A February Snapshot of Our Gardens

“We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

It’s starting to look like spring, a favorite time of year for all of us on the garden team. This is a time of year when all of our planning over the winter can finally start taking shape. Here’s a look at what we’re up to in the TNFP gardens this month written by our Garden Manager Christina...

In February in The Nashville Food Project gardens we try to remember that it is still winter. Our garden crop plan for the year has hopefully been made and checked twice. Seeds have been ordered. Machines and tools are clean and tuned. Winter cover crops are growing slowly in the field along with beds of overwintering greens like kale and spinach. Potting soil and other garden supplies are stockpiled waiting for the signal to start planting. We do the essential February tasks of pruning fruit trees and brambles, direct seeding flowers that require cold weather to germinate (poppies and bachelor buttons), check on the bees’ honey stores and, if necessary, feed them. Spring is surely close at hand but we try to remember that we risk doing more damage than good by trying to work soils that are still cold and wet.

We anxiously await the end of the month, when we can start our first seeds in the greenhouse and begin preparing a few beds for our earliest vegetable plantings in March. The first crop we plant outdoors is the onion transplants that we’ve started in our greenhouse the previous November. Onions are soon followed by peas, lettuce and other leafy greens, and root crops that love the cool weather of early spring. By the end of the month, the greenhouse is full of crops that we begin indoors to get a head-start on the growing season - leafy crops like kale and chard and fruiting crops like tomatoes and peppers.

We try hard to follow the garden plan that we made over the winter. We start this garden plan begins with a list of crops that we are excited to grow for our meals program with a rough idea of how many beds should be planted in each. We map out where each crop should go in our permanent bed system and ask whether another crop can be planted in the same space before or after the main crop during our long growing season. We aim to have at least one-fourth of the garden resting at all times in cover crops so that we can maintain productive and healthy soils for many years to come.

This time of year, we love the broadfork - a garden tool that lifts and aerates the soil while maintaining good soil structure. Where we can, we begin to broadfork the beds that will grow our earliest crops  - the lifting and aeration action warms up the cold winter soils and allows them to breathe out excess moisture. Volunteers love the aerobic work-out of it, too.

Another exciting thing happening this month is the start of a new year with all of the community members growing in our gardens! This month we’ve begun meeting with participants in the Middle TN Refugee Agriculture Partnership Program, a group of farmers from Burma and Bhutan, with whom we share our best practices for growing production-focused urban gardens in Nashville. We help them with creating their own garden production plans for growing and selling their vegetable crops to restaurants and at local farmers markets. We’re also recruiting other community members for our neighborhood-based community gardens in North and South Nashville.

And don’t forget about Project Grow! We’ve started planting for our annual subscription vegetable plant sale. Sales will open soon so be on the lookout for emails from us!

This truly is one of our favorite times of the year, a time when we breathe with anticipation, because the busy time is almost upon us.

Check out some of our favorite resources for specific information about growing vegetables in the South:

• Ira Wallace’s excellent Vegetable Gardening in the Southeast with month-by-month checklists of garden activity
• Pam Dawling’s spreadsheet-heavy but full of years of hard-won details book: Sustainable Market Farming, from her experience growing in our same zone in VA.

I am because we are.

This week, some of our staff had the privilege of hearing Duke Divinity School professor Norman Wirzba speak at Vanderbilt University Medical Center of the relationship between sustainable agriculture and human health. Wirzba reminded us of what we already know—that life only happens in relationship, that life is what happensbetween things, and that life does not exist within a single thing. He asked us questions, like “How can we nourish the contexts in which we live, so all life can flourish?” I left his talk reminded that if I want to work for a healthy person, I must work for a healthy world. 

At The Nashville Food Project, food is the tool we use to create change in Nashville. There are lots of people working in this food “space,” many with different goals. Our goals are to work for a healthy community—to awaken ourselves and others to the suffering within us and around us—by growing, cooking, and sharing food in ways that acknowledge what’s broken and celebrate what’s held in common. What happens here is community food, where choice is extended, high-quality meals are shared. Our work is cooperative, rooted in relationships. The nourishing food we grow, cook, and share supports the critical work being carried out by our partners who work daily to ease the enormous burdens of poverty and a broken world.

Community food is not convenient or tidy, but it is joyous. Our hope is that the meals we share and the gardens we grow celebrate abundance. We ask people to get involved with a spirit of deep hospitality—the kind of kindness that welcomes the “other" and invites them to move more fully into their own human potential. 

Some of you may be familiar with the South African word ubuntu, which has been translated to mean “I am because we are.” And this is what I am daily learning. Thank you for helping me.

Grace and peace, 

Growing Together: The Refugee Ag Program

In January, Tennessee gardens tend to offer more frozen patches than green, but growth in the TNFP gardens continues in the cooler months in different ways—with preparation, trainings and relationship building.

At Hillcrest United Methodist Church on a recent Monday, the Nashville Food Project’s Garden Manager Christina Bentrup stood before a group of refugee growers from Bhutan and Nepal to talk about opportunities to sell crops at farmers’ markets and restaurants through the Refugee Agriculture Partnership Program (RAPP). 

Speaking through translator Siddi Rimal, two farmers named Chhabi and Chandra shared their successes selling popular mustard greens at a negotiated price within their community. But beyond learning ways to market and work together—and hearing how the growing seasons differ in Tennessee than their home countries—the trainings help make deeper connections.

“Participants build stronger relationships with each other, with the physical land, with neighbors and members of their community and with other communities through selling their food,” Christina says.

Lauren Bailey, the Agricultural Programs Director at the Center for Refugees and Immigrants of Tennessee, the agency partner on the RAPP program, also participates in the trainings where lessons go beyond the soil.

“Sometimes farmers come to us with other issues that they are facing in life, such as the complicated nature of obtaining citizenship,” she says. “In these moments, we're faced with the opportunity to listen and to find ways to connect and advocate with our farmers. As our relationships grow, our understanding of our farmers' lives grows.”

