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Sacred Kolors: The Rise of Natural Indigo in West Baltimore

October 23, 2024November 7, 2024gotofarms 1 Comment

Bryan Wright, Diretor of Operations, on the site of the farm in Upton neighborhood. Seventy fruit trees were planted this spring to provide shade for the indigo through the assistance of the Baltimore Orchard Project

Today on a bright autumn day, in the heart of West Baltimore, Bryan Ibrafall Wright gives me a tour down rows of indigo plants, on a spongy path of wood chips. The plants are little shrubs, all green leaves about the size of a finger. Soon, they’ll be harvesting the branches and processing powder to produce indigo dye, the deep blue magical color that has captivated artisans for centuries. Jars of the precious powder are now available online at Sacred Kolors.

An introduction to gardens, weeds and groundhogs

July 18, 2024July 20, 2024gotofarms 5 Comments

I confess, I am not a farmer. Until now, I had not grown much more than a bunch of kale.

*The mighty groundhog poses for a picture* after feasting on the community gardens in Druid Hill Park. *I was looking for a just ripened tomato for a sandwich when I encountered him.*

Maybe you can tell, by Farm-finds, that I am in awe of farmers who nourish the earth, using the least harmful methods, those tough men and women who dig and seed and nourish the earth with their smart ways. And bottom line, I love to eat local food– like the luscious white peaches, heirloom tomatoes and plump blackberries, whose tastes that defy poetry. The closer I get to the source of the food, the more local, down to the dirt, the better it is. All thanks to the farmers whom I know.

I have been into the beauty of the cultivated land, not the hands-on, dirt-digging, chicken shit spreading, weed pulling gardening. That is, until this spring, when my friend Rob, renowned for his heirloom tomato crops, recruited me to help in his garden. Rob’s book, Raising Kids and Tomatoes, is full of wonderful anecdotes that made it all sound fun and delicious. Plus I am a recent convert to tomatoes, owing to a tomato sandwich, made with a Cherokee Purple from his garden last year.

Since he had back surgery, he needed someone to help plant and weed. I took the challenge and the chance to learn in depth about gardening, from the ground up. Was this a Tom Sawyer scheme?

*Trying to support the overbearing tomato plant*

Rob had a plot that he had heard about from our mutual friend Stephanie a few years ago–a space about the size of a pickleball court in the Druid Hill City Farm that he rents for $35 a year from the city in Druid Hill Park. You won’t find a more dedicated, ethical group than these urban farmers.

One of 80 in the park, each plot has access to water, wood chips, pathways–and weeds.

*A view of the community garden at Druid Hill*

I helped out with planting the seeds under a grow light and nurturing them to hardy plants to put into the soil, with a dollop of fertilizer and compost. The seeds of Heirloom Brandywine, Glacier and Cherokee Purple were dropped in holes.

May: tomatoes are growing furiously

By May, the plants were robust and healthy. To support the unwieldy growth, we placed the bushy plants in cages and staked the bold branches that were growing overburdened with little green globes. In exchange for my help, I got to plant flowers-- columbine, bells of Ireland, marigolds and beebalm along with the old standby--zinnia.

A week ago, the garden was looking good. Clusters of tomatoes had popped out, a smudge of pink on the curve, ready to redden with a bit more sun. Cucumbers, as big as baby baseball bats, lay in pleasant slumber growing under the vines. Basil was high as my thumb.

July: Weeds and groundhogs invade

But like a bad omen on the flower front, my flowers were struggling in a mass of weeds to survive. Cosmos, which I thought, would almost grow automatically if you put the seeds in the ground, were overwhelmed. The last of the marigolds which sported big yellow pompoms like corsages on stems were nibbled to the ground. And only one columbine out of the 40 seeds planted survived. Not a great record, one out of 40. The tomatoes, however, were low hanging fruit, ready to pluck in a few days.

Upon return from a 4th of July vacation, I was craving that tomato sandwich. I thought the tomatoes would be ready.

OMG! the tomatoes that were hanging in those inviting clusters had disappeared. A few shards of tomatoes were at the bottom with bites taken out.

