Teaching Garden Update 8/14

This week in the Teaching Garden we donated about 300 pounds of produce to the Black Feminist Project.

We thought you might be tired of seeing the same photos of our produce each week so this week we made it a little more exciting with...

We donated 144 bunches (72 pounds) of Collard Greens

22 pounds of Kale,

40 pounds of Swiss Chard,

10 pounds of Tomatillos,

8 pounds of Basil,

32 pounds of Tomatoes,

20 pounds of Purslane,

Fun Fact: Purslane is actually an edible garden weed! We did not plant purslane anywhere but we have SO much of it growing. Purslane is incredibly nutrient dense and packed with Omega-3 Fatty Acids. It tastes kind of like spinach, and is great raw in salads or cooked up in any dish. Look for it at your local greenmarket!

66 pounds of Eggplant,

14 pounds of Leeks,

and 8.5 pounds of Hot Peppers.

Ever wonder how our produce gets from the Teaching Garden to our donation partners?

Sometimes we are able to load all of our produce into a van, but usually we pack it into big bags and pull it on carts and wheelbarrows to the ferry where we then ride across and meet our partners in Lower Manhattan. Once we hand it off to our partners they trek it all across the city to the families who receive it each week.

Here you can see the carts and wheelbarrow we used to haul it and all of our produce in bags ready to go!

We use big reusable plastic bags, our donation partners return the bags that they got the previous week when they meet us so that we can use them over and over!

In other Teaching Garden news, we harvested our first round of Green Beans! Did you know fresh green beans stick to fabric like velcro?

We didn't have quite enough green beans to donate this week but hopefully next week we will have a ton!

Additionally, our Okra has started to produce fruits. Here is a beautiful Okra flower.

Tune in next week for more Teaching Garden updates!