A few days later at the Woodmont garden at The Nashville Food Project, a group of volunteers sifted compost to make potting soil for starting crops in the greenhouse. 

“See how pretty that is?” said volunteer Linda Bodfish. “It started off as melons and rotten tomatoes.” 

They worked together over a hands-on process that couldn’t be rushed. Among discussion about the compost, they shared stories about family pets, jobs and hometowns. 

“Growing food, even if you and your family are the only ones eating it, is a communal activity,” Christina says. “It brings us into contact with the earth we all share, with the traditions of agriculture that have kept our species alive, and spirit of abundance that pervades all well-cared for gardens.” 

Linda, a long-time volunteer in TNFP gardens, says she’s learned over the years about irrigation and overwatering and companion planting: “I feel like I get out of it more than I give."

Lauren, too, said preparing for the trainings reminds her of the power that garden programming has to build community and foster existing community leaders.

“People seem really happy at the field trainings, both in the RAPP program and in our neighborhood-based community gardens," Christina says. "I am privileged to be a witness to the joy and pride people seem to feel when working in their gardens. This joy reminds me that isolation is one of the biggest cofactors of hunger. When we work in a garden, even if we happen to be by ourselves, we become deeply rooted to a place.  This connection alone can bring people from isolation to integration.” 

Sharing More in Partnership with United Way

Did you know that The Nashville Food Project nearly doubled our meals program last year? Thanks to a new partnership with the United Way’s SPARK we provided 36 youth and families at the Salvation Army and Bethlehem Center with more than 10,000 healthy meals and snacks in 2015!

The mission of the United Way’s SPARK program is to engage youth in consistent, structured physical activity; to promote movement; to advocate basic nutrition through education; and to provide accessible, cost-effective meals and snacks for youth and their families.

In addition to nearly doubling the number of meals we were able to share in our community, this partnership also allowed us to involve even more incredible volunteers in preparing and cooking these 300 delicious, nutritious meals and snacks each week. These meals and snacks were served alongside fun exercise programs and nutrition education, helping children get healthy and fit in a fun way.

We’re excited to announce that this program with further expand in 2016 with the addition of snacks shared with children at the South Nashville Family Resource Center and the St. Luke’s Community House Family Resource Center! Through this expansion, we will share 120 more snacks each week with children in our city, furthering our reach in our efforts to alleviate hunger and cultivate community.

We thank the United Way of Metropolitan Nashville for continuing this vital partnership, and we can’t wait to see how it continues to grow in 2016!  

Guest Chef Series: Kayla and Derek May

Pastry Chefs Derek and Kayla May began their courtship in the kitchen at The Hermitage Hotel when their shifts overlapped by one hour.

Kayla arrived at 5 a.m. to make breads and banquet sweets, and Derek arrived later to make plated desserts. Everyone on the crew had individual plastic bins to keep their tools, but Derek noticed that Kayla’s was broken. So when she came in one morning, she found the tools missing in her bin and a treasure map instead sending her to find the new one Derek had purchased for her.

“I was pretty smitten after that,” she said.

Still, she resisted a romantic relationship knowing that she would soon head to New York City to work. The two would meet before dawn at Café Coco, the 24-hour coffee shop, after he ended his shift and she headed into hers. When she left the hotel job, Derek ended up going to New York with her where they shared a room in an apartment with two other roommates. 

“If you opened the dresser you had to climb over the bed," Kayla said of their tiny space. But she added that the experience in New York proved invaluable.

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, the chefs -- both owners of Blushing Berry Chocolates and Kayla the pastry chef at Josephine -- made the perfect pair to feature in our Guest Chef Series. We were delighted to get to know them at our first RISE event in December, and they agreed to return to the kitchen for a volunteer shift. 

“They don’t usually let me make meatloaf at Josephine,” Kayla said as they both joked about cooking on the savory side rather than the sweet. “If you want me to cook stuff on the hot line, I need a lot of instruction.”

But of course they handled the meal for 75 people at John Glenn retirement home with ease. Kayla cracked eggs, one in each hand, for a mixture of donated venison from Hunters for the Hungry and blend of spices as Derek chopped bacon for a pot of green beans. Sweet potatoes softened in a pot of boiling water and would soon be whipped with molasses. “I have to add a little sugar,” she said. 

Kayla grew up in Alabama and took an interest in pastry while on a trip to Paris. When her sister and traveling companion caught a case of the flu, Kayla spent her days wandering into pastry shops marveling at the beauty and the detail behind the glass cases. Despite a family in medicine (her mother is a doctor and her sister will soon begin her residency), she promptly changed course from a scholarship to study pre-med at Auburn University to the French Culinary Institute in New York.

“She was super-supportive,” Kayla said of her mother. “I really haven’t thought about much else (but pastry) since.” 

Derek grew up in Indiana and attended Connecticut Culinary Institute and worked in Chicago before coming to Nashville. Both chefs are happy to be back in Music City after their time in New York. They’re preparing for a busy Valentine's season and scouting new locations for their Blushing Berry business. And after marrying in 2014, they’ve been putting down roots here, which thankfully means giving back by helping at The Nashville Food Project, too.

"It's always nice," Kayla said, "to help out with something you do as your career in the community."  

Pro Tips from Kayla and Derek:

- Pastries and breads freeze nicely for serving later, which helps cut down on food waste.

- Be prepared. “Panicking never helps,” Derek says. They both like to stay ahead of the game throughout the week. “If you’re not ahead, you’re probably behind,” Kayla says.

- It’s okay if every dish at home doesn't turn out perfectly. Experimentation leads to improvement. “It doesn’t always have to taste good,” Derek said. “Next time you’ll know how to do it better.”

- Learn to think on your feet and improvise in the kitchen. It’s another way to keep from wasting food.

