One of my favorite memories as a child was watching my grandpa in his garden. I used to help him with the harvests and we would sit under the willow tree in the front yard and snap beans and shell peas. I learned a lot about life during the conversations that we had. I was so blessed to have someone sit and listen to my childhood ramblings for hours. I have a hard time doing that now. I really think our grandparents know that children inherit the Earth, so they take time to listen and less time to gossip. Since I have started gardening, I am reminded of the parable in the bible about planting seeds on good soil. To me, good soil is the faith and truth you put into it in order to yield a large harvest. We can apply the meaning of this parable to many different things. It truly does outline the image of total health. I hope to achieve this with people in my own neighborhood. I see this coming to fruition throughout many neighborhoods in my community.
One of the hardest tasks I encounter is trying to balance my professional life with my family life, but I really try to keep up with the haps in my own community. One project I have been looking at is Project Feed the Hood. They organize to help eliminate food deserts by engaging with communities through gardening and helping to build self-efficacy in low-income and diverse populations by providing the opportunity and the right to feed their families healthy meals without having to travel far or spend a lot of money for fruits and vegetables. In addition, providing food that you have worked to grow gives a person something to be proud of. They have an urban garden in the SE heights, a food desert near the air force base. They also have a garden in the Westgate area to provide the opportunity for those who live in an area that is not only a food desert, but face challenges planting their own gardens due to lack of space and sandy dry terrain. Another project with the same idea in mind is East Central Ministries. It is a micro-business in the International District to help the community through gardening and selling gardening products. You can find vegetable and herb plants and ollas at Whole Foods Market.
These are not the only places doing this. More and more people throughout the U.S. are developing areas to combat food insecurity. They do run into challenges like cost, lack of water, and property issues. In the next month many of us gardeners are going to see an increase in water use rates due to lack of revenue by the Water Utility Authority claiming that all the conservation efforts has backfired and now they are strapped for cash. I have faith that we will still meet these challenges and continue with these very important projects.
On to sweetness, blueberries are in season and I made something to celebrate their sweet and nutritious qualities and I didn’t have to add a whole lot of sweetener.
GF Blueberry Cobbler w/Lemon Cornmeal Topping
For the berries
5 cups blueberries
1/3 cup cane sugar
Juice from one lemon
1 tbls cornstarch
Mix all ingredients together and set aside to let juices macerate a little
For the cobbler
1 cup of cornmeal
½ cup brown rice flour
1/3 cup of tapioca starch
½ tsp salt
3 tbls sugar
Zest from one whole lemon
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp xantham gum
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk a little more or less, you could use any milk but use less
3 tbl melted butter
Mix dry ingredients and then mix wet ingredients. Combine wet ingredients with dry ingredients and mix until it is like a drop biscuit dough. Pour blueberries into a buttered 8x8 casserole dish or cast iron pan. Drop biscuit dough on top and put in a 325 degree oven for about 35-45 minutes. Crust will be a golden yellow and blueberries should have leaked their juices through some of the dough. *Note: You can probably use about 2 cups of regular flour for the gf flours.
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