By: Sister Anna Gilbert-Muhammed, NOFA/Mass Food Equity Director
As Fall approaches, gardens begin to slow down. NOFA/Mass’s Farm Share Program is reflecting on the community building efforts and work of the Farm Share Program for 2023 by using the lens of community events we sponsored.
Each of the distribution sites received funding to distribute farm shares through a grant from MDAR. Each site hosted events that featured working with the farm produce and featured innovative ways the Finca Luna Buho, located in the Cheshire region of the Berkshires is one of the distribution sites for NOFA/Mass’s Farm Share Program. Each site focused on different ways to preserve the harvest for the Farm share items and from the garden. Making Salsa, sofrito and refrigerator pickles brought together family and friends to Finca Luna Buho’s small garden heaven. The session led by NOFA’s Food Access Coordinator, Beth Ward and Food Access Director, Sis, Anna Muhammad, drew on community knowledge of making salsa and a healthier alternative to store bought Adobo. NOFA/Mass also wants to give great appreciation and gratitude to Fran of Finca Luna Buho for his expert and patient translation of each class. It really takes a village to build community.
The refrigerator segment utilized the wonderful vegetables from Woven Roots Farm; a farm that provided the Indian Orchard and Finca Luna Buho sites with amazing produce. The Refrigerator Pickles class demonstrated that anything can be turned into pickles or pickled. Each participant created wonderful jars of radishes, daikon radish, turnip and cucumber pickles. Each item was featured in the farm share delivery. As an added attraction, there was a special homemade adobo seasoning demonstration to further utilize what was in the share.
The Dorchester Food Co-op also featured the Refrigerator pickles; but this group made there with cucumbers and different spices (several of the spices were heat inspired) – some of the spices included chili’s, red pepper and turmeric. The class was conducted at the Nightingale Community Garden in Dorchester (very close to the Food Co op) and one of the highlights was the use of the turnips grown by Ms. Elnora (the garden manager and a longtime food preservationist). 10 participants made several jars of extremely spicy pickles and Ms. Elnora provided garden tours and seeds for all of the participants.
In the next edition of the newsletter, readers will learn more about the Farm Share educational classes for the participants from the Indian Orchard Citizen’s Council.
