A Great End to the Summer
We are keeping busy here at Urban Roots, and there’s no sign of things slowing down! With significant events on the horizon, including our big move over to Payne Ave, now is a great time to come out and show your support.
Storytime in the Garden
Arlington Hills Library recently hosted a children’s storytime with Librarian Carla Foley at our Rivoli Bluffs Farm and Restoration Site. We are excited about hosting more events like this in the future thanks to the planned expansion of the site, which will include a Children’s Garden.
Your Vote Can Help Us Win Big
Urban Roots is in the running to win $25,000, but we need your help! The State Farm Neighborhood Assist program will be picking the 40 causes that receive the most votes. You can submit up to ten votes a day starting TODAY through August 27. Set an alarm on your phone to remind you! The grant will increase our capacity to address food insecurity on St. Paul’s East Side. Taking just a few minutes of your day to vote will make a huge difference. Thank you!
Program Updates
Market Garden
The Garden crew recently had the biggest garlic harvest in Urban Roots history! The team worked hard to process all of the garlic – removing excess dirt, braiding the long leaves, and hanging it up to cure.
Curing makes for a longer shelf life and eliminates the need for refrigeration. Yes – you can smell the garlic before you even enter the room. We are sad to say goodbye to Jesse, our VISTA worker who helped our mission to expand food access and ran the Youth Council. Thank you for your hard work, Jesse!
Cook Fresh
Cook Fresh Program Coordinator Judy Nguyen shared her heritage through food when our interns prepared Vietnamese cuisine. We love the story and the food so much that we want to share one of the recipes with you!
Vietnamese Chive Soup
Ingredients:
6 to 8 shrimps minced, peeled, and deveined
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 package of soft tofu, 1-inch cubes
1 package of chives, 2 inches long
1 teaspoon of white sugar
6 to 8 cups of water
1 tablespoon of fish sauce
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
In a bowl, add in minced shrimp, with half of the minced garlic. Add in about 1 teaspoon of salt and ½ teaspoon of black pepper.
Heat up olive oil in a stockpot on medium-high heat. Saute the other half of minced garlic until it starts to brown (about 1-2 minutes). Then add shrimp-garlic mixture and saute for another minute or so until shrimp starts to become slightly pink.
Add water, bring soup to a simmer then add tofu, sugar, and fish sauce. Add salt to taste, start with ½ teaspoon and go up by ½ teaspoon increments if you need more salt. (You can also add sugar, fish sauce to taste if you think the soup needs more of those flavors.)
Let the soup simmer for about 10 minutes, then add chives and let simmer for another 10 minutes. Enjoy over some rice!
Conservation
Conservation youth have been learning bird calls, and they even went on a bird walk with new binoculars and bird books we received this summer to see if they could try out some of their new skills! Interns have been very interested in bird watching and are excited to learn more. With the summer cooling off some plants have gone to seed which means the season’s seed collecting has started.
Seeds are collected from tons of native plants all over the different sites where the crew works. The interns learn about different methods for collecting seeds from plants as the variety of species offer unique seeds. Once the seeds are collected, the interns then store them and prepare the seeds to be planted in the spring. This past summer, conservation grew the seeds starts inside the grow-it center and sold them at the Mill City Farmers Market.
Two groups of volunteers also came out and worked with our crews, helping to plant and mulch an area at the beginning of Willowbrook and pull more Buckthorn.
