredients

• 4 c. Blackberries
• 1 c. (Mojito) Mint leaves
• 1 ½ c. Sugar
• 12 Tea bags
• 5 qt. Water
• Ice
• (Optional) Freshly picked nasturtium petals

Instructions

1. Bring water to a boil, add sugar and stir until dissolved
2. Add black berries, mint, and tea bags. Cover and let steep for 3-5 minutes
3. Strain and chill tea for at least 1 hour. 
4. Garnish with fresh nasturtium petals

Cameroon showing off her delicious sabja seed (sweet basil seed) drink: Click me!