I was furious at who and what could have stolen these gems. How how could a critter have gotten to the top of the plant? Had a human being stolen them?

Vanishing plants

According to Rob, there is a powerful ethic at the gardens. The urban gardeners don’t take any fruit or vegetables from one another, not even a strawberry. Everyone appreciates the sweat and muscle ache of gardening to harvest. More likely, judging from the size of the bites and the numbers of bitten green tomatoes on the ground, a ground hog was on the loose, as was the case last year.

It is so discouraging! What is the point if we are just feeding the ground hog?

Word of the invasion soon spread that day, and fellow gardeners sprang into action. A burrow, probably home to a whole family of the critters, was located and a strategy was hatched to set a trap. True to their strong sense of ethics, someone would be checking the trap every day so the culprit could be freed in woods far away from our tomatoes and other inviting delicacies. I wasn’t feeling so kind; I could have kicked it to the moon. Striding through the plots and observing other bitten fruits, Julia, the director, in well-worn overalls, suggested other ideas; bright whirley gigs can scare them off, she said. Also she may bring in some used kitty litter to line along the borders; groundhogs don’t like its smell.

Did we mind the kitty litter? she asked.

Not at all. Anything to stop the rampage.

All this action was encouraging but it didn’t bring back the tomatoes.

Taking action to defeat the groundhog

Looking over the garden-jungle, I was so depressed. i sat on a weed-covered mound and stared at the jungular grass mass, tight as a rug, that had replaced the cosmos. Weeds were now up to my knees. They could cover the world!

Are you discouraged? I asked Rob. He was glum, sitting on a stool pulling up weeds around the ravaged tomato plants. In vengeance, I attacked the stubborn things with a hoe and piled them into the wheelbarrow. The sweat poured down my face, the dirt lodged under my nubbed down fingernails as I dug out the roots and shook out the soil and dropped weeds in the wheelbarrow to cart to the compost pile.

Within the hour, I sowed 25 Cosmos seeds in the bare square of soil. Hope springs eternal.

In that action, replanting, I built my hopes back up, that this time the seeds would survive and we would rescue the seedlings before they could succumb to any critters, drought or weeds. The marigolds were gone, cosmos mowed down, but — the zinnia were flourishing in such a undaunted display of bright pink, orange and yellow it renewed my spirit.

There were still some green tomatoes left to ripen. I collected enough basil for pesto, and four cucumbers, for a sandwich or cold soup.

*Mayo, plus onion and thinly sliced cuke is good, but not as good as the tomato version!*~

Three days later. . . I went out to the garden to cut some zinnias for a friend. The tomato plants, bending with the weight of green fruit, were towering over the trap, set up by a neighboring gardener. There was the culprit groundhog, round as a basketball, appearing to lick his mouth after his feast, in the cage. He looked up at me, as if to say, thanks for all the great tomatoes. Around him, I assessed more damage:tomatoes with tiny bites taken out. He must have had a feast before the cage door shut.

I called Rob, who then notified Julia, who will make sure he finds a happy home away from the garden before the day is over.

It's  only a matter of a few days before those green gems ripen and I have my tomato sandwich; the Cherokee Purple, on textured white bread slathered with Duke's.

Groundhog trapped, at least for a day

On my way out, I announce triumphantly to a toiling neighbor-gardener that we had caught the groundhog. In his plot, he was surveying cabbage which the groundhog had dined on earlier, maybe as an appetizer. I thought he’d be happier about the news. He’s experienced, persistent as the critters and the weeds, as you have to be in this business.

He said he had a garden in the Shenandoah Valley a few years ago. He trapped two groundhogs and took them five miles away to another place way up in the mountains in the woods.

“The next day both were back,” he said, turning back to weeding.

