FARM STAND in action! All natural celery, zuchinni, squash, herbs, kale and glorious cherry tomatoes! Photo Credit: Ariel Roland
Visit the Grow Dat Farm Stand for the next two Saturdays!
9am-12pm
Saturday June 15 & Saturday June 22
150 Zachary Taylor Drive
On Sunday, June 30, Dishcrawl will visit 8 different restaurants in the Garden District, all within walking distance. Your $10 entry fee will give you one food/drink ticket (to be redeemed at any participating restaurant for their featured item), 4 raffle tickets, and a $5 donation to Grow Dat!
Restaurants include:
Honeydeux- Mango Bubble Tea
Diva Dawg- Red Bean Chili Dawg
Roux Public House- Chargrilled Oysters
Down the Hatch-Pulled Pork Potato Skins ; Specialty Cocktail: NOLA Palmer (NOLA twist on an Arnold Palmer tea with vodka, lemon and min)
Voodoo BBQ- Corn Pudding/Abita Beer
Use the following promo code when purchasing a ticket and $5 will be donated to Grow Dat!
Promo code: GROWDAT
Grow Dat recently hosted a Youth Anti-Violence Summit on the farm in response to the shooting on Mother’s Day which deeply touched our Grow Dat community.
It was a day of reflection, sharing, and an attempt to envision a world different than the one we inhabit today. Filmmaker John Richie screened a section of his film Shellshocked and answered questions. Youth wrote letters to someone in their lives that had been touched by gun violence, and then shared their letters with another crew member.
Crew members were invited to create two kinds of trees: an unhealthy tree that maps systems of violence in New Orleans and beyond; and a healthy tree that maps systems of individual and community-wide success, peace and happiness. Youth were encouraged to identify the roots of both trees, brainstorm what sustains the roots and helps the trees grow (the trunk), and what sort of leaves or fruit are produced by each foundation. As leaves fall from the trees and touch the earth, they become the soil that nourishes the roots, creating a system that is reinforced and recirculated over time.
Tree of Life
Tree of Violence
William Mupo from the Health Department at the Mayor’s Office shared the city’s plan to address violence, and listened to youth recommendations on what they think the city should do.
Grow Dat youth answer the question: What can the City do to improve New Orleans?
Purchase youth-grown sustainable produce on our farm in June
Farm Stand
The Grow Dat Youth Farm
150 Zachary Taylor Drive
9am-12noon
Saturdays, June 1, June 8, June 15, June 22
GROW DAT YOUTH FARM TO HOST HOOTENANNY- BARN DANCE BENEFIT
Grab your dancing shoes to cut a rug for a great cause
Thursday, April 18, 7pm-10pm
Grow Dat Youth Farm, 150 Zachary Taylor Drive, City Park
The mission of the Grow Dat Youth Farm is to nurture a diverse group of young leaders through the meaningful work of growing food. You can support these young adults who are growing food for New Orleanians by joining us for the Grow Dat Hootenanny. Proceeds from this Barn Dance Benefit will help us employ 25 young adults to grow 9,000 pounds of food this year!
What: Hootenanny featuring Bruce ‘Sunpie’ Barnes & the Louisiana Sunspots and the Small Batch String Band. Square dancing led by caller Nathan Harrison will kick off an evening of revelry on the farm.
An ole’ fashioned Cake Walk will showcase tempting cakes from premier NOLA Pastry Chefs: Cochon from the Link Restaurant Group, Maurepas Foods, Domenica, and Boucherie.
When: Thursday, April 18, 7-10 pm
Details: $15-$20 entry to dance the night away. Fat Falafel and La Cocinita food trucks, craft cocktails and ice cold beer on-hand. All tickets, food and drink sales benefit local teens growing food for New Orleans!
Sponsored by Slow Food NOLA
Purchase tickets now or at the door: http://barndancebenefit.brownpapertickets.com
PUT ON YOUR DANCING SHOES AND COME OUT TO THE FARM APRIL 18 TO SUPPORT GROW DAT!
