The Bridge Urban Farms: Growing Food in the Bronx & East Harlem: Garden Progress

Most of the seeds that were directly sown into the Earth are growing but to speed up the process we purchased many seedlings, mostly of plants we have had success with in the past. So we are assured of another productive gardening season. We purchased beefsteak tomato, big boi tomato, red plum tomato, jalapeno pepper, parsley, basil, eggplant, stevia, sweet pepper, lettuce and celery. We also purchased ornamental flowers for the front yards at both sites. We bought black-eyed Susan, impatiens, sweet potato vine, hosta, marigold, coral bells tick seed, hydrangea, rose and coleus. We continue our yearly tradition of planting 6 ft. and 10 ft. sunflowers around the entire perimeter of the garden. Birds and squirrels are often seen eating the sunflower seeds from the head of the sunflower. We harvested our home wormbin for the 6th time and are preparing the work wormbin to be harvested for the 7th time in approximately 2 weeks. We decided to cook some of the plants that we are growing this season for lunch to sample what they taste like. Natalie and Jan cooked okra, beets, asparagus, artichoke with a dipping sauce and Johhny cooked cinnamon rolls. Everything tasted good. As things continue to grow and the sun shines longer during the day we are watering the plants regularly and weeding more frequently. We bought red cedar mulch to help keep the weeds down. The first plant that was harvested this season was mesclun lettuce which we prepared in a salad with tomato, cucumber, olives, Italian dressing, lemon juice and balsamic vinegar. It tasted good. The garden is progressing well. Goodbye.

-Rabbi Stacey Van Rossum