Chef Galzin, his wife Caroline, and Jackalope Brewmaster Bailey at the last pop-up dinner in November.
Sycamore Pop Up Dinner
Sunday, January 27 Cafe Fundamental, 1115 Porter Road
$70 per person (includes four courses with cocktail pairings)
On January 27, Sycamore Nashville is hosting yet another pop-up dinner benefiting the Hands On Nashville Urban Farm. This is the second in a series of several pop-up dinners both Chef Galzin and his wife Caroline have initiated since moving to Nashville in July. (Also, right after moving to town, Chef Galzin spent a day at the Farm teaching youth how to make a healthy dish from the veggies they helped to grow.)
As they make plans for their first restaurant together, the Galzins have caused
Wine-braised Pork Sugo with house made pasta from November’s dinner. YUM! We can’t wait to see what’s served this round.
quite a pop-up craze. Their innovative approach not only educates the Nashville community on sustainable practices, but also brings together resources that benefit the local community in a unique way. At their last dinner, Chef Galzin used a whole hog from Phillips Pharm in Davidson County, while carefully explaining his process of using the entire pig to prepare the meal. He reflected on the beauty of food, the culinary responsibility we all have, and the work that we do to support the farming communities here locally. The beer pairings added some laid-back spunk to the dinner, too. Did we mention that proceeds from this dinner were donated to the Hands On Nashville Urban Farm? Philanthropy is a key goal and something they’d like to keep integral in their planning as they prepare for a future restaurant. (Now you know why we love them so much!)
The first course from November’s dinner at Jackalope featured Rillette, City Ham and Pate. Pure deliciousness.
If you weren’t able to attend their last night of deliciousness, you best get your tickets for January’s event happening at Cafe Fundamental, with proceeds again benefiting the HON Urban Farm. This month’s special will feature four-course meals using two whole lambs from Philips Pharm and special craft cocktails from PourTaste mixologists Jon and Lindsay Yeager. Tickets are $70 per person – and are about to sell out. Click here and purchase yours today. See you at the table!
By Alison Duncan, HON Urban Agriculture Program VISTA
The whole group poses for the camera. From left to right: Sara Shaghaghi, Lydea Adkins, Daniel Pannock, Chloe Vaccaro, Michael Ding, Janie Liu, Audaris Blades, Rachel West, Nick Dietrich, Natalie Beck, Josh Corlew, and me (Alison Duncan).
It may still be cold outside, but the Hands On Nashville Urban Agriculture Program is already heating up with the launch of our newest program: the Urban Agriculture Fellowship! This unique service-learning opportunity places ten high school students at nonprofit gardens across Nashville.
After a highly competitive application process last fall, ten outstanding young people were selected to serve as the inaugural class of Urban Agriculture Fellows. These inspiring students have already proven themselves to be real rock stars, having completed an intense two-day training session over the winter break. Throughout the spring, they will attend monthly workshops here at HON that will help them acquire the project development, volunteer management, public speaking, and organizational skills needed to become effective community leaders. Without further ado, I am very excited to introduce you to the Fellows:
The fellows get to know each other on the first day of training.
Audaris Blades – A senior at Glencliff High School, Audaris is actively involved in a number of service clubs at his school. He is also an athlete, playing on both the tennis and baseball teams at Glencliff. His fellowship project will be at the HON Urban Farm.
Chloe Vaccaro – Chloe is a junior at MLK Magnet High School. She is captain of her school softball team and participated in the Urban Farm Apprenticeship program this past summer. Chloe will be at Good Food for Good People for her fellowship project.
Daniel Pannock – Daniel is a junior at University School of Nashville. He has recently cultivated an interest in gardening through his work at the Outdoor Academy and as a member of USN’s Environmental Club. Daniel will be working at the Perk Garden.
Janie Liu – A junior at MLK Magnet High School, Janie is passionate about the environmental impacts of our food system. She swims on the MLK swim team and has a small garden at home. She will be working at the Martha O’Bryan Center.
Lydea Adkins – Lydea is a freshman at Nashville School of the Arts. She is very involved in the Harvest Hands WOW soap program and is an avid reader. Additionally, she is the oldest of seven siblings, which keeps her pretty busy. Lydea will be working at Good Food for Good People.
