Slow Food Chicago preSERVES N. Lawndale volunteers Mark Henning, Bob
Pallotta, Erin Koch, Matt Hoffman, and Larry Lee shovel composted manure into
a truck.
There's no scarcity of Chicago parking in North Lawndale, where a garden preparation team of Slow Food Chicago preServes North Lawndale volunteers convened Friday, April 9, 2010, with pitchforks and hand shovels, under sunny skies.
First it was a matter of lifting mounds of compost into the back of a dump truck, a "clean dirt" and hay mixture from area racetracks and farms, gathered together to sweeten and dry out for the past year near the hives of the Chicago Honey Co-op located on Fillmore Avenue. Michael Thompson runs the Honey Co-op and helped make Slow Food aware of the community gardening opportunities in the neighborhood, as the groups have had fund-raising tasting events together.
Volunteer Mark Henning had the wherewithall to get the compost moving to where it had to be, in part by "knowing people who can get it moving and who will do it." Erin Koch is starting her own butter company, Matt Hoffman is an Urban Sociology student at University of Illinois at Chicago, Larry Lee helps out at the Betty Swan Community Arboretum on the 3800 block of West Arthington Street, and Bob Pallotta is a Slow Food Chicago board member. It was Betty Giannopoulos's first time volunteering and she came from the north side.
Julie Pallotta and Courtney Puidk help rake in the compost on 12th Place.
A few blocks away, over at a new garden site at 12th Place and Central Park, across from the African Heritage Garden, more volunteers were busy creating a raised garden over a grassy lot. They'd lined up stripes of strewn wood chip borders and were filling the beds with wheelbarrows full of the compost in preparation for planting sweet potatoes, peas and garlic to be grown as the season progresses.
And they lunched, sitting across the street at the Garden, on plates heaped with delicious smelling chicken, greens, and sweet potatoes from the nearby Homan Square Cafe.
Dr. Shemuel Israel, president of the North Lawndale Greening Committee and his wife Keturah work with the group NeighborSpace, and preSERVES will continue its scheduled plantings over the next several months. Israel said the African Heritage Gardens were planted by the combined 12th Place and Central Park Avenue block clubs, with the help of a grant program.
Volunteers lunch on Homan Square Cafe foods, sitting in the African Heritage
Garden at 12th Place and Central Park Avenue. Photos by Janet Barrett
Jennifer Sandy became volunteer coordinator for preSERVES planting after she and most of the others working with her this day attended the Slow Food Chicago Annual Board Meeting back in January. "I couldn't believe the amount of Victory Gardens there were during World War II, compared the few that we have in the city of Chicago now," she commented on the Victory Gardens movement as one of her reasons for wanting to help turn the 50-some-going-on-70-or-more community gardens in Chicago today, into the hundreds in production back then.
Ryan Burk was struck by the fact that kids, and even adults in city neighborhoods may not have access to fresh foods or even have grocery stores, besides neighborhood bodegas. "(People) don't know where their food comes from; its seed to table. When I realize that, it empowers me, (too). It's important to show people that they have a right to make a demand for better food. It can be a pot on your windowsill."
Jon Rathbone became involved through his wife, and wondered what his Slow Food membership would be for and what he'd get out of it. Then he realized the impact community involvement would bring to the food taste education he'd been enjoying at Slow Food restaurant tastings and events. Katrina Funk joined in for the revitalization, and Courtney Puidk, a nutrition student at UIC said she has always bought her food from local farmer's markets.
Alexander Roman, a cook at Elate in the Hotel Felix, became aware of Slow Foods while working at the Green City Market and participated in Slow Foods Chicago's Tomato Fest event last year.
Julie Pallotta, in her 12th year of Slow Food volunteering, said the group has an heirloom tomato sale and potluck, and a BLT Festival at restaurants, featuring locally grown tomatoes, and local pork. She noted her children's pediatrician's advice about her own children not eating their vegetables, "Kids will eat what you serve them."
As for the fresh produce that will be growing freely on the corner in the new garden in the neighborhood now, a member of the Greening Committee pointed out, "If you're gonna come and get it, come and get, but don't destroy. Treat it with love. Break it off gently at the stem."
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