The Problem
The Tom McCall Roots&Shoots group has planned to take 3 field trips to Nana Cardoon Urban Farm and Learning Center. Our primary objective would be to explore and have “hands on” experience with natural food systems. Nana Cardoon offers a rich environment for developing understanding of plant growth, harvest, processing, preservation, and preparation. A secondary objective would be developing deeper connections to our community and its assets. Expanding our understanding of Forest Grove will help us develop meaningful community projects.
Our Plan
At this time, we have already taken 2 of the 3 trips to Nana Cardoon. Each trip is planned a month apart of each other (March, April, May), so we are looking at how nature changes with the seasons. In anticipation of this, we have calculated the "photoperiod" (hours/min of light) changes at each weekly meeting. Between the first two visits we gained 2.5 hours of light! We have made various flat breads (Kurdish, Naan) from grain grown at the farm, cooking them in a "cobb" oven. We have ground wheat using a bicycle powered mill. Making our own hummus was great! We have explored changes in the garden, the role of pollinators, as well as planted potatoes. Our visits have ended with a group meal, enjoying our prepared foods. The results have been tasty. We are looking forward to our final visit in May.