*Tomatoes ready to ripen–without the groundhog*

Sacred Kolors: The Rise of Natural Indigo in West Baltimore
An inner city farm is growing all organic indigo. This could be a replacement for the toxic indigo in your jeans
A visit to charming La Torre Tolfe in Tuscany
Mania Castelli is involved in every aspect of La Torre Tolfe: wine-making, olive oil, restaurant, hotel. She’s using all organic, regenerative methods to keep up the farm in Tuscany.
Discovering wine, olive oil and pasta on a Tuscany farm
We drive up a narrowing road to the farm where we are staying at la Torre alle Tolfe, which dates back to the 8th century. In the center is a watch tower, built by a knight of Charlemagne’s to defend the city of Siena, 3 km away. Now it’s a 50-hectare farm, with quarters for … Continue reading Discovering wine, olive oil and pasta on a Tuscany farm →
An introduction to gardens, weeds and groundhogs
I was recruited to help a friend at city gardens. Facing weeds and groundhogs, I learned some hard lessons about the grit and sweat it takes to farm
Daylesford: organic to the max
Lady Carole Bamford, wife of Anthony Bamford, has transformed a 1500-acre farm in the Cotswolds into a thriving organic empire. With products ranging from high-end housewares to organic food, Bamford’s farm promotes sustainability and mindfulness. Despite the high prices, her commitment to organic farming and environmental consciousness is evident. The farm stands as a successful model for organic enterprises.

Baltimore Orchard Project celebrates a new mural and apple harvest

October 19, 2023October 26, 2023gotofarms Leave a comment

*Artist Teresa Hammann at work on the mural she created for the Baltimore Orchard Project*

by Jonathan Simpson

Guest writer

The Baltimore Orchard Project (BOP) celebrate a unique new mural that was painted on the road near the BOP orchard in the city’s Druid Hill Park. The artist is Teresa Hammann, a graduate of Maryland Institute College of Art, who painted the scene this summer. The mural features sunflowers, trees with pears and other fruits, a Baltimore oriole and a block tagged with Baltimore Orchard Project.

While Hammann is the main artist, she took suggestions from bystanders on what to include in the mural itself. So it feels like not only her work but the work of the community as well. “As people were walking by, they would say, “you should add this’, or ‘you should add that,’” Hammann recalled.

So, it isn’t just Hammann’s creation, but it is also the community that was involved in a way. On Sunday, October 22, Hammann opened the mural up to let the community will “help finish the work”, by adding more flowers and details using stencils, said Forest Fleischer, co-president of the Baltimore Orchard Project.

The mural at Druid Hill Park, on Red Road near the soccer field and adjoining the community garden, was celebrated There were tool sharpening classes, apples, cider-making in addition to the mural work.

The event is one of many BOP projects to find and promote sources of healthy food in the city. Healthy food is a necessity for all, the project states, but not everyone gets to access it, especially people in poor communities where food deserts are common, and the people there don’t always have the knowledge or resources to grow their own food. The Baltimore Orchard Project, which began in 2012, is doing its part to help change the food disparities in Baltimore City, with a group of members dedicated to education and finding economical sources of food to share. In September members harvested 709 pounds of apples from an orchard located on the grounds of Baltimore Country Club to share with those in need.

“We educate people of the existing fruit trees and orchards in the city. We also look to expand on those fruit trees. So, if people already have an orchard, they want to add more or maybe they want to establish one on their own on their own, and we’ll help them do that,” said Fleischer.

Fleischer, who grew up on a farm in Carroll County, found BOP offered her the opportunity “to experience more nature and the outdoors part of Baltimore, and that’s really helped me to get involved here,” she added. “We are in this green space and even though our focus is fruit trees, it is still important to add to the green spaces in Baltimore.”

It helps that the project is located in Druid Hill Park, the 745-acre park developed by Frederick Olmstead, the creator of Central Park. In a grassy plain, the group holds meetings and events ranging from how to take better care of garden tools to tree planting.

The orchard features beautiful fruit trees, which the group planted two years ago. The trees are beginning to bear fruit, including apples, berries, and pears.

A view of the fruit trees at Druid Hill *(photo by Jonathan Simpson)*

Fenced off near those trees is a flourishing community garden where urban dwellers can plant fruit and vegetables. It’s quite a sight to see and if you keep on walking around the campus there are various fields for soccer, baseball, and tennis with a tennis court right across from the park headquarters building. It’s a great place to take a walk, sit and walk by the fruit trees or play sports nearby.

