We thank you all for helping us make our 11th Annual Harvest Festival such a lovely and powerful community event.
We are so grateful to Roman Guaraguaorix (Redhawk) Perez, the Kacike (chief) for Maisiti Yukayeke Taino; a tribe of the Taino Nation for leading us in the ceremony of thanksgiving and reconnection with the plants that sustain us.
Also a big shout out to Peter, Zach and Femi for working together to get the pizza out, Miranda for baking her delicious Burek, and Beatriz and her family for preparing and serving vegetarian tamales and flautas! And Doris and Angel for bringing out the brocolli salad.
Thank you all for enjoying our banquet and let's keep the feeling going!
Continuing the legend, we held our 2019 10TH Annual Gratitude/Harvest Festival with our supporters, friends and volunteers on October 19 although we were very disappointed to cancel Thursday festival because of high wind. We just couldn't bear the idea of our golden pumpkins flying with wind over the sky and ...
We planted lots of tulips of all colors and shapes around a Japanese maple tree and took care of bunch of young trees along Goulden Avenue while witnessing Meg's Garden and edible forest in fall splendor; indeed, looking forward to their awakening when Spring comes and gently whispers to grow..
We were blessed and quite satisfied with plenty of food including Burek loved by all (thanks to our dedicated community volunteer Miranda!), mixed Meg's garden kale salad and baked NY apples (so all ingredients are from our town NY!) from George Edwards and Holly Howitt, our partners at Garden to Cafe.
We also had some homemade sourdough bread and apple pie from James Baldwin Outdoor Learning Center made in the kitchen of the Dietetics, Foods and Nutrition Department at Lehman College. Thank you Craig Rothman for making it possible again.
And thanks again to all of you for being our supporters, you truly are!
One of our members playing guitar singing garden songs and more. By the way don't get it wrong, it is not NEW YORK POST but it is New YORK COM POST!
9TH Annual Gratitude/Harvest Festival on Nov. 8 and 10
Two days of gratitude at 9th Annual Harvest Celebration (maybe to be held earlier next year, wind was brutal on Saturday but working with community volunteers including Risse street Garden gardeners we planted 1600 daffodil bulbs!);
our thanks and love especially to all volunteers and students present and former who are with us in action and spirit.
With special thanks to Dawn Sotello and DWC Chorus, Henry O for photos of Thursday, Chief Redhawk, Jillian Naveh, Taylor Pate, Steve Deep, teensforfoodjustice, ichooseclinton, chefscollaborative, and of course sun, leaves, birds, trees, wind, pollinators, pollen, vegetables, herbs, music, togetherness, laughter...
Harvest poster
Scenes from the festival
Gratitude: Harvest Celebration and the Love of a 90 Year Old Oak, October 27, 2017
A gift to the Garden and James Baldwin Outdoor Learning Center
This year we are especially grateful to one of our 90 + year old oak trees that is providing us with an abundance of timber for future use for various outdoor purposes but especially as the building material for what will become the centerpiece of the James Baldwin Outdoor Learning Center, the Welcome Table.
The huge pin oak that split this past summer and was then taken down completely was planted when Calvin Coolidge was president and has served our school marvelously throughout its life.
Of course it should be studied, honored and continue to be revered.
I can't think of a better use for this grand old tree than as building material for the Welcome Table and other features at the community school hub we are creating for gathering community members, students, family, friends, teachers and learners of all ages.
Our plan is to store the timber (and allow it to cure) at two locations. A stack will be brought to the swing space on the lower parking lot (site of the future Baldwin Center) and the rest will remain stacked in an out of the way area near Meg's Garden (the community garden) and newly planted edible forest on the Goulden Avenue side of the building.
I am grateful for the assistance and cooperation of our Custodial Engineer Tom Esposito and Adam's European Construction for helping us secure this valuable resource.
Images from the festival
Harvest Celebration of Abundant Progress: Streams of Sustainability and Justice Woven Together at DeWitt Clinton High School, Dec. 5 2016
Our 7th Annual Harvest Celebration took place at DeWitt Clinton High School on November 10, 2016
We celebrated our most recent harvest and numerous accomplishments over the past year with a ceremony led by Roman Guaraguaorix (Redhawk) Perez, the Kacike (chief) for Maisiti Yukayeke Taino; a tribe of the Taino Nation.
We gathered in fellowship around a fire, sang and participated in a snake dance.
We also stood in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are protecting water from the likelihood of contamination from oil pipelines that have been proposed to traverse sacred Native American sites in North Dakota.
Towards the end of the ceremony, Redhawk asked each of us to place an offering of a pinch of tobacco in the raised beds of our new community garden built this past summer by community volunteers and student interns as a gesture of thanks to the earth for sharing with us its bounty and protection.
The community garden was built after we received a United Way Seed Grant of $30,000 sponsored by our school's Community Based Partner Organization, Good Shepherd.
Award-winning chef Noah Sheetz of Hudson Valley Chef's Consortium capped the evening with his gracefully prepared and amazingly delicious garden to table treats served with hot cider on what was a windy and cold but gorgeous Fall evening with the moon waxing towards its super status days later.
Friends, neighbors, community members, students around the ceremonial fire at our 7th annual Harvest Celebration, November 10, 2016 (photo by Nathanial Gary)
Roman Redhawk Perez leading the Snake Dance at the site of our new community garden (photo by Nathanial Gary)
We found this shell/fossil/relic at the site of our ceremonial fire a few days later and learned that it had been gifted to us by Roman Guaraguaorix (Redhawk) Perez, the Kacike (chief) for Maisiti Yukayeke Taino; a tribe of the Taino Natio
Harvest Week Celebration on October 27
Perhaps the most unique and powerful activity in Sustainability this fall happened on the first day of our Harvest Week Celebration on October 27, a Native American Harvest Ceremony led by Roman Guaraguaorix (Redhawk) Perez, Kacike (chief) for Maisiti Yukayeke Taino; a tribe of the Taino Nation.
Chief Redhawk led an enthusiastic group of about 40 students, parents, faculty and community members in a variety of Taino and Native American rituals to both thank the earth for its abundant harvest as well as bless the spot on the West lawn of our campus that will be the site of our fruit orchard.
Students in particular enjoyed participating in a "snake dance" that ended up in the formation of a community circle. There was chanting, drumming, a purification ritual and storytelling. The ceremony ended in a celebration of the birthday of Milton Roman, who assists in the Clinton Library.
At least five students present were able to claim Native ancestry and for them the ceremony was especially significant as it seems a rare event to take place in public high schools.
Sustainability student Mirza Baig put it this way, "the funnest part was when I put the tobacco in the fire, it felt cool!"
Roman Guaraguaorix (Redhawk) Perez officiating at a ceremony that honored all who have helped The Clinton Garden
Students, parents, teachers and community members gathered on the site of the future Clinton Orchard to give thanks for past and future abundance
JAMES BALDWIN OUTDOOR LEARNING CENTER