- Knowing the purpose of ingredients helps reduce waste and makes a better cook. Knowing that eggs stabilize and add volume, for example, makes it easier to substitute with what’s on hand.

- And on keeping a trim figure as a pastry chef? “Work in a kitchen,” Kayla says, where employees stay busy. “I think that’s why I love vegetables so much. It’s what our body needs and wants at the end of a long day.”

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On the Menu:

Kayla and Derek prepared meatloaf with mashed sweet potatoes and green beans flavored with pork. To replicate their meal, try these recipes.

Good Eats Meatloaf

Molasses Whipped Sweet Potatoes

Green Beans with Bacon

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Kayla and Derek will be holding a sweetheart special during Valentine's week at Blushing Berry Chocolates. Any gentleman who visits the shop to buy a 12-piece or 24-piece chocolate box for a special someone will get two free Bourbon truffles for the purchase.

Valentine's truffle flavors available now and through the holiday include the following: 

Milk Chocolate

Dark Chocolate

Salted Caramel

Vanilla Bean

Strawberry

Raspberry

Rose

Passion Fruit

Champagne

Hazelnut

Amaretto

Bailey's Irish Cream

For more information, click here or call 615.852.8128. 

For reservations at Josephine, visit here or call 615.292.7766. 

The Weight of a Snowflake

Happy New Year, all. I do hope yours is Happy, but I want to say that it feels like there is a deep feeling of despair among my circle of friends this winter. We all seem to be juggling work stress, caring for sick people we love, battling the often co-occurring illnesses of addiction and depression. We are stretching our resources of time, attention, patience, and money further than it seems they want to go, and then we turn on the news and listen to story after story about the violence, injustice, greed, scarcity and environmental degradation that plague our world. And all the bad news quickly paralyzes us into a dark fit of despair, and we decide our hands are tied; we can't do anything to alleviate the suffering of this world. 

I give thanks for a professor and mentor I had in seminary who encouraged me to let the world and its enormous problems in just enough to galvanize me to work towards their solutions. I used to think that big problems required big solutions. But in my almost seven years of doing this work at The Nashville Food Project, I have learned that answers cannot be imposed, they must come from within. I have learned that small work in a small place with small groups of people can have enormous impact on the health and well-being of an entire community. I have learned that solutions cannot be hurried, that hard questions need for patience, and that relationships and making common cause with others are the keys to making lasting change – no matter how big or small. 

Maybe some of you know this small story – someone told it to me when I was a teenager at church camp (talk about a small thing having a big impact), and it has honestly never left me. I hope you will take one minute of your day to read this winter tale, and find yourself encouraged. 

Grace and peace, 

Best of the Blog: 2015

2015 has been quite a year for the TNFP blog! We've launched a fun, new Guest Chef series, shared tons of delicious recipes and shared incredible stories of our meals, gardens and volunteers. In case you missed them, here are our top five blogs from 2015:

1. Guest Chef Series: Vivek Surti

2. Biscuit Love Chefs Cook in TNFP Kitchen

3. A Day in a Dozen: 12 photos tell the story of one day at TNFP

4. Spaghetti is Love

5. A Day in a Dozen: 12 photos tell the story of one day at TNFP

Waste Not, Want Not

Almond milk that could have headed for the dumpster after a food conference at Music City Center. But thankfully, a volunteer brought it to TNFP instead for including in bread puddings and other uses.  

Earlier this month, The Tennessean included The Nashville Food Project in a story about food waste.

“Forty percent of the food produced in this country doesn’t make it from farm to mouth,” writes Jim Myers. That’s about $165 billion or $2,225 per family per year of wasted food.

Putting a dent in those numbers could feel daunting, but it’s an issue that we hope to continue working on in 2016. In addition to gleaning from farms, restaurants and grocery stores each week for meals, we’ll be partnering with Zero Percent, a Chicago-based organization that has developed a mobile app and online platform to maximize our food recovery efforts. 

But what else can we do at home? Meals Manager Anne Sale shared some inspiration and hope for making small changes that add up. Here are three ways she helps reduce food waste at TNFP:

1) Dehydrating over ripe fruit – By using a dehydrator, she makes raspberry or banana powder to include as a flavoring in granola bars or truffles.

2) Using "day old" croissants and pastries as a base for bread puddings. Adding an egg and milk mixture to stale bread helps breathe new life into it.

3) Re-purposing day old fruit pies – Anne and volunteers often break pies into pieces and give them a fresh oatmeal streusel topping.

To read more tips on eliminating food waste at home, click here.

You can find the full Tennessean story here.

Rather than waste food, we're grateful that Tandy Wilson of City House brings leftover dough to The Nashville Food Project. 

The Society of St. Andrew, a ministry that salvages food from local farms, makes a delivery of butternut squash to TNFP. 

Planting Seeds of Change

Garden Coordinator Kia writes garden inspiration on a chalkboard.

As we reflect on 2015 and look forward to 2016, we’ve been talking and thinking about “hope.” Rather than feeling discouraged about the problems of poverty and food waste, we’re focusing on the small changes we can make in the community.

In the garden specifically, here are a few ways we’re planting small seeds of change:

1.) Educating students at veggie tastings.

We might not be able to solve all the issues related to farm-to-school, but we can introduce children to great-tasting vegetables. 

Students from Fall-Hamilton Elementary School visit the McGruder Community Garden on occasion for activities that range from observation journals to lessons on seeds and compost to planting vegetables. We also donate food and cooking time to the school in twice-per-semester “veggie tastings,” where students sample colorful roasted root vegetables, kale salads, or sweet potato fries. "The idea is to introduce kids to vegetables they might not opt for at home or have access to at all," says Garden Manager Christina Bentrup.

Students from Fall-Hamilton help out in the Wedgewood Urban Garden.

2.) Making good use of land.

Through our gardens, we’re using land that might otherwise be overlooked to increase access to healthy food. We’ve harvested 4,250 pounds of produce this year for 50,100 meals.

3.) Teaching others about growing food. 

