On Thursday afternoon, Nov. 17, The Growing Experience and Long Beach-based beachgreens, a farm-to-door delivery service, sponsored the Fall Harvest Festival at the Carmelitos Community Garden and Nursery facilities, giving families a glimpse into an "eco-farm" environment, and the chance to participate in a number of interactive activities, including seed planting, scarecrow making, a scavenger hunt, garden and chicken coop tours and, to the delight of the children, a "run with the chickens."
click on image to enlarge
In addition, the festival participants learned about composting and no-dig gardening, and experienced a variety of culinary treats by eco-aware professional chefs who prepared some of their offerings with the garden's produce, and even some of the eggs from the resident hens.
Chef Michael Poompan, the resident chef of The Renaissance Hotel, used greens from the garden for a mixed salad. Chef Paul Buchanan, from Primal Alchemy, a catering company based in Long Beach, utilizes home-grown and farmer's market produce and the Carmelitos garden for special orders. And beginning in December, the Factory, a new eatery at 4020 Atlantic Ave. in Bixby Knolls, will add to the customer base at the community garden. All proceeds from sales go back into the program to purchase landscape supplies. About $5,000 is generated from the garden annually.
Since its inception in 1996, The Growing Experience has trained nearly 100 resident participants in the landscape training program through classroom and hands-on experience, and a number of graduates have moved from public housing, some going on to purchase their own homes. The program has been an invaluable opportunity for area youth to gain their first employment working in the summer youth program, while also learning team-building skills and basic work ethics. According to Jimmy Ng of The Growing Experience, 25 youth will soon start work at the Carmelitos garden.
The program has been recognized by the Ford Foundation and John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University as one of the most innovative programs in American Government.
The garden at Carmelitos is available for school and community group tours. For more information, contact Jimmy Ng at The Growing Experience at 562-984-2917 or e-mail at jng@lacdc.org.
Fall Harvest Festival Photo Gallery
More of Cindy Frye's Harvest Festival photos can be viewed in the following slideshow.
If you wish to see the photo captions, you can hover your mouse pointer over the picture or you can click on the first photo before starting the slideshow.