Note: I’m honored to have been named a board member for Baltimore Orchard Project recently. I think it’s a great cause; I’m really into more trees and more nature, especially in areas that haven’t been served in the city.

I’ll be helping with the apple cider press Sunday for the “InCider” event which reminds me of cool fall days growing up when we gathered all the apples that had fallen on the ground in baskets. We’d wash them in a big tin tub, then throw a mix of red and green apples into the mill, along with a few yellow jackets, to produce this amazing aromatic golden drink.

It’ll be fun and delicious at the park so come Sunday if you are anywhere nearby.

Lavinia

Mulberry Alert

June 13, 2023June 13, 2023gotofarms 1 Comment

Mulberry Alert: It’s mulberry season– the time of year you can find berries splat on the street and cars–and best, smack in your mouth.

I’ve been checking out mulberries in my neighborhood in keeping with Mulberry Madness, an annual event sponsored by the Baltimore Orchard Project (BOP) to boost mulberries as an urban food source.

Since I’ve been investigating, I see the trees everywhere in the city, especially in Wyman Park and the 170-year-old Stone Hill neighborhood. If you don’t know where they are, look for the tell-tale signs deep purple and red splotches on the street, or on the cars. But don’t let the stains put you off. They are the source of some transformative childhood memories and nutrition rivalling blueberries.

*Passing up a natural harvest of mulberries on the street in Stone Hill neighborhood*

Mulberry memories

Nina Cardin, founder of the Baltimore Orchard Project (BOP) described how she harvested mulberries recently with two of her grandchildren. First, she gathers the materials: the sheets (to catch the mulberries), the tins (to put them in), the picker (to shake and gently beat the tree with).

They go to the tree, she writes poetically in an email, “and lay the sheets under the most promising branches, as if setting a table or arranging a bed. Then approaching the tree and in a way, asking permission to harvest, we shake the branches! the little one grabs the lower branches and shakes; the bigger one takes this special shaking stick that someone from the BOP made for me! And then the real fun begins – the berries drop like rain, all around us. They love the power they have, the connection with the tree, the bounty that falls at their feet. It is pure joy.”

Food writer Rob Kasper recalls a childhood encounter with mulberries on the way to the ball field with his rag tag baseball team. “As a boy of 10 I would climb a trio of mulberry trees that stood in a park near a baseball field. En route to a loosely organized pickup game, we ballplayers—a collection of brothers, cousins and neighborhood kids—would toss down our gloves and bats and scale the trees.

“We quickly learned to hunt for the darkest berries, discarding the tart white and red ones, fingering the dark mealy orbs and popping them into our mouths.

“Later in life I would discover deeper pleasures—the piercingly delightful taste of raspberries, low-bush blueberries and Oregon huckleberries. But as a kid, perched in a tree, shaded from the summer sun and feasting on found fruit, the mulberries seemed like treasure.”

Growing up, we feasted on a mulberry tree in the driveway of my friend Paula’s house. We dined on mulberries for a treat before going out to explore the neighborhood.

(Send your mulberry memories to the comment section below)

My friend Joyce is not so romantic about the fruit: when she first moved to Baltimore, she planted a tree in the fall to enhance the backyard. By spring, the tree was thriving. She set up a sandpile under the shade of the tree for her toddler daughter, who she dressed up to play in some pretty white pants with a new little t-shirt. When her daughter came in from playing, the pants were stained from cuff to waist in bright purple. That was how Joyce discovered she had planted a mulberry tree.

Admittedly, the mulberry has gotten a bad rap, sometimes deserving. It stains clothes, patios, cars and whatever it falls upon. Deb Howard, one of BOPs advocates, promotes the mulberry and service berries as little known, even disrespected, fruit that deserves a second bite. She eats mulberries in waffles. “It’s great to mix in yoghurt. My whole family loves mulberries.”

According to Healthline, the mulberry is an antioxidant and a great source of Vitamin C and iron, plus K & E, and other vitamins. The mulberry tree gained prominence in China for its leaves, which were the only food the silkworm would eat.

Mulberry Madness

This month volunteers are foraging for the berries from the streets and parks of Baltimore, bringing in this ignored fruit into the everyday diet of Baltimore citizens.