Through our community garden plots, education and volunteer sessions, we’re hoping to empower those in the community to grow their own food in our gardens or at their homes. 

Volunteers from Whole Food Market help out at the Wedgewood Urban Garden.

4.) Sharing land to create spaces for others.

With the community garden plots and the Refugee Agriculture Program, we want growers to feel as if they have a place of their own. 

Tika Adikhari, a Bhutanese gardener at the Wedgewood Urban Garden, proudly shows off his plot. 

Siddi Rimal interprets during a training session with refugee gardeners. 

5.) Keeping bees and chickens.

Beyond the plants, we’re keeping bees and chickens at our gardens, which provide vital functions in an ecosystem. They also serve as educational tools for students and volunteers.

Through small steps forward, we can maintain hope. Hope is contagious. We hope you’ll continue to help us spread it in 2016.  

Guest Chef Series: Chef Dale Levitski and Brenda Reed of Sinema with Debbi Fields of Mrs. Fields

Brenda Reed (left) with Debbi Fields and Dale Levitski.

The cook team had under two hours to finish dinner for 75 people, but Chef Dale Levitski of Sinema calmly mixed meatloaf like a pro. 

He combined donated ground beef, pork and venison. Then he added seasoning, eggs, parsley from the garden and oatmeal, which had been donated after a warehouse ordering mistake.

“Meatloaf is something you don’t really measure, you just make it,” he said. ““My mom always did oatmeal in meatloaf. I grew up eating it. It was the 70's. I’ve always loved my mom’s meatloaf."

Brenda Reed, one of the Sinema owners and a regular volunteer at The Nashville Food Project, joined Chef Dale to cook as well as Brenda’s friend Debbi Fields, the woman behind the famous Mrs. Field’s cookies. 

While Dale worked on the main course, Brenda and Debbi looked after the sizzling bacon for a batch of kale cooked with brown sugar, vinegar and a touch of cayenne.

“Is that bacon done?” Dale asked.

“Yes, Chef,” Brenda replied.

But even if it hadn't been, easy-going Dale said he doesn’t get too worked up under pressure. 

“I think if you’re going to be a leader in the kitchen, and you’re losing your temper, you’re not leader." He jokes with his cooks that he can yell only once a year.

Chef Dale Levitski moved to Nashville two years ago in March from Chicago. He brought celebrity status with him from his time on Top Chef, but his experience goes much deeper. 

After finishing the meatloaf, he moved on to a dressing for lettuce from the garden that Meals Manager Anne Sale had cleaned and prepped. 

“Salad dressing is one of the first things I learned to make,” he said, whirling together a mixture of extra virgin olive oil, vinegars, dry mustard, sugar and salt. 

Dale skipped culinary school and worked his way up in the business instead. In addition to Sinema, he's planning on opening a fast-casual restaurant called The Hook in 2016. 

As he whisked the dressing, Debbi quizzed him for tips.

“I usually use grape seed oil because it’s super-light and olive oil tastes more heavy,” he said. But of course he rolls with the nature of using what's on hand at TNFP. “We’ll make it work,” he says.

“That’s the right answer,” Anne says.

Just before 11 a.m., the prep room began to buzz with activity as volunteers showed up to take the food to John Glenn retirement home.

Volunteer Marilyn Lane poked her head into the kitchen to pass along praise. She delivers to John Glenn weekly. “They love this food and would have a hard time without it,” she said.

Intern Noelle Brown also stopped in to meet Debbi.

“I didn’t have an Easy-Bake Oven growing up," she said. "I had a Mrs. Fields Oven."

The chefs gave their dishes a final taste and volunteers plated the food to show how it would be served – meatloaf, green salad, kale and carrots with Mrs. Fields cookies for dessert.

“It was a lot easier than I thought it would be,” Dale said. “I haven’t made meatloaf in years.” 

Belonging to Others

I’m thinking about what it felt like to sit at the kitchen table of my childhood home. 

When we were young, my brother Roy invented a game that became so beloved in our family. Thinking on it now, I find myself in a fit of nostalgia; it’s the kind of happy memory I love to go back to. At dinnertime, my mom, dad, brother and I would be eating dinner at the kitchen table and at some point during the meal, Roy would announce he needed to use the bathroom and leave the table. But instead of going to the bathroom, he would quietly crawl back into the kitchen on the floor, slide under the table and kiss each one of us on the knee. And our mom would say, “Oh! It’s the kissing bug!” with a joy in her voice I can still hear. “He’s come to visit us again!” 

Sitting above the table and making eyes with my parents, I loved to be part of this world with my whole family. It invoked feelings of fullness that as an adult, I now associate with what it feels like to belong to a place or to a person or to a group of people. After the kissing bug made his last round of kisses, my brother would slide out in secret and walk back into the kitchen a moment later as if he’d just washed his hands in the bathroom sink. “Roy, you always miss the Kissing Bug!” our dad would say. “He seems to come every time you’re gone!” And Roy would climb into his chair at the kitchen table and try not to smile…

To make a place for this kind of loving pretending—what a gift this was to us children! As a parent of two young children now, I am reminded constantly of how important it is to climb into their world. In his essay “Health is Membership,” Wendell Berry wrote: 

“If we were lucky enough as children to be surrounded by grown-ups who loved us, then our sense of wholeness is not just the sense of completeness in ourselves, but also is the sense of belonging to others and to our place; it is an unconscious awareness of community, of having in common.”

A sense of belonging to others… I’d count it as one of our most basic human needs. I was recently talking with Anne, our Meals Manager, after she attended the graduation at G.A.N.G., a gang-prevention program in North Nashville at Mt. Carmel Baptist Church—one of our cherished Meal Distribution Partners. Anne told me a little of the keynote speaker’s story – a former gang member whose mother and father had both been murdered on separate occasions, and with no one to call home, he found a life of dealing in drugs by the time he was in fifth grade, and he found his sense of belonging in a gang. By the grace of God and because of the devotion of a few key people in his life, he made it through violence and into the safe arms of a loving community.

