Watching the eclipse from 6th and B

From the 6th and B Community Garden... photos by Daniel Efram...

Green days: 6&B Garden program teaching East Village kids how to garden and cook

Images and text by Daniel Efram 

The 6&B Garden Kids Cooking Workshop series continued on Aug. 21 with Gallo Pinto Collard Green Wraps on the menu, a recipe shared by one of the community garden's members from Costa Rica. 

This program for kids (ages 5 and up!) has been running since the fall of 2016, with a break during the worst of the pandemic, and offers not only some tasty recipes but also resources about gardening and sustainability. 

"Our goals for the program are to share with kids from the neighborhood the experience of picking vegetables and herbs straight from the garden and cooking and eating them outdoors," explains 6&B's Michael Mangieri. "As a cook and chef, this has always been my greatest delight. It never gets old. I am happy to have a way to share with the next generation."

"We share our love for the growing and cooking of food with the young people in our community through a lens of food justice and cultural appreciation," 6&B's Briar Winters continues. "We donate produce from the kids' farm that our program participants have helped us grow to our local food pantry at Trinity Church on Avenue B. Most of our recipes are shared with us by our garden members or folks from the community, with a special emphasis on sharing cultural food traditions."

The garden for kids provides an authentic farm-to-table experience, solidifying that the vegetables can be grown, nurtured and harvested in their own space in the East Village. 

"This program is part of our community food justice program," says 6&B member Barbara Caporale. "Our garden hopes to shift the paradigm of how community gardens are viewed by some as private clubs, to being seen as a place that can help meet community food need, and our children are a part of that solution."

After being shown what the vegetables look like when ripe for picking, the trio instructed the kids on how to choose and care for each plant. After rinsing, the kids were shown how to prepare the collard greens, pressing and flattening them, then removing the stems. 

Next, the crew cut up tomatoes, avocado and crumbled cheese. Mangieri boiled the collard skins until they were bright green and tender and cooked down onion, garlic and peppers with coconut oil to get the sofrito in shape. He then added black beans and rice to the sofrito base for the kids to stir together.

Afterward, the participants could enjoy the wraps they had created.

The next 6&B Garden Kids Cooking Workshop is on Saturday (Sept. 17) at noon, featuring recipes to celebrate Mexican Independence Day. 

For more information, please please visit the garden's website or email sixbgarden@gmail.com.

The community garden is on the SW corner of Avenue B and Sixth Street.

Time for the 6th and B Garden Harvest Festival

Here are a few details about today's Harvest Festival at the 6th Street and Avenue B Community Garden via the Facebook Events page:

Once again we have our annual neighborhood harvest festival with our legendary free to the public, delicious chicken and corn bar-b-cue and great entertainment on our stage. Plus our famous neighborhood raffle with dozens of great prizes from local businesses. Drop by, have some food, listen to the entertainment, buy a raffle ticket or two or three or more. All proceeds go to the upkeep of the garden.

BRAZILIAN DANCE MUSIC with David Acker and Dale Kleps will be performing Brazilian Sambas, Choros, Bayonnes and more at 4:30 p.m.!

The festivities take place from 2 to 7 p.m. (The rain date is tomorrow same time.)

'What About Me' at the 6 and B Garden tonight

There's a free screening tonight of Rachel Amodeo's 1993 film "What About Me" in the 6th and B Garden... starts at 8:30 p.m.

The film, shot in the neighborhood in the late 1980s and early 1990s, stars Amodeo, Richard Edson, Nick Zedd, Rockets Redglare, Judy Carne, Richard Hell, Johnny Thunders, Dee Dee Ramone and Gregory Corso, among others.

In a review of the film from 2017, The New Yorker's Richard Brody calls "What About Me" "a hidden masterwork."

Let's try that plant and bake sale at the 6 & B Garden again

The rain washed out the annual plan and bake sale at the 6th Street and Avenue B Community Garden‎ last Sunday ... so garden members are trying again today from noon to 5 p.m.

Via the EVG inbox...

This is a fundraiser and proceeds from any sale goes to fund the 6&B Events Program that brings you FREE Events — Music, workshops, poetry, screenings and much more throughout the summer months! Help support us — buy a plant, a yummy home-made baked good, a T-shirt and more!

The community garden is on the southwest corner of Avenue B and Sixth Street.

Plant and bake sale at the 6 & B Garden this weekend

From noon to 5 p.m. tomorrow (Saturday!) and Sunday.

The community garden is on the southwest corner of Avenue B and Sixth Street.

Sneak preview!

Plants ready for the annual plant and bake sale this weekend - Sat. & Sun. May 12 & 13 from 11 am - 5 pm

A post shared by 6&B Garden (@6bgarden) on May 11, 2018 at 7:17am PDT

Today in Urban Etiquette Signs

Steven spotted this note up on the Community Events board outside the 6 & B Community Garden on Sixth Street and Avenue B...

Snow melts.

Shit does not.

Please clean up after your dog.

Thank you,
EV Residents

Today in community garden plant sales

Both items via the EVG inbox...

UNCOMMON PLANTS FOR CITY FOLK
WHEN: Saturday, May 6, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
WHERE: El Sol Brillante Community Garden, 522-526 E. 12th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B
Rock Garden plants and choice perennials for sun & shade, including native plants
Plants are grown by members of MCNARGS (including many from Tom Stuart) with additional selections from Wrightman, Garden Vision Epimediums, Gowanus

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Plant & Bake Sale, 6th Street & Avenue B Community Garden (southwest corner of 6th and B)
Saturday-Sunday, May 6-7, 12-5 p.m.

Our Horticulture Committee and other volunteers have been hard a work growing and procuring plants, baked goods, and other items to sell.

All money raised from this event goes directly to fund our always FREE Events Programming for the Summer. This includes Music, Spoken Word, Film Nights, Slide Lectures and Talks, Workshops, Drawing in the Garden, and more.

Find more details here.

The 6&B Harvest Fest is tomorrow (Saturday)

Rescheduled from last Saturday's rainout ... now 2-7 p.m. tomorrow.

The garden entrance on Avenue B between East Sixth Street and East Fifth Street.

Check out the lengthy list of local merchants who donated the raffle prizes here.

'Roofstock' tomorrow at 6th & B Garden

There's a "raise the roof" party tomorrow afternoon from 1-6 at the 6 & B Garden on Avenue B and East Sixth Street...

Per the 6th and B Garden website:

The garden was struck by high winds during the hurricane which brought down our beloved six story tall willow tree which has been a centerpiece of our garden for almost 20 years. Also our stage which has been host to hundreds of free performances for the community lost sections of the roof which exposes it to rain and snow damage.

The willow was cut into pieces by garden members and neighborhood volunteers and the branches and leaves were removed by the NYC Parks Dept. Unfortunately the massive logs from the willow remain in the garden and our stage roof is still broken and must be replaced.

Garden members are raising money to buy materials to replace the roof... For tomorrow's event, several local restaurants donated food (Gruppo, Veniero's, Veselka, among others) ... and there will be music all afternoon... Suggested donation is $10.

Find more info on the Garden's website.

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After Sandy.

[Photo by Mat Gundell]