*Volunteers from Gertrude’s restaurant harvest mulberries in Druid Hill park and around the city. Gertrude’s is making a delectable lemon ricotta pancake to be sold at Waverly Market .*

They will collect a total of about 40-50 pounds. These are distributed to vendors as raw material for whatever delectable food they can make. Atwater’s makes mulberry jam. and Gertrude’s will create lemon ricotta pancakes with mulberries, which will be available for sale at the Waverly Farmers’ Market in Baltimore Saturday, June 17 for culmination of Mulberry Madness. There will also be mulberry soap and mulberry muffins.

Baltimore Orchard Project: increasing trees and fruit in the city

Besides promoting mulberries, the Baltimore Orchard Project has planted over 2,000 fruit trees since 2013 with the help of volunteers and the expertise and resources of the Baltimore Tree project. Cardin came up with the idea of planting fruit trees in neighborhoods that lacked access to fresh food, while she was in Boston when her husband was on sabbatical at Harvard in 2013.

” I kept reading about food deserts, community dissolution and the need to craft community cohesiveness. What can connect all this? It all pointed to fruit trees. I decided to start an organization to plant and harvest fruit trees in food deserts and vacant lots in Baltimore,” Cardin says.

The project has been doing its share to increase the tree canopy in the city, which has as its goal to increase the tree canopy by 40 percent by 2037. At the same time, the fruit trees provide a source of fresh fruit in food deserts. According to BOP, one in four Baltimore City residents live in a food desert, with limited access to fresh food.

Rather than planting a large orchard, the Baltimore Orchard Project is working on a small scale to offer individual homeowners a kind of tree kit, the Home Orchard Project (conveniently acronymed HOP), which includes a fruit tree, two blueberry bushes and perennials. HOP will plant in pre-approved neighborhoods.

Two years ago, next to the community garden in Druid Hill park, the group created an orchard of 20 fruit trees to use as a model for pruning and other kinds of workshop to demonstrate to urban tree growers how to care for their fruit trees. Volunteers worked with Tree Baltimore, which provided the trees: fig, persimmon, apple and pear. On a recent visit with Deb Howard, former president of BOP, the 2-year-old trees looked healthy, fresh and green. Wire fences surrounding each tree keep the deer out, native wildflowers are planted to keep the weeds and a device Deb calls “tree diapers,” plastic covering the roots under the mulch, keeps the moisture in.

*Deb Howard shows one of the healthy fruit trees in the orchard at Druid Hill*

“We planted this orchard to host pruning events so people could come and take the skills back,” says Deb.

Back on a walk from the park, through Stone Hill, my feet are squishing hundreds of mulberries. The berries are covering the SUVs and the street with deep purple dots. Maybe, some say, urban blight. I say it is urban delight. I savor the ripest one, nearly black, sweet and free.

*My mulberry, ready to pick at the entrance to Stony Run, entrance Keswick and 30th street. Note the huge mulberry tree to the right.* *Many mulberries are in easy picking distance of Baltimore City homes.*

Plantation Park Heights: Oasis in the Middle of a Baltimore City Food Desert

January 16, 2023January 16, 2023gotofarms 3 Comments

By Ayotomi Akinlosotu-Williams

with Lavinia Edmunds

Note I asked my students to go out and find stories on farming in the Baltimore area. Ayotomi AkinlosotuWilliams, who took most of these photos unless otherwise designated, discovered this farm in the heart of a Baltimore City food desert in the fall. I visited this week. It is changing the way children eat, cook and farm.

As you enter the alley from around the corner, you hear the soft clucking of chickens which first indicate the presence of the farm. Occasionally in the mornings, a rooster crows. The brown and gray hues of the city slowly yield to the bright greens of foliage, and you are suddenly on a working farm in the middle of Baltimore city, Plantation Park Heights, established almost 10 years ago, has remained an iconic staple in the neighborhood.

*Townhomes overlook the garden, here in October*

Entrance to the farm from the street leading to garden boxes, pictured here this month.

The farm brings together people of all backgrounds and ages, from its school-age volunteers to Wes Moore, who visited the farm as he was running for governor this election season.

