July 30, 2003
Romain Lettuce
Romain Lettuce on sale for 50 cents at Eeco Farms.
Photo by Valerie
garlic
Renee Picked her own Garlic to take home. Eeco farms told us "if you pick it you can keep it" and the girls picked lots of Garlic to take home.
Photo by Valerie
Kayann Interviews at Quail Farm
Kayann interviews a CSA (community supported Agriculture) member at Quail Hill Farms. This man, originally from Sierra Leon, likes harvesting his own Organic fruits and vegetables at Quail Hill Farms.
Photo by Renee
Jessica and baby chick
Jessica holding a baby chick at Quail Hill Farms.
photo by Renee
Eeco Farm Manager
Leslie leads us around Eeco Farm, a community farm in East Hampton, NY.
People from the community can rent parcels of land or "gardens" where they can grow and harvest their own food. The farm is only 2 years old, but it is a success.
Photo by Renee
interview at Quail Hill
Ana interviews farmer Scott at Quail Hill Farms. He is explaining to us how a CSA works.
Photo by Renee
Carrots
Carrots for sale at Quail hill Farms. This is a Community Farm, where by people from the community by shares of the farm, and come to harvest their own produce two times a week.
Photo by Renee
Quail Hill -intro
Scott introduces the group to Quail Hill Farms
Photo by Renee
Quail Hill Farm by Jennifer Suggs
The Ross School has strong relations with several local farms, including Quail Hill. Every year the Ross School orders enough paste tomatoes from Quail Hill to last them throughout the year. Located on the Peconic Land Trust, Quail Hill is a beautiful community organic farm that serves of 160 families in their CSA (community supported Agriculture). Families buy shares of the farm each year and in turn have access to the farm two days a week where they can come harvest their own vegetables and fruits. Quail Hill Farm is certified organic by and is a member of NOFA (North Eastern Organic Farmers Association) and is a member of Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening Association. The girls were led around Quail Hill by Scott Chaskey, the farm and preserve manager. We interviewed Scott and a CSA member for our paper, Girls Out Loud. The highlight of the tour was seeing and holding the new born chicks!
farm road
The Road leading to Quail Hill Farms- Peconic Land Trust.
Photo by Renee
"farmer" June
Potrait of "farmer" June, the Girls Club "Sweet Things" kitchen manager and co-manager of the Farmer's Market.
Photo by Renee
girls club gothic
American Gothic: June and Renee displaying Quail Hill Farm's Pickles
farmer scott
Photo of Scott, the farm manager at Quail Farms- Community Supported Agriculture.
Photo by Renee
July 29, 2003
The Highest Point
This is Shadae. We reached the top of the mountain. The highest point was 1,000 feet. We were the first group to make it to the top. We felt proud but very, very tired.
photographer Beatrice
text Melanie
Top of the Mountain
I couldn't beleive how high the mountain was and that I made it to the top! Such a beautiful view of the Hudson River from the River Keepers Mountain.
photo by Paloma
text Jessica
July 26, 2003
The Tree
This is a normal picture of a tree in the Hudson River countryside. It is very nice being surrounded by trees in spite of the many bugs.
photograph Paloma
text Beatrice
Tree Trunk
This is a picture of one of the logs cut down for #1) the hiking path #2) the environment so animals can make homes and help the ecosystem.
photographer Paloma
text Beatrice
Sneakers
Jessica maneuvers her way across a small brook by stepping on the “stepping stones.”
photograher Paloma
text Ana
The Pond
This is a picture of the small pond that was along the trail that we hiked.
photograph & text by Latosha
Rocks
On the hike, we encountered fallen trees and plants that decompose and eventually become new soil for other plants.
photographed by Paloma
text by Ana
Ferns
This is a picture of some ferns. Craig told us that many trees had died and created lots of light around that area for ferns to grow.
text by Melanie
Broken Tree
This is a broken tree. Craig told us that once a tree dies it will decompose into the soil and create new plant life.
photographed by Paloma
text by Melanie
The Trail
This is a picture of the beginning of the hike we took up the mountain.
photographer & text by Letasha
July 24, 2003
Craig's Interview
Before the hike, the girls were asking lots of questions. One of the questions asked was if there was any wild life in the mountain that could harm them?