Who among us is not longing to belong? As we say often at The Nashville Food Project, poverty isolates people and disintegrates relationships. And when we talk about one of poverty's chief symptoms, hunger—we know it’s not enough to grow, cook and share healthy food—we have to do all these things in ways that create, cultivate, protect and strengthen communities, because being with the people to whom we belong is the foundation of a whole and healthy life. 

The Nashville Food Project’s meals, garden, and volunteer programs have all been designed to be places of belonging. And to the ever-widening circle of friends that is The Nashville Food Project, I am grateful to belong. We already know that the table is a wonderful place to greet others, offer hospitality, give attention, share life, show love. As we enter into this holiday season, let’s promise each other to do the best we can to make a place for someone else at our kitchen tables and in our lives, spending some time getting to know others, spending some time letting ourselves be known. 

Grace and peace,

Cookbook Shares Burmese Family Recipes

When Garden Intern Kate Patterson learned she would need to complete an oral history project for her Foodways class at Belmont University, she decided to compile a cookbook of traditional family recipes from Burmese immigrants growing food in the refugee agriculture program.

Over the past several months, she interviewed six women and two men with the help of an interpreter to learn about Burmese family dishes.

“They grow a lot of the things in the garden. Then they use it in the recipe,” she says. “So that was a cool aspect to tie into their stories.” 

The recipes include a fish curry, soups and noodle dishes as well as sweet sticky rice wrapped in bamboo.

Unlike in American culture where recipes might be pulled from a book or a recipe box, Kate said all of the dishes shared were learned by watching and doing in the kitchen.

"A lot of the participants had trouble writing them, because they never had written them before,” she says. “It was neat that they still survived through generations."

But despite the differences in learning and sometimes unfamiliar ingredients involved, Kate said it was interesting to take note in the similarities across cultures as well.  

“Their parents teach them to cook, and they cook with siblings. Even though it’s different dishes, it’s still the same concept that these recipes are passed down over generations. It is unifying." 

As a junior at Belmont, Kate is considering a career that explores community development and the role that farming can play in creating solutions. She grew up with gardens in the backyard, and her father grew up on a farm. 

Kate working in the Wedgewood Urban Garden. 

If she had to choose a recipe from her life for a cookbook, she said she would choose one that has family significance, too.

“We always make this cookie at Christmastime that’s been passed down. Spritz cookies. It’s almond flavored cookies that we make with a cookie press. My dad grew up making them, and it’s a traditional Swedish thing to do.” 

Kate gave us a sneak peek of her Burmese cookbook project by sharing the recipe and story below from Hpong, pictured here:

Hpong is from the Kachin state in Myanmar and he moved to the United States with his wife and two kids a year ago. He enjoys cooking a variety of dishes and he has many memories associated with this traditional Kachin recipe.

Hpong enjoys cooking the traditional Kachin recipe, Kachin Chet. He said that most Kachin people know how to make this dish and they make and eat it almost every day. He learned to make this dish by watching his parents and siblings cook it, and by cooking it with them. He said that the recipe was never written. It was passed down from generation to generation by showing others how to make it. This recipe is important to him because it has good flavor and is delicious and healthy.

 The ingredients in this recipe are natural, meaning many come from the garden. Some items from this recipe that are grown in the garden are: chilies, garlic, and lemongrass. There are other ingredients that he has not been able to find in the United States so he has had to either modify the recipe or buy the ingredients elsewhere. He mentioned that he had to buy the light amber from Malaysia. Also, he was unable to find another ingredient that had a sour leaf, so he has had to replace that ingredient with a Roselle leaf, bamboo shoot, or lemongrass.

Hpong’s favorite meat to use in this dish is fish. When asked if he thinks pork is as good to use he said, “not as (good as) chicken, beef or fish, that’s good.” You can use any kind of fish-- small or big. He typically only uses river fish, but he says that you can also use fish from the sea.

When he lived in Myanmar, everyone in the village would have their own chicken, beef, and river fish and would cook them in their houses. They would then share them with each other. Sometimes they would buy the ingredients that they needed from the market. Now, living in the U.S., he buys the fish from the grocery store.

Hpong speaks of how the dish is also healthy for you, saying, “It’s kind of like medicine. It can prevent the stomach ache.” He said that the water he drank in Myanmar came directly from the ground and was dirty and that there was a lot of bacteria in each cup of water. He also mentioned how some foods are like a medicine, protecting you from getting sick, such as some beef and fruit. One ingredient in this recipe that has medicinal qualities is the cooked fish. 

Hpong says that this dish is easy to make and that he will never forget how to make it. He enjoys serving it for guests when they come over for dinner. He still eats this dish just as often as he did when he lived in Myanmar.

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Kachin Chet

This recipe has been passed down from generations by word of mouth and because of that there are not specific measurements for the ingredients.

• Meat: Fish, Pork, Beef, or Chicken.
• Sour leaf -- can use Roselle leaf or bamboo shoot
• Garlic flower
• Pepper
• Chili pepper
• Salt
• Sesame powder
• Water- 150ml

1. Place all ingredients in a large pot.

2. Place pot on stovetop over medium heat until all water is gone.  

3. Serve hot. 

Trinity Meal Brings Community Together

Outreach intern Noelle Browne arrives at the Trinity United Methodist Community Meal. 

With a personality even bigger than his beard, Nate Paulk leaves just about everyone he meets with a big smile and an “I love you.”

Employed by the United Methodist Church two and half years ago to help bring life into a church with a dwindling congregation, he works to connect people of the community to one another and to the space. He’s helping turn the church back to the people who live in the community through programming -- and food.

Nate and Trinity United Methodist partnered with The Nashville Food Project two years ago for a community meal every Tuesday.  Rather than serving food from The Nashville Food Project trucks, though, this meal goes on tables family-style giving guests an opportunity to slow down and connect.