Michael Ding – A junior at MLK Magnet High School, Michael is a committed environmentalist. He is a core member of his school’s Green Club and is a coalition ambassador for Tennyen, a youth-led environmental group. Michael will be working at the Perk Garden.
Natalie Beck – Natalie is a junior at Brentwood High School, where she is a Student Council member. She is an artist, and often integrates her talents into whatever projects she is working on. Natalie’s fellowship placement is at the BELL Garden.
Nick Dietrich – Nick is a senior at MLK Magnet High School. He enjoys nature and being outdoors, and is interested in learning more about agriculture as a possible career path. Nick will be working at the HON Urban Farm.
Rachel West –A junior at Brentwood High School, Rachel plays a variety of sports, including lacrosse and cross country. She is interested in starting her own nonprofit, and has worked in gardens in the past. Rachel’s fellowship placement is the Martha O’Bryan Center.
Sara Shaghaghi – Sara is a junior at MLK Magnet High School, where she is a key member of her school’s swim team. She is currently pursuing her Gold Award in the Girl Scouts. Sara will be working at The BELL Garden for her fellowship project.
Stay tuned for updates on the good work these high school students will be doing this spring, including how you can get involved and support their service project.
Alison is a born and bred Tar Heel, having lived in North Carolina for most of her life. She serves as HON’s Urban Agriculture Program VISTA and oversees youth programming at the Urban Farm. Alison can tie her shoes in 2 seconds flat.
By Josh Corlew, HON Urban Agriculture Program Manager -
It was an amazing first summer at the Hands On Nashville Urban Farm! We harvested 600+ pounds of vegetables and had more than 2,000 volunteers pitch in to transform these five empty lots of flood plain into food producing space where much learning,discovery, and outdoor fun has taken place.
The Farm during peak summer harvest.
Thank you to everyone who has given their time, energy, support, and enthusiasm to make this a successful first year for the Farm! Your volunteerism makes it possible for us to grow healthy food that is donated to nonprofits that serve families in need.
But summer is over, and fall is in the air (and the ground as well). The summer crops of squash, cucumbers, beans, corn, and watermelon are gone. The tomatoes and peppers are nearing the end of their productivity. Our newly leafed out trees are beginning their hibernation process.
Fall, however, brings its own excitement. The change of the weather is invigorating, both to our volunteers who are eager to get warmed up by getting to work, as well as some of our fall crops. We have lots of herbs and flowers that are loving the cooler weather, and our kale has been pruned back and is really enjoying the reprieve from pesky bugs that this time of year brings.
Spinach seedlings pop their heads out of the soil.
We’ve also recently planted quite a bit of spinach and lettuce in some of the garden rows where squash, corn, and beans used to thrive. Now they’re just starting to pop up and leaf out. If all goes well, we’ll be in for a lot of spinach through the winter. We’ve also begun work on the new garden plot, preparing it for a very productive spring by starting some cover crops (these will fill the soil with beneficial nutrients). Next spring we plan on doubling the amount of growing space that we had this year.
Kids from Head Middle Magnet and West End Middle spent part of their fall intercession time at the Farm on Monday.
Fall also means school is back in session. This week we’ve had some great groups of Metro Nashville Public Schools students who volunteered at the Farm as part of their fall intercession and our Hands On Fall Break volunteer opportunities with the HON VolunTEEN Program. In addition to helping turn compost and harvest vegetables, the kids learned how compost works (it gets up to 160 degrees!), why drinks full of sugar aren’t good for our bodies, and how to choose healthier alternatives. A seventh grader named Ricky said he wished he could come to the Farm every day… maybe we have a future farmer in our midst!
VolunTEEN volunteers harvested all these sweet potatoes today!!
We got this awesome thank-you card from the West End Middle students!
If you’ve been by the Farm in a few weeks, you probably noticed our amazing new swings. We were very fortunate to have employees from Molex volunteered last month to make the swings and create some new compost bins. Their enthusiastic volunteerism will help make the farm more productive and enjoyable. The swings are made from beautiful cedar wood, and next spring we’ll have food vines growing up the trellised sides, adding to the food grown at the Farm. We have great hopes for those swings being covered in grapes, muscadines, kiwis, blackberries, raspberries, and all manner of other tasty treats.
