Archive for month: March, 2016

Posted from Austin, Texas, United States.

Today our group headed to the lower 9th Ward to help a nonprofit called Capstone.
Capstone was started by David Young in 2009 and it is a small non-profit that has turned 30 blighted or vacant lots in the Lower 9th into food gardens and orchards. The main goal of Capstone is to provide food at no cost to those who need it in the community especially because it is located in a food desert. A food desert is defined as an area s parts of the country vapid of fresh fruit, vegetables, and other healthful whole foods, usually found in impoverished areas. This is largely due to a lack of grocery stores, farmers’ markets, and healthy food providers. Capstone also assists others in the community in starting their own gardens.

Capstone also has 30 beehives. After noticing a lack of bees in empty lots in 2012, David started keeping bees because there was a need of bees in the Lower 9th. The honey is now being sold at farmers markets all over the city, and you can help Capstone with the bees in the Lower 9th Ward by donating here. The profits made from honey sales helps support the cost of providing food to the community.

Today we mowed a lawn at an adjacent lot across the street, and used the grass cuttings to feed the goats and chickens in the back yard of the Capstone house. Another cool thing about David and the Capstone house was the aquaculture pond he had set up and that we helped finish. The system has a catfish pond in the backyard hooked up to various other tanks where plants are hydroponically grown. Some species that were being grown hydroponically were red okra, cucumbers, two kinds of lettuce, kale, and many others. We helped David put together a hydroponic trough that was set up to the aquaculture system and did so by washing expanded clay and filling the trough with the clay. The whole system was really awesome, and it was amazing how much food could be grown in such a small area. David mentioned that 2600 pounds of organic produce can be grown with this system. Overall it was an amazing day and it felt good to help out a good cause and meet some awesome people such as David and Miss Carol.

– Michaela & Pashalle

Today we began our day at Capstone Community Gardens located in the Lower Ninth Ward. Capstone community Gardens is a non-profit organization which has taken abandoned lots at turned them into community gardens and orchards. They provide all the food they grow to community members who need assistance. It was a great day learning about Capstone and all the different things they do for the community. 

  

We managed to get through four transects for our vegetation surveys. The first three went fairly well and as we moved further into the trail and further into the transect we saw less densely packed black berry and that meant less thorns for us to deal with. For our fourth and final transect we ended up dealing with 30+ meters worth of blac berry bush and the only way was through it,
so naturally we solidified our machete skills. On the bright side, we found a small patch of wild strawberries(picture)!

We began our first field day yesterday. The first day was a slow start as we all tried to get familiar with the vegetation down here in New Orleans. Today however, went a lot faster as we got more familiar with the plants.  It’s sad to think that so many people here have taken their environment for granted but especially their wetlands for granted. Wetlands and vegetation in general provide an imense ecosystem service by helping create a buffer against natural disasters such as hurricanes. The field work we are doing involves doing a vegetation inventory of native vs non-native and invasive plants in hopes of gaining a better understanding on the health of this valuable ecosystem and then determine how we can take a positive step forward in protecting these wetlands.