“There’s so much beauty in the ordinariness of getting together for dinner,” he says.

On a recent Tuesday, TNFP outreach intern Noelle Browne unloaded pans of chicken stir-fry with rice, green salad for our gardens and a berry crisp. Volunteers and community members pitched in to help put food on platters for passing at the table.

The dinner draws anywhere from 30 to 75 people each week. Most attendees are non-church members at Trinity but live nearby in an area that’s considered a food desert. Nate hopes to gather the group with staff from The Nashville Food Project and Community Food Advocates for a special meal on Tuesday, Dec. 15 to discuss ways to improve fresh food access in the area.

“I try to listen to people,” he says.

Leftover food is boxed up for those who pass through after dinner. 

Guest Chef Series: Lauren Moskovitz and Alex Grainger

Lauren Moskovitz of Miel and Alex Grainger of Silo work in kitchens across town from one another. Lauren specializes in baking as owner of her side business Little Mosko’s Bake Shop while Alex works more on the savory side as an executive chef. Alex moves swiftly and firmly while Lauren’s style feels a little more laid back. But despite their differences -- and maybe because of them -- they fit together in the kitchen like a cup of coffee and slice of pie.

“He usually starts something, and I finish it,” Lauren said. But Alex teased that it works another way: “She bosses me out of the kitchen.”

He paused to kiss her on the head as she whirled together herbs, vinegar, onion, garlic and mustards for a salad dressing. Though made from simple ingredients, the dressing also has special meaning to the couple. They created it together as part of their first meal cooking for Lauren’s family.

“We spent five hours making dinner for us four,” Alex said. “I love cooking for them. I love cooking for anyone.”

As guest chefs at The Nashville Food Project, the meal they would prepare had been chosen for them based on the produce and donations available for the week. But coincidentally, it closely matched one they had cooked together for the first time for family. A tomato sauce with chicken sausage over pasta followed the salad with a fruit crisp for dessert. “This is basically what we were doing,” Alex said. “It’s my favorite thing to cook.”

Of course the chefs would have much less time and fewer ingredients at the TNFP session -- two hours to cook dinner for 75. But these pros took no less care or pride in their work.

“We put a lot of love into our cooking,” he said.

Alex is originally from the Naples area of Florida, while Lauren grew up in Nashville. The daughter of Cindy and Scott Moskovitz, she spent her youth at the legendary Mosko’s and the Muncheonette formerly on Elliston Place.  

Lauren and Alex met at a bar in New York City. Alex had moved to Manhattan to work as a chef. They had no mutual friends at the time. “I had come back from traveling and was in New York for a visit,” Lauren said. “He was having an after-work beer before going home.”

After that first meeting, they didn't see each other for three months, but they talked every day long-distance until their first proper date.

Alex relocated to Nashville about four months ago and took the job at Silo. A month later, Lauren, who has been diagnosed with celiac disease, launched her Little Mosko’s Bake Shop, which specializes in high-quality, gluten-free treats.

“He’s my number one taste-tester,” she said.

They support each other in a hectic, hard-working industry and still take time to help others through their cooking. On the day they visited, Alex slipped away from Silo while Lauren had been up baking for events until 2 a.m. 

As they handed over their meal to the truck team, Marilyn Lane, one of the volunteers who delivers to John Glenn residential center each week, pulled the couple aside. She knows the cooks often work behind-the-scenes, and she wanted them to know how much the residents appreciate the meal.

“We get the hugs and thank yous,” she said.

Which prompted Lauren to boss Alex in the best possible way.

“Hug her,” she said, nudging him toward Marilyn. “Transfer the love.” 

Healing is Impossible in Loneliness

TNFP's most outstanding volunteers at this year's Volunteer Appreciation Celebration

One of the things I love about The Nashville Food Project is that it’s a place people want to be. And in the true spirit of “project,” our work is active and evolving and involves many people. I am so grateful to you, our volunteers for participating this grand experiment—holding each other accountable on your trucks teams, leading your groups in the gardens, and making creative decisions during regular volunteering in the kitchen. Through all of this, we are learning to share life.

So many times over the last six and a half years, I’ve heard from our volunteers that they get more out of this work than the "people we serve.” And this is where the waters become muddied about The Nashville Food Project – who do we serve? We are for all people. And while we are serving one another, we understand not only more about the other, but more about ourselves as well.

In a commencement address called “Thoughts of a Free Thinker,” Kurt Vonnegut offered these words about community and sharing life:

“What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.”

Yes. This world is too damn big for people to be lonely. And the undercurrents of pain and heartache we all carry with us disintegrate the relationships on which our entire lives are built. We received a Facebook comment this week, acknowledging The Nashville Food Project as an organization involved in “lifting up the human spirit, one person at a time.” Our hope is that the work we engage in together lifts lives, builds community, transforms pain, and heals the body, mind and spirit of everyone who chooses to be involved.

The Kentucky poet Wendell Berry reminds us in his essay "The Body and the Earth" that “healing is impossible in loneliness; it is the opposite of loneliness….” Being with you and doing the work of The Nashville Food Project has cured many lonely days over my last six plus years of being involved. And so for you and for this work, I am ever grateful.

Grace and peace,

PS: For those in a listening mood! Our staff enjoyed this interview with john a. powell on On Being with Krista Tippett. Powell is a faculty member at University of California at Berkeley and the author of Racing to Justice: Transforming our Concepts of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society. Powell reminds us in this interview, “The human condition is one about belonging. We simply cannot thrive unless we are in relationship… If you’re isolated, the negative health condition is worse than smoking, obesity, high blood pressure – just being isolated. So we need to be in relationship.” Hope you’ll have a listen!

Thank You, Volunteers!

A few of the many volunteers we celebrate posed for a photo at the Volunteer Celebration. 