Josh Corlew is Hands On Nashville’s Urban Agriculture Program Manager. He oversees the organization’s efforts to engage volunteers in service opportunities that empower them to gain gardening skills, learn about healthy eating choices, and help address our city’s food access issues. An AmeriCorps alumnus, Josh also has a secret past life as a Trekkie (he’s a big fan of the TV series Star Trek, for the uninitiated among us), and he has been known to participate in death-defying canoe trips.
By Becca Stinson, Director of Communications for Hands On Nashville -
Last Thursday morning, I woke up extra early. Not to go for a run or knock some chores off my list before the weekend. I woke up early to dig in the dirt, see nature at its best, and step outside of the rush of the busy work week and give back. And it felt good.
Sunrise at the Farm – volunteers turning compost.
I admit that when my alarm first went off, I thought, “Why did I do this to myself?!” But when I stepped out of my car and saw the light of dawn greeting me over the vegetable rows at the HON Urban Farm, I was reminded of why I signed up. Because I love getting out from behind my desk, getting my hands dirty, learning about the world, and getting out of my comfort zone and my routine. I also love the fact that the tomatoes, squash, beans, and other delicious food grown at the Farm is donated to nonprofit organizations in Nashville serving families in need. Families who might otherwise not have access to fresh, healthy produce.
Our Farm team is making these early Thursday projects a regular thing for the next few weeks, so if you’re an early riser (or just want to pretend you are), you can sign up here. Here’s a little photo montage of my morning at the Farm, before I dashed into work.
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Becca Stinson is Hands On Nashville’s director of communications. Her favorite vegetable? Beets.
By Adams Carroll, AmeriCorps VISTA Member, Urban Agriculture Program -
Chef Kristin Beringson shows Summer Camp Kids how to make fresh salsa.
Last week we were fortunate to have two esteemed visitors to Youth Service Camp at the Hands On Nashville Urban Farm. Our friends at Nashville Originals organized cooking demonstrations for our campers led by Chef Kristin Beringson of the Holland House Bar and Refuge and Chef Tony Galzin of Flyte World Dining and Wine. Both chefs came with simple, tasty recipes highlighting the astounding seasonal flavors of the produce the campers helped to grow this summer. I hope a few of our campers are inspired to try these recipes at home! Several of the campers told me they tried squash for the first time in these dishes… and they liked it!
Our campers were impressed by our guest chefs’ knife skills and infectious love for their craft. I was too, but something else really moved me. I was so inspired by the volunteer spirit that our guests exhibited. It was clear to me that they both are driven to make our community a more vibrant place to live through their service. In sharing their skills and experience in a simple cooking demonstration, these chefs did much more than toss together a tasty garden salad. They also modeled positive behavior and served as role models for our campers. I won’t be surprised if, 10 years from now, Nashville’s hottest new chef shares her story of being inspired to choose her profession because of Chef Beringson and Galzin’s
Chef Galzin shows kids how to blanch vegetables and create an easy summer salad.
service last week.
After his demonstration, I remarked to Chef Galzin that he did a really good job of engaging his youth audience during his demonstration (more photos here). He told me that as the oldest of four brothers, he learned early on how to maintain young peoples’ attention levels. However, another experience uniquely prepared him to be a good role model for young people at the Urban Farm.
Before moving to Nashville, Chef Galzin volunteered with the Spark Program in Chicago, which connects hundreds of students with apprenticeships in their dream field. It was clear to me that Chef Galzin’s experience working as a mentor with Spark taught him how to bring out the best in our youth by nurturing their curiosity and giving them opportunities to use their ingenuity, creativity, and skills to overcome challenges. I am of the opinion that our society chronically underestimates the abilities of youth. Programs like Spark give kids an opportunity to prove to themselves and the world that they are able to accomplish great things.
Inspired by the chefs, Summer Camp kids make their own salad variations and share ideas with each other.
All of this got me thinking about the principles of positive youth development – principles I had in mind when developing the curriculum for our Youth Service Camp and Apprenticeship program (Farmer Josh introduced the Apprentices back in June). I wanted to make sure that we weren’t just creating a program to keep kids busy between school semesters, but rather one that is an opportunity for young people to live purposefully by contributing to our community in meaningful ways and building valuable life skills.
