Greetings!

Note from Kate: Out of Town, but in Good Hands

I am going to be out of town for about 10 days at two gatherings/conferences. My phone service will be limited and my computer access almost nonexistent. The student gardeners will be running the show, from thorough instructions I leave behind, with some oversight from Ryan and cheer-leading from S. Phyllis. All will be well. Be in touch as needed and    

My first adventure will be with summer gardener Emily Reimer. We are traveling this weekend to Milwaukee, Wis., for the Growing Power Farm Conference. Growing Power is "a national nonprofit organization and land trust supporting people from diverse backgrounds, and the environments in which they live, by helping to provide equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe and affordable food for people in all communities." The conference will bring together several thousand farmers, community organizers and environmental educators from across the country.

And second, I'll be traveling to New Hope Catholic Worker Farm outside of Dubuque, Iowa, for a week of farm work coupled with prayer and conversation on technology and its place in our lives. Stay tuned for reflections and learnings from both gatherings.

An Urban Garden Revitalizing New Orleans  

The first full week of last March brought spring break to the College of Saint Benedict / Saint John's University and departure of over 100 students and staff on 12 service immersion trips across the country and Central America. I (Kate Ritger) traveled with 10 Bennies to New Orleans to participate in the on-going hurricane relief work there.   While Hurricane Katrina ravaged through the city six and half years ago on August 23, 2005, the city's inhabitants, particularly in lower income neighborhoods, feel its destruction on a daily basis.

We painted the exterior of a house for a woman who received assistance from Rebuilding Together to renovate her home after six feet of water flooded her raised "shotgun" style home. After four days of scraping, washing, taping, priming, painting, painting again, and touching up, the house and porch were complete and the home owner was proud to claim the space as her home. On our fifth day in the city, our hosts from  United Saints, another recovery program in New Orleans, took us through the city on a "social justice tour" that ended in the Lower 9th Ward at an unexpected destination, a community garden.

Before Hurricane Katrina, the Lower 9th Ward was home to roughly 18,000 people, had the highest rate of poverty in the city and simultaneously the highest percentage of African-American homeowners in the country. Now, in 2012 roughly 2,500 people have returned to this neighborhood that resembles more of a jungle, in which thousands of lots remain vacant, homes washed right off their foundations, and hundreds more are neglected and overgrown.

As people struggle to reclaim their systematically destroyed homes, schools, communities, and land, a community garden has brought hope and a reason to stay in the Lower 9th Ward.   The garden is named  Our School at Blair Grocery (OSBG); it is "an independent community school for at-risk local youth, a sustainability education center for local and national groups of students and young adults, and a productive urban farm operating out of the old Blair family grocery store." In the early 1950s the Blair family opened a community grocery store, one of only a few in the neighborhood, and they raised their six children who are now all successful and the pride of the community. This site continues to raise young people who are the pride of the community.

Young people in the neighborhood need something productive to do and someplace safe to be. The community needs a local grocery -- none have reopened since the hurricane -- and a way to start rebuilding the neighborhood economy. And the land needs to be healed after being saturated by pollutants. Our School at Blair Grocery has made it their mission to empower the youth and work toward sustainable community development. Currently there are five full-time students of the school and about a dozen who participate in the after-school program. Young people can also be paid for their work. The students participate in the daily work of the gardens, the compost production (planting can only happen in compost because the soil is toxic), the aquaculture pool and chicken coop.

In addition to support from a variety of grants and private donors, Our School at Blair Grocery sells produce to many high-end restaurants in New Orleans' Historic French Quarter. While the students raise and sell fresh produce, they learn hands-on economic lessons from the cost to grow, sell and distribute the goods, and about taking pride in their community. The School has also started a Sunday afternoon Farmer's Market to make the produce available to the community in which it is grown. There are also hopes to use part of the old grocery store building as a new grocery where produce and other dry goods can be purchased on a regular basis.

Gardens are spaces of beauty wherever they are located. But this garden was particularly inspiring in a community that desperately needs rebuilding and healing, access to healthy food, sources of pride, and courage to stand in the face of oppression. I wish blessings on their project, and I hope our Common Ground Garden can also be a beacon of light, healing, pride and courage in our community.

Join Tim on Saturday, October 20, to be part of the chicken butchering process and go home with a free bird ready for stuffing and roasting.  

We'll start at 9 a.m. These are the birds who have been laying eggs for us all season.  

Thanks, Tim!