At our annual Volunteer Celebration in October, we recognized some of the individuals who show up regularly to chop potatoes, weed the garden, cook and deliver food on our trucks. But as Executive Director Tallu Schuyler Quinn reminded us, the work is far from a singular effort. We’re all in this together as a connected team to help make the mission happen. 

At TNFP, results translate into people being fed through the thousands of meals served each month as well as the camaraderie and sharing that comes back to those who give.

“I want to give for sure,” says Marirae Mathis, a volunteer recognized for her dedication to the kitchen. “But I feel like I’m getting so much more out of it than what I’m giving.” 

Marirae Mathis accepting her award from Associate Director Malinda Hersh. 

The exchange of giving and receiving was a common theme among those recognizable faces that come to TNFP. Marirae started as a truck volunteer but knew as a trained chef, her strengths would lead her to the kitchen. She makes a meal every Friday with Joyce Jones.

Meanwhile, volunteer Doug Tommie, has kept the truck rolling. Having been a volunteer for eight years, he has seen TNFP evolve to serve higher quality, hot meals at less expense. He acknowledges that the line between those being served and serving remains blurred.

Doug holds up the parting gifts for all volunteers: Chipotle gift cards and herbal teas made by staff.  

“They get a meal that sustains them for a night. But I get something here,” he said patting his heart, “that lasts longer.”  

Guests mingled during lunch provided by TNFP corporate partner, Chipotle. 

Then during the awards ceremony that followed, several groups, too, were recognized such as Friends Life.  The nonprofit dedicated to serving the needs of adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities has been a regular participate at the Wedgewood Urban Garden. The group's energy charged the room with enthusiasm. 

“It was so exciting for the Friends to learn just how appreciated they are and remember how fortunate they are. It was also a good opportunity for us to show the Friends just how much effort goes into making sure people have the nourishment they need to make it through the day,” says Jennifer Rosenberg, program specialist for Friends Life.

Other groups recognized for their work included Media Star as well as board member Judy Wright's cook team for their loyal participation and creativity. Over the years, they've added popular dishes to TNFP repertoire such as Judy's Mother's Meatloaf and Chicken Pot Pie. 

Judy Wright accepts her team's award from Tallu Schuyler Quinn.

“I grew up in a house where we had 10 for dinner at a minimum,” Judy said.

But she still appreciates that those in her group continue to learn from their experiences at The Nashville Food Project while also enjoying the camaraderie and resourcefulness of the work

“I love thinking about the people who are going to eat the food,” she says. “And everybody coming to the table.” 

Here is a full list of volunteers recognized at this year's celebration.

Top Ten volunteers based on Sept 2014 through Sept 2015:

Volunteering at least 100 hours: Linda Bodfish, Jackie Jones, Marirae Mathias, Joyce Jones and Julie Blackwell

Volunteering at least 200 hours: Mary Dionne, Ann Fundis and Warren White

Volunteering at least 300 hours: Chester Higgins and Marilyn Lane

The 10 people listed above gave a combined total of 2,186 hours. When all volunteer hours in all programs were calculated for the first eight months of 2015, we have 4,401 volunteers generating 10,749 hours. 

Also recognized: 

Outstanding Cook Team - Judy Wright and Friends

Outstanding Community Partner - Woodmont Christian Church

Outstanding Garden Group - Friends Life

Outstanding Intern - Abbie Tourbe-Tolon

Behind-the-Scenes Volunteer - Karen Rolen

Individuals who have served with us 5 years or longer: 

Stacy Andrick
Margot Baeder
Barbara Ball
Rob Barrick
Albert Bart
Billy Bird
Lady Bird
George Burke
Brenda Ellis
Hope Hodnett
Berry Holt
Elizabeth James
Joyce Jones
Butch Lewis

Viki Matson
Sara Martin-Michels
Nealya Parish
Bill Peerman
Gordon Peerman
Lisa Peerman
Ann Pla
Toni Rodgers
Thom Schuyler
Michael Sheridan
Doug Tommie
Judy Wright

Garden Spotlight: McGruder Community Garden

When Garden Coordinator Kia Brown arrived at the McGruder Community Garden on a recent morning, it didn’t take long for her to spot a couple new raspberries hanging from a vine near the garden’s front gate.

“That’s so exciting,” she said, taking a closer look. “I come in here and learn something new every day.” 

Kia has been overseeing the McGruder garden located in North Nashville since June. She checks on the 24 plots for individuals and groups and holds monthly garden trainings to teach growers about proper harvesting, planting for the time of year and soil care.

“I need to let Ms. Gloria know,” she said, pointing out another new development -- a green pepper that would soon need to be picked.

While McGruder Garden doesn’t act as a production garden for The Nashville Food Project, it certainly fits with TNFP mission to bring people together to grow and share nourishing food. The garden helps cultivate community and provides access to healthy produce.

In addition to trainings, Kia hosts garden work days and helps an after school program through the 14th Avenue Missionary Baptist Church care for a community raised beds planted for any passersby who have a need for fresh produce. 

Next year she plans to implement a recruiting effort that will go to neighborhood churches and community centers to bring in new plot holders. She’s helping maintain an orchard of pear and nectarine trees next to the garden plots, and she looks after the community herb garden (which is flowering this time as year) as well as compost and leaf collection bins. 

Plot holders have been collecting the last of their cherry tomatoes and peppers. Next up they will have lettuces and roots such as turnips, carrots, kale, radishes and collards. 

Kia helps maintain the garden through a grant from United Way, and she says her main focus is to help prepare those who grow here to work these plots independently.

"We want to share," she says, "as much information and knowledge about growing food as possible."

Guest Chef Series: Vivek Surti

Vivek Surti might not have a formal culinary education, but he’s no doubt a fixture on the Nashville food scene. He made a name for himself hosting inventive pop-up dinners through his VEA Supper Club, and he can always drop some helpful knowledge about the newest restaurants in town.  Beyond food, he’s often the nicest guy in the kitchen or dining room.

