Community Gardening

  So part of the Garden of Ian business that I established with my good friend Drake Kurlander involves giving back to the community.  We worked very hard and diligently on getting a federal grant that aimed at increasing the availability of healthy and nutritious foods in lower-income areas.  The specific part of the grant that we worked on involves direct enhancements to existing community gardens in these areas.

 

  The two gardens that we are working with are, the Little Haiti Community Garden and Troy Community Academy.  These "enhancements" are so much more than that as you can see in these pictures.  In a general sense, sure we're bringing resources and volunteers into the space, but the actual impact on ourselves and the community members is difficult to put into words.  

To get things going at the Little Haiti Community Garden, we held our first "Work Party" in the garden on July 9th.  It was an overcast and rainy day (which was more than welcomed considering some of the heat that can happen on a summer day in South Florida) and we had a number of volunteers and community members show up to led a hand.  It's truly amazing to be in the United States, but have the feeling of being somewhere in the Caribbean or Latin America.  It was a Saturday in Little Haiti and there are people in the streets, music coming out of shops up and down the street and a feeling of movement within the community! At one point, an elder Haitian lady passed by as I was placing some rocks and proclaimed, "Haiti!" pointing to all of the crops that are proliferating in the garden. Unfortunately Spanish was the first, second-language that I picked up on living here in Miami and my Creole is it's infancy stages to say the least, so I couldn't really follow up with any recipe questions or a simple "how's the day going."  But I imagine that with time...

Bobo admiring his handywork

Bobo and help

    To really be there, as a part of this greater transformation process that is happening within these gardens and communities is quite powerful.  I couldn't help but smile when 6 year old "bobo" was struggling with a wheelbarrow full of dirt and one of the gardeners came over to lend a little support and guidance.  It is truly an amazing experience to be there for the smiles, the satisfaction of a good hard days work, the celebration, the life!  It was one of the neighborhood children's birthdays, so we decided to pair the work-day with a party and hence the "Work Party."  On most of the kids' minds that day was not the beautiful crops that were being harvested or what needed to be done next, but more like, "when can we have cake!"

   In one of my previous posts I mentioned how happy it makes me to utilize whatever is around and available, in the creation of a good time.  Well, in the rushing-around, preparation for the workday, plates and utensils were somehow forgotten and we had to make do with what we did have!  Hilary's birthday cake was served on fresh-cut banana leaves that day and we all used our five-fingered utensils to truly enjoy ourselves!

   As this was the first of many work parties, we are looking forward to being directly involved with the community in the transformation of these gardens!  There are so many people whose efforts are really making this happen, and I thank them wholeheartedly for the energy that they are putting in!  Just a brief shout out list off the top of my head: Gary Feinberg(part owner of Little Haiti Community Garden land), Claudia Montesinos, Maggie Pons, Ben Thacker, Drake Kurlander, James Jiler, Roger Horne, Melissa Contreras, Mario Yanes, Tamara, Erin Healy, too many to name, but THANK YOUU!!!