“I’ll be sitting around a table with someone who’s a professor, someone who’s an immigrant from the Caribbean or something, and a 9 year old who’s lived in Baltimore his whole life,” said Scott, a volunteer at the farm since last September. He and the other volunteers sat in a circle inside the greenhouse, enjoying conversation as they waited for their boss to arrive.

Scott described the farm as a “melting pot”, and compared it to his understanding of Martin Luther King’s dream. “We can all sit together, no one’s considering skin color or where someone’s from,” he said.

The harvesting season begins early spring. Seedlings are placed in black trays in the greenhouse. Lettuce, kale, and other plants that thrive in cold weather are planted in black trays in the greenhouse as tiny seedlings. They remain there all throughout spring and summer, until they are ready to be transported outside and into the ground. There is no cold storage on the farm, so once grown, the crops are harvested and cleaned for farmer’s markets to pick up and sell before each plant’s individual market begins. This process is different from that of a larger, more industrialized farm that would harvest everything atone point.

This farm in particular takes pride in variety, from indigo flowers and bananas to crops like okra and kale.

*Banana tree and other exotic plants thrive next to staples like kale and potatoes.*

One volunteer joked, “If it could be grown in Baltimore, Chippy’s probably tried it,” referring to the founder and director of the farm. “If it can’t be grown in Baltimore, he’s probably still tried it.”

*Farmer Chippy is the leader of the farm* (Photo by Lavinia Edmunds)

Richard Francis, better known as Farmer Chippy provides the inspiration for the grassroots efforts. “As a biomedical field service engineer my travels took me to amazing places with fun people and great food but the daily experience in hospitals, clinics and urgent care facilities continued to be disturbing,. . . . I had a burning desire to explore options that promoted a healthier quality of life for our youngest citizens,” said Farmer Chippy.

“I hope to be the engineer/farmer that popularizes the benefits of conventional medicine while exploring potential new research that brings cleaner, greener food close to less fortunate communities in Baltimore.”

On a visit in January, Farmer Chippy was checking in at the farm which even in the stark winter had la ot going on. Winter is the farmers spring, after all. The farm is adding 55 more boxes for growing more flowers and vegetables. A cluster of men were working on fixing a motor, while volunteers were handing out fresh food boxes; about 50 neighborhood residents in need of food lined up for a fresh vegetable drive-through that occurs each Thursday. Each box contains beets, potatos, apple ,cabbage and greens, all fresh and organic.

Farmer Chippy has carved out his own niche in the farming community. He just returned from a farmers’ organizational meeting in Puerto Rico where he brought seven student farmers to represent the only urban garden at the nationwide meeting of farmers. He says his farm can be a model for other urban communities in need of access to fresh food and nutrition. They make money selling produce in the spring, summer and fall, at three city farmers markets.

The farm’s next venture may be cannabis once legalization takes place. “It’s a gray area right now, but we’re trying to get things in place so that when recreational stuff is all legal we can hit the ground running,” Scott said

Besides growing crops, the farm seeks to educate city folk on expanding their palates for healthy food.

Tiara Matthews , a volunteer who has been working at the farm for eight years, sets up the food demos. Students learn how to make dinner through the demo, then they get the ingredients fresh from the farm and the recipe to take home and make the meal with their parents or grandparents. Today’s dish featured collards, eggs, potatoes and lavender.

To make the farm work, you have to have dedicated people and have to have funding and support, said Matthews. “We have a lot of youth support. Everyone lives around here. And they like to hang out here,” she added.

*Tiara Matthews has been volunteering at the farm for 8 years* (by Lavinia Edmunds

Farmer Chippy is not into corporate sponsorship but has received grants from sources as diverse as Rite-Aid and the Baltimore Community Fund. “We have our own capacity. We move around on our own dime,” he commented. Most of the money comes from sales to farmers markets.

Recently the farm received a grant to support agriculture curriculum in five city schools. Students will learn how to grow, harvest and market nutrient-dense food. Farmer Chippy points out the farm is one of ten selected by the American Farmers Bureau Federation as the one of the top ten innovative farms in the country.