So when we asked if he would visit our kitchen as a guest chef, of course he showed up ready to work with his love of fresh ingredients and spice.

Vivek’s parents came to the United States from India, rooting Vivek’s cooking style in that lineage. “Indian techniques and flavors are the ones that I know and am comfortable with,” he says. “So obviously, I reach for spices when I cook.”

When presented with a pan of purple-streaked dragon beans from our garden at TNFP, he tossed them with onions and tomatoes to braise. He added a few handfuls of fresh basil and several shakes of fennel seed.

We also needed to stretch a sausage scramble dish to feed a few extra meal recipients, so with a quick "tap, tap" on the cutting board, he added vegetables for more nourishing flavor.

Vivek regularly collects fresh produce from his parents’ garden in Brentwood where they grow fresh tuvar beans, black-eyed peas, okra and tomatoes.

“I would say what's different about my cooking from traditional Indian cooking is I focus much more on lighter food,” he says. “A lot of Indian food is very rich, slow-cooked and hearty.”

While a traditional dish of chaat might be made with potatoes and chickpeas, Vivek goes for puffed grained, radishes, chiles and loads of fresh herbs. He often likes to have one cooked element of the meal paired with a raw, crunchy and acidic component. “It gives you the same experience of the dish,” he says, “but in a lighter, more refreshing way. As you're eating it, you feel good."  

At a recent pop-up brunch, for example, he prepared Indian-style fried chicken with a spicy and sweet tamarind paste and then piled on top a salad of crunchy radish, cucumber and fresh cilantro.

But even with his Indian influences, Vivek didn’t learn to cook at his mother’s elbow. He learned as an adult by watching Food TV.

“I came home from college for Christmas break,” he says. “Everybody in the family had been traveling all day, and I was on college time. I didn’t go to sleep until 3 a.m. I was just watching TV, scrolling through a bunch of channels, and Emeril Live was on.”

Vivek wanted to replicate Emeril’s tomato soup and grilled cheese with mascarpone, chives and cream cheese. He asked his mother the following morning if she could add it to their menu.

“My mom during Christmas, she’s very methodical. Thursday breakfast, Thursday lunch, Thursday snack, Thursday dinner…” he said. “So this was kind of messing up her schedule a little bit. She said ‘You can do that. Don’t make a mess in the kitchen.’”

Vivek and three of his cousins went to Kroger and spent the next several hours making the dish. “Now it’s one thing we make every Christmas,” he says.

As marketing director for the Nashville Wine Auction, Vivek has a soft spot for nonprofits. The organization raises approximately $1.2 million a year for cancer research, mostly through its signature event L’Ete du Vin. But at 30, Vivek also has been helping promote trips and events like Pairings that are more accessible to a younger crowd. The role also ties back to food, of course, as it has helped him broaden his palate during his two and half years with the organization.

He will continue with the pop-up dinners, too, offering his Indian-style fried chicken at Hattie B’s this weekend. (Details and full menu at here.)

At The Nashville Food Project kitchen, he finished his work before heading back to his full-time job with a dressing for lettuces from the garden. The room swelled with the aromas of fresh and earthy spice.

“What is that?” an employee asked, breezing through the kitchen.

A sausage scramble, side of dragon beans and salad, he said, "with a few Vivek touches."

Our Friend Elizabeth

Elizabeth Royster James
October, 9, 2015
 
It’s been just over a week since we lost one of our own, unexpectedly. We grieve the death of an incredible woman and long-time Nashville Food Project volunteer, Elizabeth Royster James. Elizabeth served on a monthly food truck with four friends from her beloved St. Augustine’s Chapel. She chopped vegetables in our prep room and enthusiastically supported our annual fundraising event, Nourish.
 
Rev. Becca Stevens spoke eloquently at Elizabeth’s funeral about her penchant for lavishly celebrating even the least of these—preparing beef tenderloin for Room in the Inn guests on Christmas Eve, wrapping up high-quality stationary and colorful pens for a Magdalene pen pal program for women in prison, and here at the food project, adorning every table with flowers and a table cloth for meals shared with homeless and indigent residents of Mercury Court on Murfreesboro Road.
 
Elizabeth literally shined. She was the warmest, most generous friend. She loved people and showed her love in extraordinary ways. She sent gifts through snail mail for no special occasion but the occasion of life. She liked her meat well-done and recorded her appointments in pencil in a gorgeous leather-bound date book. She was always praying for others and doing for others with kindness and joy. She was hilarious and lit up any room she walked into. She was an angel on this earth, and we will miss her terribly.
 
It will take a long time for those of us deeply grieving Elizabeth’s death to process this enormous loss in our lives and community. But I understand grief is a passage and not a place to stay. As we grieve and carry on, we at The Nashville Food Project will do many wonderful things in Elizabeth’s memory, guided by the indelible marks of her enormous love, contagious laughter and devoted life.

A Day in a Dozen: Harvest Hands

Today's "Day in a Dozen" highlights Harvest Hands, one of our partners. 

Harvest Hands works alongside neighbors in the Wedgewood-Houston area to further healthy living, education, spiritual formation and economic development. Young people from Harvest Hands visit our Wedgewood Urban Gardens, and we deliver to the group's community meal once a week. 

It all begins with prep teams like this one. Jackson National Life sponsors a day for employees who ready garden and gleaned ingredients for the cook teams.

Yesenia from Jackson National Life chops vegetables for the following day's chicken pot pies...

...while Amanda and Susannah slice honey cake gleaned from Whole Foods for dessert.

The cook team prepares the chicken pot pies and hands them off to the truck team.  

Meanwhile, children from Harvest Hands walk over from Vine Hill Community Center where the group meets to our Wedgewood Urban Gardens to learn. Here they are carrying Las Paletas compost bins to the compost pile and then covering it with hay. 

The children walk back to Vine Hill for dinner and a program...

...and when they arrive, the pot pies are warm and ready. Dinner is served!