In our last post about “Van Cortlandt Park”, we introduced The Friends of Van Cortlandt Park Compost Site and Garden. The 2,700 square foot garden is home to a pollinator garden, 7 compost bins and over 700 square feet of vegetable beds.
They host volunteer days where people can get community service; education programs for local school children to learn about composting, growing vegetables as well as a plethora of other community and education focused programs.
Small Axe has been buying Serrano Peppers from them for the past four years and we couldn’t be happier with the results. Each growing season we donate them seedlings that they harvest and sell back to us at a premium price. Learn more in the videos below:
Each year, they hire about 4 hire school interns that come from nearby high schools. They come to work after school during the springs and several times a week during the summer. Their main contributions are in planting, maintaining, and harvesting the garden. In addition, they help with volunteer days by educating others on everything they have learned about growing fruits and vegetables. In this case, they are really acting as local leaders by taking their newfound knowledge and spreading it to others in the community.
Lastly, they also run the garden’s market. They are taking what they’ve learned here and putting it into real world skills: ordering, pricing, dealing with customers, and everything else that goes with running a small business. Not to mention their learnings about fresh produce: growing, cooking, and storing. All of this, of course, with the intention of instilling a love of eating fresh fruits and vegetables into them as they become adults.
They have been growing Serrano peppers for about 4 years now. The peppers are easily some of the garden’s highlights because.. well.. who doesn’t love talking about hot sauce? They take every opportunity they can to hold up the bottles of Small Axe Peppers Hot Sauce next to the peppers and say, “Look, this product coming from that pepper!” It’s a great way to demonstrate the impact they are making by helping to create fresh, local products for the community.
Meet Efua! She’s one of their interns coming from New Visions Charter School for Advanced Math and Science. She’s going to be gardening, planting, weeding, and harvesting the all the vegetables grown in the garden. She’s interested in giving back to her community by providing her neighbors with fresh fruits and vegetables so that they can have a healthy diet. She’s tired of seeing all the processed fast foods and believes that she can do her part in educating other people to eat healthy. Nothing brings her more happiness than watching those plants grow!
Remember, each bottle of The Bronx Green Hot Sauce purchased directly supports the efforts of “The Friends of Van Cortlandt Park Compost Site and Garden”. However, you can help them grow today by purchasing any Small Axe Peppers products.