If you have ever despaired for the future of this world, then I challenge you to take note of the amazing things our youth apprentices and campers have been able to accomplish when asked to take an active role in creating their experiences in an environment that is supportive and safe. Together, these young people have turned five acres of floodway into a productive, beautiful Urban Farm that grows healthy produce for members of our community who need it most. Trust me, our future is in good hands!
A native Nashvillian, Adams Carroll serves as AmeriCorps VISTA Member for HON’s Urban Agriculture Program. He oversees the development of the Urban Farm Apprenticeship and Summer Youth Service Camp program. A bicycling enthusiast and dedicated bike commuter, Adams is a volunteer with Walk/Bike Nashville, the Oasis Center, and Free Bike Shop. His longest bike ride? 3,500 miles across 14 states.
By Adams Carroll, AmeriCorps VISTA Member, Urban Agriculture Program -
Working in a garden is a rare luxury. There is no wifi or fluorescent lighting, but rather the privilege of experiencing heat when the sun is baking and getting wet when it rains. At the Urban Farm, all of my senses are activated. I love the crunchy prickles on a cucumber vine, the tremendous hues of our marigold and sunflowers, and even the rich, muddy aroma of our compost bins. Walking the dewy rows of our garden each morning, I think about the back-breaking work that volunteers have contributed all year long.
It took hundreds of dedicated volunteers throughout the course of several projects this spring to create the 70′x70′ field, where lots of delicious vegetables now grow.
Hundreds of inspired volunteers have sweated upon this land, cultivating our thick clay soil with garden forks, turning compost pile upon compost pile, weeding with white knuckles under the hot noon sun. Their labor has been remarkable, and the results produced so far are truly significant.
Farmer Josh, left, and the Apprentices take a look at the beautiful rows of squash. Yum.
July begins the summer harvest, a favorite stop on any garden calendar. Already we have pulled pounds of squash, beans, cucumbers, kale, and radishes. And each day new crops threaten to be delicious and ready. But even before our first vegetable was plucked from its vine, the Urban Farm was producing results. I have the pleasure of working with our eight youth Apprentices, who grow each day as notable leaders. When they started with us just five weeks ago, they were eager and energetic. And still they are, except now they are seasoned experts, adeptly directing volunteer groups, confidently explaining the finer points of natural stormwater management or organic pest control.
I have watched the apprentices fascinate a farm full of 13-year-olds with soil tests, and challenge their peers to read nutrition labels and check ingredient lists. It is rewarding to watch the Apprentices develop into advocates for the land and its products. I learn something from them every day.
Urban Farm neighbors joined us for a picnic in June. Farmer Josh gave a tour of the Farm, fielded questions, and gathered great input from the neighbors.
Two weeks ago, our neighbors joined us on the Farm for a picnic. I love to hear their stories. Some are heartbreaking – stories of commercial development upstream exacerbating Mill Creek’s destructive tendency to flood – and others just make you wonder. Did you know that before Wimpole Drive was developed into a neighborhood, it was a farm where buffalo grazed? I really appreciate the Farm’s role as a space for neighbors to congregate, to meet each other informally on dog walks in the morning, and to share stories like the legend of the buffalo. We are lucky to have neighbors who are so curious and involved, who support us and push us to cultivate a true community asset, not just a field full of vegetables. With such strong community partnerships, there’s no doubt in my mind that the Urban Farm will be a resource to serve Nashville for decades to come.
7 lbs. Squash + 2 lbs. Kale + 1 lb. greens = 10 lbs. of food harvested last week by Martha O’Bryan Center kiddos at the HON Urban Farm Summer Youth Service Camp.
Farmer Josh has blogged about our summer camp before. And still there is so much more to say! I am grateful to Bethlehem Centers, the Martha O’Bryan Center, Youth Encouragement Services, and the other local nonprofits who have brought youth volunteers out to serve on the Urban Farm. The volunteers have struggled under heavy loads of wood chips in temperatures that would send most teens running for the air conditioning. And of course, their hard work is paying off. All of the produce they have grown is donated to meet pressing food needs in their communities.
