Growing Together!

Farmer Nef attended the 2019 GreenThumb GrowTogether Conference, held this year on 3/31 at the CUNY Grad Center. Here are her thoughts from the day!

Picture from Tracing and Reclaiming Southern Crops workshop. Left to right: Nefratia Coleman, Red Hook Farms; Electra Jarvis, Green Food Solutions; Christina Delfico, IDig2Learn; Alex, and Mary Wetherill - Green Food Solutions. 

With the theme Roots, Shoots, and Fruits, GreenThumb didn’t disappoint this year! Topics included Cultivating Community Engagement, Financial, and Political Support, Food Justice, Gardening, and more. In one workshop, Tracing and Reclaiming Southern Crops, we discussed the rich agriculture and culinary history of Southern American cuisine. In Growing for the Future, we learned from Black and Indigenous practices like seed saving, maintaining resilient crops, and traditional growing methods that can be applied to gardening and farming in the age of climate change and an uncertain future. I am grateful that every year I get to connect with friends, farmers, gardeners, educators from all over the city for a day of learning and networking. I left the conference feeling inspired and even more excited for the growing season. Thank you GreenThumb, you have outdone yourselves this year!