An Educational Exchange with LowerNine.org

We want our students to have as comprehensive a view of urban farming possible. The school itself is a living, breathing classroom with 1,001 "teachable moments," but it helps to have something to compare it too. A huge part of understanding the food movement is seeing that we're not the only ones doing it.

A few blocks away from us is LowerNine.org's Lamanche Community Farm (lowernine.org, lamanchefarm.blogspot.com, @lowernineorg on twitter). Many of our students had never been there, so we made a trip to look around. Luckily there were a couple of folks more than willing to give us a tour.

Students getting a tour of Lamanche Community Farm

Afterwards, LowerNine.org brought over group of volunteers from Connecticut to check out the school:

Debrief after the tour

Oh, it was also everybody's favorite day, pay day:

What it takes to build a Farm City

The other day a few of us went over to the home of a senior citizen and ally of project to put in an unique triangular raised bed. Even in his small backyard he'll be able to grow a ton of food: okra, cucumbers, beans, and all kinds of good stuff. Not only will he be able to feed himself and his neighbors, but he's been sick as of late and there's nothing like fresh wholesome food to heal what ails you!

Unloading our powerfully fertile compost, the best possible medium 

to give the plants a great start.

Filling the bed. Notice the newspaper underneath to keep down 

that stupid johnson grass and other weeds.

Filled, leveled, and looking beautiful!

First order of business is okra. 

We're in New Orleans, after all. 

More to come.

Building a Delicious Economy: A case study in snap beans

If you've been by OSBG lately then you've probably seen that we're up to our teeth in snap beans.

This is, of course, a good problem. We're eaten our fair share of snap beans right off the vine, but there were/are still WAY too many for us to handle by ourselves.

Enter Beatrice and Darnell, neighbors and long time supporters of the project. You can usually find them sitting on their front porch right across the street from the school. They came by a few days ago and picked a whole bunch of beans. Then Beatrice did her magic with them:

Beatrice's Smothered Snap Beans

Snap Beans, lots of them

Garlic

Onions

Potatoes

Pig tails

Bacon ends

Ham seasoning

Salt, Pepper, and Zatarain's

Last night she brought us a big delicious bowl of it, which we've just about polished off. It reminds us of an article in March's issue of Martha Stewart Living that we're been using as a teaching tool:

http://www.marthastewart.com/photogallery/community-garden-potluck-party?lpgStart=1&currentslide=1&currentChapter=1

The good news:

There's plenty more where that came from.

How to build a 4'x4' raised bed garden by Shamika

STEP 1: Get 4 pieces of 4 foot long boards
STEP: 2 Screw in 8 screws, 2 in each corner
STEP: 3 Lay down cardboards to cover up all weeds
STEP: 4 Add a hand full of worms
STEP: 5 Next put down half of wheel barrow of soil
STEP: 6 Lastly put in seeds by hand and water right away
STEP: 7 Water first thing in the morning and when the sun goes down

Sango Radish Sprouts!

Looking beautiful and ready to harvest. Not only do they have a distinct peppery flavor, they also help fight off free radicals and have anti-inflamatory properties.

Look for them at Mardi Gras Zone in Bywater tomorrow!