I do hope that the skills and experiences that they gain at Youth Service Camp will inspire our youth volunteers to tend their own gardens and make healthy nutritional choices. Recently, a film crew came dropped in on a Youth Service Camp session. You really should check out their video:
Do you work with a group of young people who would be interested in serving at the Urban Farm this summer? E-mail me at adams@hon.org to check our availability. We gladly host groups of up to 60 to engage in fun garden activities and service learning. I encourage youth ages 11-18 to sign up for some of our Friday VolunTEEN days. Here is a list of those opportunities. Come join us on the Farm to see what is growing in Nashville! You can read more about the Farm here.
30 pounds of vegetables harvested by Summer Camp participants at the Farm today!
A native Nashvillian, Adams Carroll serves as AmeriCorps VISTA Member for HON’s Urban Agriculture Program. He oversees the development of the Urban Farm Apprenticeship and Summer Youth Service Camp program. A bicycling enthusiast and dedicated bike commuter, Adams is a volunteer with Walk/Bike Nashville, the Oasis Center, and Free Bike Shop. His longest bike ride? 3,500 miles across 14 states.
After four months of hard work to get the Farm up and running, we had a breakthrough today. We picked our first vegetable off the vine – a perfect summer squash just asking to be eaten.
It’s a small victory, but not insignificant. The volunteer hours, sweat, laughter, and learning that has been poured into the Farm will mean many more vegetables to come. And knowing that we’re growing this food so that people living in Nashville who don’t have ready access to fresh, healthy food can enjoy a summer squash makes it even sweeter.
By Josh Corlew, HON Urban Agriculture Program Manager -
We have a lot of visitors on the Farm, each one bringing their own special gifts. Volunteers bring their willing spirit and hard work, donors bring the resources needed to keep our program going, our apprentices bring leadership and education, and our campers bring a youthful enthusiasm and curiosity. But there are also several non-human visitors on the Farm. Here’s a picture of one of the more unique visitors that our apprentices found last week:
Hi, momma Shelly.
We named him Sheldon initially, welcomed him to our space, and went about our day. Later that afternoon we came back to find Sheldon is actually Shelly… she had dug a nest in our tomato row! We’re not sure if she’ll be back to lay eggs or raise some tiny turtles, but we’ll keep an eye out for her.
Another favorite visitor to the Farm is Sally the salamander, and she helps keep the pests at bay:
Isn’t he cute?!
Last Friday one of our corporate partners, Deloitte, joined us for a day of impact. They built five new compost bins and two beautiful picnic tables for us. Here’s one of the cedar picnic tables:
These picnic tables will provide a much-needed place to relax and take a breather for our Farm volunteers. Thank you, Deloitte!
This week was our first week of Summer Camp at the Farm. Every day we’ll have teens from area nonprofits coming out to learn and work on the Farm. Led by our apprentices, the campers learn about the food system, how to grow food, why it’s important to eat healthy food, and how to cook some simple recipes using farm fresh produce. Our schedules are booked from Mondays through Thursdays, but on Fridays we have room for other teens to come participate. If you’re 11 through 18 and would like to join us on the Farm on a Friday, just sign up here by clicking on one of the VolunTEEN opportunities. Learn more about the HON Urban Farm here.
Josh Corlew is Hands On Nashville’s Urban Agriculture Program Manager. He oversees the organization’s efforts to engage volunteers in service opportunities that empower them to gain gardening skills, learn about healthy eating choices, and help address our city’s food access issues. An AmeriCorps alumnus, Josh also has a secret past life as a Trekkie (he’s a big fan of the TV series Star Trek, for the uninitiated among us), and he has been known to participate in death-defying canoe trips.
By Josh Corlew, HON Urban Agriculture Program Manager -
This week brings a very exciting new addition to the farm: our apprentices! I’m so excited about the team of eight youth apprentices that we have training with us right now. They went through a rigorous application and interview process and I’m convinced that every one of them is up to the challenging and fun season that we have ahead of us.
This summer HON Urban Farm apprentices will lead groups of up to 60 of their peers through a curriculum around agriculture, the food system, and healthy eating. They will be the leaders of our Youth Summer Camp held at the Urban Farm. I want to dedicate the rest of this post to introducing our awesome new team.
Meet the HON Urban Farm Apprentices (in alphabetical order):
Meet Ashley! She loves dance.
Ashley attends Glencliff High Schooland helps tutor math. She’s very active in dance classes and enjoys a wide variety of dance styles including tap, jazz, and ballet.
Chloe is captain of her varsity softball team.