From the Catholic Worker

Join us for weekly dinner and prayer: 6:30 dinner, 7 p.m. prayer. All are welcome. Learn more about the community at www.centralmncw.org.  

Bring your Veggie Bingo winners for garden tie-dying with all natural, veggie dye! We will do the dying on Thursday, September 20, 4:30 p.m. Bring a shirt or pair of socks to dye. Pick up your items the following week. All are welcome!

From the archives... don't forget all of the great recipes archived on our website.

Maple Glazed Rutabaga

4 servings (serving size: 1 cup)

¼ cup maple syrup

1 ½ tsp butter, melted

7 cups (½-inch) cubed peeled rutabaga (about 2 medium)

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp black pepper

Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 425°. Combine syrup and butter in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add rutabaga, salt, and pepper; toss to coat. Spread rutabaga mixture on a jelly roll pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 425° for 35 minutes or until rutabaga is tender, stirring occasionally.

Carrot-Pecan Pizza -- A Jenny Kutter specialty

1-1½ cups shredded carrots

½ cup shredded Colby cheese (or mozzarella)

¾ -1 cup chopped pecans or other nuts, toasted

½ cup freshly shredded parmesan cheese

cloves garlic, minced (powdered is no substitute in this case)

olive oil

10-inch pizza crust, unbaked, on a pizza pan or pizza stone

Preheat oven to 500° (or as high as it will go). In a sauté pan, heat about ¼ cup olive oil (enough to lightly cover the surface of the crust) over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and carrots and sauté until the carrots are crisp-tender. Spread the carrot mixture onto the unbaked pizza crust. Sprinkle the chopped pecans evenly on top. Lightly top with cheese, just enough to melt together and act as a separate, but equal topping. More parmesan than Colby provides an interesting texture and flavor when baked. Rather than spreading out in a greasy abundance, it provides a crisp, salty texture when baked at the high temperature. Put the pizza in the hot oven and lower the temperature to 475°. Bake approximately 10 minutes, until the crust is browned and the toppings are crisp and melted. If your crust isn't overly thick and you didn't over-top your pizza, this should occur at approximately the same time.

Cheese and Bell Pepper Enchiladas

from http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/1698

Serrano or jalapeño chiles are both tasty in this recipe. If you prefer a bit less heat, remove their ribs and seeds before chopping.

3 tablespoons canola oil

2 large yellow onions, chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 jalapeño or Serrano peppers, seeded and finely chopped

2 teaspoons ground cumin

Salt to taste

3 large bell peppers (red, green or yellow), cored, seeded and chopped

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1 3/4 cups grated cheddar cheese

1/2 cup cottage cheese

2 cups chopped tomatoes, undrained

12 (6-inch) corn tortillas

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Transfer about 3/4 cup of the onions to a blender; set aside to use later. Add remaining onions, garlic, 1 of the jalapeños, 1 teaspoon of the cumin and salt and cook, stirring often, until softened and golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes.

Transfer about 1/2 cup of the bell peppers to blender with reserved onions, then add remaining to skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 10 minutes. Remove skillet from the heat and stir in cream cheese, 1 1/2 cups of the cheddar cheese and cottage cheese. Add salt and set filling aside. Meanwhile, add tomatoes, remaining jalapeño and remaining 1 teaspoon cumin to blender with reserved onions and bell peppers and process until smooth. Transfer to a medium pot, bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to medium and boil gently, uncovered, until thickened, about 20 minutes. Season with salt and set enchilada sauce aside.

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Spray a 9- x 13- baking pan with cooking spray then spread about ½ cup of the enchilada sauce over the bottom of the pan; set aside. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Working with one tortilla at a time, warm it in the skillet, flipping once, until soft and pliable, about 30 seconds. Transfer tortilla to a flat surface and arrange about 1/3 cup of the filling down the center. Roll up tortilla snugly and place in baking pan. Repeat process with remaining tortillas and filling. Pour remaining enchilada sauce over the top and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup cheddar cheese. Bake until bubbly and hot throughout, about 25 minutes.

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Every week we will send several recipes that make use of the produce you are receiving in your bag. We also have a significant collection of recipes on our website at http://sbm.osb.org/ministries/common_ground_garden/recipes/.   Please send us your own recipes, too--either favorites from your cook books or your own concoctions.

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Common Ground Garden is the ministry of the Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict

104 Chapel Lane
St. Joseph, Minnesota 56374