Come assist as we inoculate the sculpture with oyster mushroom spawn!
The Intersection of the Visual and the Edible: A Workshop on How to Turn a Straw Sculpture into a Mushroom
Join artist/farmers Mei-ling Hom and David McClelland for an afternoon workshop at Grow Dat Youth Farm in City Park on how to create a woven straw sculpture and how to inoculate the sculpture with oyster mushroom spawn.
The spawn will grow through the straw and produce a crop of edible mushrooms while digesting the straw and creating a rich compost-like soil amendment. Oyster mushrooms have the amazing ability to eat long chain molecules like the cellulose in wood and straw, and they can even break the molecular links in oil rendering it less toxic to the environment. If that isn’t spectacular enough, oyster mushrooms are carnivorous hunters, capturing nematodes in microscopic lassos and digesting them -mighty feats for a mere fungus! Join us at any time from 1-6 pm for this hands-on workshop exploring the intersection of art and mycoculture.
Rain or shine!
Wednesday, April 10th 1-6pm
Grow Dat Youth Farm
150 Zachary Taylor Dr. in City Park (between Pan American Stadium and Marconi Blvd)
Lenten Fish Fry with Slow Food New Orleans
Friday, March 8
7pm-10pm
Grow Dat Youth Farm, 150 Zachary Taylor Drive
From Ian McNulty’s piece in The Gambit today:
“Guests can either buy individual dishes at various stations set up around Grow Dat’s campus or partake in a seated meal served in courses at a “captain’s table” on a balcony overlooking the scene. The menu includes a garden salad, fried catfish over coleslaw, vegetarian gumbo z’herbes, pistachio shrimp kebabs, vegetable kebabs and fish kebabs, sour cherry rice, rose petal and mint yogurt and gelato and sorbetto from La Divina Gelateria. Beer and wine will be for sale.
Singer/songwriter Kayte Grace, the Moscow 57 Band, artists including Emilie Rhys and local writer Elsa Hahne, author of the new cookbook “The Gravy—In the Kitchen with New Orleans Musicians” are all participating in the event.”
$5 admission (free for Slow Food members)
Individual food tickets are $5 each. The seated meal is $50. For tickets to the seated dinner, call Don Boyd at (504) 460-4050.
Grow Dat is proud to host FEAST NOLA this Sunday, Nov. 18. Unfortunately this meal is already sold out, but check out their website to learn more about the organization and save the date for the next Feast.
Twice per year, the FEAST NOLA community unites around the Sunday dinner table to meet new people, discuss ideas about change, and vote on one of the top five proposals presented during dinner. During dinner, a group of artists, activists, and social entrepreneurs presents creative projects that will engage the local community. At the end of the dinner, everyone votes on his or her favorite proposal; and the night’s proceeds go to making the winning proposal a reality.
Dinner will be served up by Jarett Eymard and Rachel Carr Eymard of the NOLA food truck, Rue Chow. The May 20th winner, Jaime Broussard of the New Orleans Fruit Tree Project, will be returning to report on the impact of FEAST funding.
Hope the FEAST guests enjoy dinner on our farm!
Thanks so much to everyone who came out to our first Plant Sale and Party on November 3rd. Your attendance made the day a great success! We hosted over 500 visitors who bought plants, took tours of the farm, played games and enjoyed delicious drinks provided by our sponsors Old New Orleans Rum and Rouses and ate food from La Cocinita and Frencheeze.
What happened:
Our current interns–Melanie, Deshawn, Amber and Yasmin–did an excellent job at the event. Melanie and Deshawn led farm tours with such confidence and gusto many people asked if they were full time staff members.
We sold over $1,000 worth of beautiful greens, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and herb seedlings. Amber and other Grow Dat staff members sold many, many plants that day…..
