This week, the Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough launched its newest initiative 7 Days of Green. This collaborative community endeavour aims to increase Peterborough's creative dialogue about local green activities while building awareness around green living and giving.
For Andrea Dicks, Community Foundation Executive Director "every green act matters." She adds that the Foundation is "proud to have the opportunity to partner with so many local organizations that are helping to build a strong and healthy City and County. 7 Days of Green will shine a spotlight on the impressive activities happening throughout our community while also inviting residents to take part with their families and friends."
The menu of activities planned is indeed rich and inviting. There is something for all age groups and interests. Tonight, for instance, Ryan O'Connor, Research Associate at the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies, will be talking about "Pollution Probe and the not-so-secret beginnings of Environmental Activism in Ontario." It should be a very engaging and thought-provoking conversation.
According to Maryam Monsef from the Community Foundation, "a community that greens together, grows together." This perspective mirrors the thinking at the root of the Nourish project. We believe that the most powerful medium to grow community is food. You only need to join a community garden, a collective kitchen, a cooking series, to see how these initiatives systematically enhance the social fabric of our community.
Consequently, to celebrate the community building process at the heart of 7 Days of Green, Nourish is launching a contest that will hopefully enable more community members to join our food work and build new connections. The contest is also designed to highlight the virtues of a vegetable that is not yet fully appreciated: kale.
As our kale surprises page illustrates, kale is the Nourish mascot. It is resilient - I harvested kale until January this year - as well as beautiful in its own way. It comes in many shades and textures, grows easily and is really well suited to our climate. Least but not last, kale packs an incredible amount of nutritional and health value.
After having experienced a long period of neglect, kale is starting to regain some grounds. Last week, Lakefield Chef Brian Henry devoted his Peterborough Examiner column to kale.
In spite of this kale resurgence, many food enthusiasts have not yet fully embraced kale. Why? They insist that they have not found a delicious way of preparing kale. In other words, they don't really know what to do with kale. So dear readers, we need to broaden their repertoire.
That's the goal of this kale contest. It will last until Saturday, October 19, 2013. On that day Nourish will host a community feast which will feature simple, easy to make and delectable kale recipes submitted by community members. We will bring together jurors who are not kale enthusiasts and will get them to select the winning recipes.
If you want to participate in this contest, send us your kale recipes at: nourish@ywcapeterborough.org. The blog will regularly highlight your ideas throughout the duration of the contest. We also want to hear from those of you who feel that kale just does not wet your appetite. If you send us a great kale story, we will ask you to become a juror for the contest.
And please, come and join us for the last event in the 7 Days of Green. We will be at St Andrew's United Church on Earth Day, Monday, April 22nd from 1 to 3 pm. In conjunction with the Peterborough Community Garden Network, we will plant some kale seedlings, distribute kale recipes as well as kale seeds! You will be all set for the Nourish kale contest!
In the meantime, happy kale cooking!
