What is Cooking in the Forge
The fun and functional Forge Garden is in full bloom! Springtime is the best time to visit Santa Clara’s own urban garden. There are plenty of events to attend and learning to be done among the flowers, fresh produce, and chickens! Katharine, our garden manager, plans many activities for the greater neighborhood community including the expansion of the Bronco Urban Garden (BUG) program “Forge to Fork,” which is a culinary kids club for children living at Home Safe Womans Shelter and neighborhood kids. For Santa Clara students, she hosts Forge Fridays: Cooking in the garden series where anyone can come help cook a delicious meal right there in the garden using all fresh ingredients grown right there.
On Earth Day there was a combined celebration featuring two student bands and a flower crown making station. They made a beautiful and delicious frittata with peas, leeks, spinach, and feta, accompanied by a big salad. All the veggies were sourced from the garden and the eggs straight from the local chickens. Katharine hopes to build an outdoor kitchen with a pizza oven in order to expand the cooking functionality of the garden space.
Katharine and her lovely garden interns are now planning their Sustainability Celebration on June 2nd from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. They plan to have live music, garden crafts and food from the garden for this event - so get excited! If you can’t wait until then to get to the garden there are plenty of chances to volunteer and check out the garden right next to campus. Also, if you’re interested in getting even more involved, they’ll be hiring TWO new interns this quarter to start in the Fall! The current interns, Allison, Evie and Bea love getting to work outdoors and learn about all the amazing benefits of having an urban garden in the community.
Meet the Interns! What do they love about working in the Forge?
"The Forge helped me discover a passion for urban agriculture and a just food system that I didn't really know I had." ~ Allison Carmody ('17)
"It's really refreshing to be out here in the mornings. The Forge has become my home away from home." ~ Bea Lemus-Monterola ('17)
"Getting to be outside every day. The physical work is stress relief and it's great to have a break from our sedentary lifestyle." ~ Evie Kinkade ('19)
More photos from the Forge Garden
