Community Dinner and Garden Updates
Comunity dinner and darden updates from Isabel/Upcoming events
This week's newsletter is written by Isabel, and offers a reflection on our community garden in Amesbury, NH!
Happy August Everyone!
I am so excited to share that we had a very successful community dinner on Monday. It was made complete by an amazing gazpacho by Chef Victor at Health Matters in Amesbury using produce I harvested from the garden. The soup included summer squash, cucumber, basil, and beans! We also grilled up one of the summer squash as a delicious appetizer. Using our own produce for our community soup saved us money since Chef Victor did not have to buy produce to make it. This is a mutually beneficial aspect of growing veggies in our garden and working with a chef in our community who is excited to use them.
Overall, we had a lovely evening filled with good conversation, frog catching, and education about macro/micro-invertebrates in the lake, and we got to celebrate the birthday of our very own Ashlei! Thank you to everyone who joined us at Camp Kent for such an enjoyable evening.
Our ingredients and our gazpacho!
August Garden Musings:
One of my favorite things in our garden this year is the arches. We constructed three arches out of t-posts and cattle panels this spring in order to support our plant friends who need trellising. On our arches, we have a variety of different veggies and fruits growing. We have one that supports two types of indigenous beans as well as a morning glory and a cucumber plant. Another arch has cucumbers, cucamelons, and squash. The last arch has our lovely native birdhouse gourd and a variety of tomatoes.
The arches provide important support and trellising for our garden giving our plants direction and stability. It also gives us a good view of the whole plant in order to prune and harvest. I think the arches are a beautiful metaphor for the many ways our community provides support for our garden and programs. You are all deeply intertwined in our work just as our plants weave around the arches. Just like our arches, it's our community that helps give us direction, stability, and perspective on our work while encouraging us to keep going. Thank you all for your guidance and support.
I got my inspiration for our bean arches this year from a show called “Joe Pera Talks With You”. There is a whole episode detailing how to make a bean arch and the community effort it took to build it. The end of the episode is about how the community celebrated its creation and how it brought joy to the people around it. The episode is called “Joe Pera Talks with You About Beans”. This is an endearing and goofy show that is both funny and sweet and inspires feelings of nostalgia and calmness. I highly recommend giving it a watch. While it is a perfect show for the restful fall and winter months we have ahead, I think in the bustle of summer Joe Pera is a great show to embrace the peace and calmness we might be lacking.
Joe Pera comedically says it best “Beans. They have it all. Protein. Carbs. Fiber. Affordable.”
Thank you all for learning with me and celebrating the summer weather and plants!
Best,
Isabel
Check out our recent social media post around peas!
Events
Participatory Action Research for Epistemic Rebels
Introductory Workshop
Sponsored by the Regenerative School, in partnership with the Highlander Research and Education Center, this 4-day workshop will provide an intensive grounding in the theory and practice of participatory action research.
October 30th to November 3rd, 2024
ReMembering Course Info Webinar
Towards Healing the legacies of the first harm
The session is recorded and sent out to anyone who signs up for the information session. The information session is not required in order to register for The ReMembering Course. The ReMembering Course starts in October 2024.
September 10, 1 pm ET