Chloe attends MLK Academic Magnet High Schoolwhere she is active in Beta Club. A softball player, Chloe is on the varsity team where she also serves as captain.
Evie has been in several plays at her school and The Nashville Children’s Theater.
Evie attends Hume Fogg High School. She’s very interested in drama and has participated in many plays at her school as well as productions at The Nashville Children’s Theater. An active member of her church’s youth group, Evie also has helped to organize the CROP (Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty) walk for the past several years.
Jazmin aspires to be a professional chef.
Jazmin attends Glencliff High School and is all about the extracurriculars. Her resume is chocked full of participation in service and cultural groups including Latinas Unidas, Rise Above Hate, Jump Study Foundation, and United Nations, just to name a few. She offers her bilingual talents as a translator for after-school tutoring programs, and aspires to be a professional chef!
Maria is an active member of the Glencliff High garden club.
Maria attends Glencliff High school where she is very active in many clubs including the Garden Club (yay!), ITOP, Beta Club, Teens United, and United Nations. Maria has also worked with the Oasis Center and hopes to continue to grow in her leadership abilities this summer.
Maynan’s name means “shining moon.”
Maynan attends McGavock High School and has been in the U.S. for about seven years. She enjoys helping out with a Bantu summer camp in her free time. In her native country, Kenya, her name means “shining of the moon”.
Saida enjoys tutoring kids in Nashville’s Bantu community.
Saida is a student at McGavock High School. She likes to tutor kids in the Bantu community in after-school programs and is also actively involved with Catholic Charities. Saida has experience growing food from her days in Africa, and we’re excited to learn from her this summer!
TJ has experience in designing and building garden beds out of cob.
TJ has just graduated from Glencliff High School. While he was there he was a part ofthe Garden Club and an Engineering class in which he helped design and build garden beds out of cob. While TJ has many talents, one of his favorite activities is parkour.
It has been a pleasure getting to know these remarkable young people over the past week, and we are really looking forward to a rich summer of learning, growing, and teaching.
By Josh Corlew
Hands On Nashville Urban Agriculture Program Manager
The past month has been such an exciting one out on the Urban Farm! Here are some of the cool things that have happened:
Two boys pair up to spread wood chips for garden pathways on Global Youth Service Day 2012. Nice work, boys.
Grand Opening! On April 21, we celebrated Global Youth Service Day by having the official launch of the Hands On Nashville Urban Farm. Hundreds of youth, Starbucks partners, and neighbors came out to show their support and volunteer. We created rain gardens, made signs for our trees and veggies, made wood chip paths, dug an irrigation ditch, and had a blast doing it!
Water access – We’ve been waiting on planting most of our vegetables until we had a reliable source of water. Just last week we got the water turned on, and now we can water all our trees, flowers, and vegetables. They are much happier now!
Compost – We’ve been experimenting with different composting containers. Here are some volunteers helping us test out the latest version:
Farmer Josh tries out a new compost method.
Planting – We didn’t waste any time getting our plants in the ground as soon as we knew we could water them! We’ve put in tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, watermelon, kale, mustard, broccoli, cabbage, arugula, beans, corn, and a wide variety of herbs and flowers. We’ve also mulched most of our new sprouts so we can keep them cool and damp in this crazy hot weather.
Volunteers dig some paths for irrigation on the Urban Farm. The water supply is now fully here!
Apprentices – This summer we’re hiring eight youth apprentices to help us lead a curriculum-based youth camp. We’re in the final stages of selecting the apprentices, so we’ll be able to announce them soon!
Josh Corlew is Hands On Nashville’s Urban Agriculture Program Manager. He oversees the organization’s efforts to engage volunteers in service opportunities that empower them to gain gardening skills, learn about healthy eating choices, and help address our city’s food access issues. In 2011, Josh developed and implemented an urban garden program at PERK Urban Farm, in partnership with Trevecca University, that engaged 1,000+ volunteers and produced 700+ pounds of food on a 2.5-acre plot of land. An AmeriCorps alumnus, Josh also has a secret past life as a Trekkie (he’s a big fan of the TV series Star Trek, for the uninitiated among us), and he has been known to participate in death-defying canoe trips.
* Top and bottom photos courtesy of Betsy Mason. (Thanks, Betsy!)
