On Saturday we held the first of what we hope is many workshops in collaboration with 490 Farmers! People braved the rain to participate in this event! A huge thanks to Kiki Smith, SEAC’s AWESOME Fundraising Coordinator, who led the workshop and really got her hands dirty (in a totally great way!).
We explored different assistive technology apps like Be My Eyes and Picture This, which may assist in identification and offer planting/harvesting info for plants. We explored the children’s garden, finding hostas and zinnia. We used one of the apps to identify something called evening primrose that no one present had been able to identify.
Then we got dirty, pulling vine weed from the beds and paths that create Rochester’s Flower City symbol in 490 Farmer’s Children’s Garden.
Our favorite part was “weeding and eating”, nibbling at cherry tomatoes, borage, nasturtium, mini cantaloupe, and tomatillos. Several of the participants had never touched a sunflower and reveled in the textures and variety of specimen they discovered, even realizing that sunflowers bear an enchanting aroma. We learned how to use our senses of taste and smell, as well as touch, to identify different plants in order to make choices about growing or discarding them.
Thank you to Cornell Cooperative Extension for being with us, supporting us and our community and having a booth!
We look forward to doing this again in the future!
South East Area Coalition 