Yasmin staffed our Donation Station, where she and Grow Dat staff shared information with visitors about Grow Dat and let them know how they could get involved with our “Growing the Green” campaign. We earned an additional $1000 selling Grow the Green cards, drinks and t shirts!
More about “Growing the Green”
Couldn’t make it to the party but want to support our work? During the holiday season you can help us grow the green by giving the gift of employment or food! When you contribute we will provide you with a card recognizing your contribution that you can share with the person on whose behalf you have donated. Stay tuned for more information about alternative gift giving this holiday season! (Info will be up on our website soon!)
Photography by Will Widmer
Even if you missed our Plant Sale and Party over the weekend (it was delightful – thanks to everyone who came out!) it’s not too late to buy some discounted seedlings for your winter garden!
We have the following edible plant starts ready to be planted in your winter garden:
Stop by the farm this Wednesday through Friday, Nov. 7-9, between 2:00 and 5:30pm. Ask for Sarah, Grow Dat Farm Assistant.
Photo Credit: William Widmer
Come out to the farm for our first big event and show your support for Grow Dat’s work and mission. We guarantee you’ll have a great time!
PLANT SALE
10 am – 2pm
Stock your winter garden with the best! Bring home your favorite edible and ornamental plants, cultivated by Grow Dat staff and youth interns. Fall vegetables, herbs and pollinator attracting ornamentals will be sold.
PARTY!
12 pm – 5pm
Eat, drink and celebrate our farm! Join us as we kickoff our annual Grow The Green online fundraiser. Food trucks, music, and farm fun will abound. Tour our brand new eco-campus and farm, participate in sack races and other fall harvest games, and learn about how you can support our work of growing young leaders and healthy food for New Orleans. La Cocinita and Frencheeze will be on site selling delicious food, and we will have beverages for sale provided by our sponsors, Old New Orleans Rum Distillery and Rouses.
All proceeds from the plant sale and party will go to further our mission to nurture a diverse group of young leaders through the meaningful work of growing food.
Our Fabulous Sponsors:
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Last week we hosted our first big event, Pecha Kucha NOLA, on our farm’s almost-finished eco campus. The event was great and the space was beautiful! (see photo evidence below). The space is bright and welcoming during the day, and absolutely magical and warm at night.
Looking down into the outdoor classroom from the second floor. Youth Intern Amber and Co-Director Johanna practice their speeches before the crowds arrive.
On the deck looking West towards the outdoor classroom
The view from second floor, peeking into the outdoor classroom at night.
Our friends at Tulane City Center (TCC) have been hard at work preparing our staff offices for our move-in later this month. We can’t wait to take full advantage of TCC’s innovative, thoughtful and sustainable design.
Featuring enticing presentations by our very own Jabari Brown and Johanna Gilligan!
Thursday, Oct. 4
Doors at 7pm, Begins at 7:30
Learn about PechaKucha here.
An in-store cooking demo by Carnesha and Whole Foods culinary staff
The results are in! Drumroll please…
$10,200!
New Orleans area Whole Foods stores selected Grow Dat to receive 5% of their sales on Wednesday, August 8. We are thrilled to learn that our share of this 5% is $10,200!
Grow Dat youth employees took over the aisles of the store to show shoppers how to make a delicious strawberry and pecan quinoa salad. Youth answered questions about the program and shared their stories as graduates from the 20-week job skills training program.
Thank you to Whole Foods for your continued support of our work, and thank you to everyone who came out for Grow Dat!
Brittany spoke with customers about Grow Dat’s work and mission in New Orleans and beyond
Please join us this Saturday, June 16 as Grow Dat youth crew members debut our brand new mobile farm stand (it’s a traveling market that hitches onto the back of our truck!).
We’re partnering with Neighborland, Broad Community Connections and GOOD Magazine to offer a Pop-Up Farmer’s Market at the new Tulane Community Health Clinic on Broad Street at Orleans.
A bounty of fresh and affordable all-nature produce will be for sale. Free watermelon juice for all who attend!