Photograph & text by Letasha
Posted by Renée
RiverKeepers Hike by Jennifer Suggs
The Riverkeepers in an organization dedicated to protecting the Hudson River. The organizations has a lot of lawyers working for it which take companies polluting the river to court. For example, right now the Riverkeepers have a big campaign against the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant, because many people say that it poses a threat both to the environment and New York City residents. The Riverkeepers also do a lot to educate the public about the river and environmental justice issues. The Girls Club went to the Riverkeepers headquaters in upstate NY to meet with Craig, the educational outreach worker. Craig took us on a big hike this day, on the mountain just behind the headquaters. The location was beautiful because we were in the highlands overlooking the Hudson. It was a challenging hike, but the girls made it. For many of the girls, it was their first time hiking in their life!
Craig, The Riverkeeper
This is Craig the man who lead the girls through the hike, all the way to the top of the mountain.
Photographed by Letasha
Posted by Renée
Hudson River Hike
Hello this is Beatrice, your fellow narrator here. And boy am I ready to start. So um, I don’t really know how to start this so I am just going to explain what happened in these following pictures. These pictures are when we i.e.: the GALA girls when upstate to the Catskills for the Hudson River Keepers Project. This was all part of our many adventures, as I like to call them leading to the Hudson River Source. One of the activities we did up there was the 1.3 mile hike. I know it may not seem like a lot but when we finally reached the summit we all were very satisfied.
We also learned about the main purpose of having the River keepers; which was to protect the Hudson from anything that maybe harmful for the environment.
July 23, 2003
Crown on a Cheek
In this picture, a lower eastside girl gets a crown painted on her cheek by Raina at the Farmers Market on Avenue D and 8th street.
photograph and text by Kevin Cortese
Farmers Market Cherries
These red tasty cherries are sold at the farmers market by one of the
farmers at the farmers market.
photographed by Letasha
text by Roselleen
Writing Poetry at the Farmers Market
This is Eileen my sister, also one of the girls from the girls club. She is thinking about what to write during poetry with Celena.
photographed by Letasha
text by Roselleen
Farmer Brian at the Farmers Market
This is Farmer Brian under his tent at the Farmers Market on 8th street and Ave D, on his cell phone.
Brian said that it’s not enough to be a farmer, he also has to be a business man.
photographed by Letasha
text by Roselleen
Farmers Market Banner
This is a banner that the girls club had made for the farmers market.
The banner is advertising the farmers market to the people in the neighborhood.
photographer Letasha
text Roselleen
July 18, 2003
PH Testing
This is Mu and Susan. Susan is another Hudson River Project intern. She is around the same age as Mu. They are doing a PH test to test the acid of the water.
By LESGC photographer Paloma
Text by Melanie
Oysters
This is Mu, the Hudson River Project intern. He is roughly 16 years old. He is standing over the black fish tank, trying to take the fish out to show us.
By LESGC photographer Paloma M. Gonzalez Lopez
Text by Melanie Caldwell
Valerie's Portrait
This is a picture of Valerie, 14 years old and a Girls Club member. She is sitting next to the Hudson River. The pier that is behind her is used by the interns of the Hudson River Project to measure water quality.
By LESGC photographer Paloma
Text by Ana
Syringe
This is a picture of one of the interns at the Hudson River Project taking care of their daily duties of measuring the PH and salinity of water through various tests.
By LESGC photographer Paloma
Text by Ana
July 17, 2003
We Arrive
This is a picture of Renee, Beatrice, Melanie, Eve, our writing teacher and myself. We are standing in front of the Hudson River Project. The reason there are trailers is because the Hudson River Project is being remodeled.
LESGC photographer Paloma
Text by Letasha
Portrait of Jennifer
This is a picture of Jennifer, who is in charge of the G.A.L.A. program at the Girls Club. It is a program for high school girls basically to help the community.
LESGC Photographer Paloma
Text by Beatrice
HORSE SHOE CRAB
This is a picture of a Horse Shoe Crab.
LESGC photographer Paloma
Text by Beatrice
GREEN SHRIMP
Green shrimp eat plankton. The green shrimp act like filters. They are too small to eat and live on the bottom of the Hudson River.
LESGC photographer Paloma
Text by Jessica
On the Water
This is a picture of a building directly across from the Hudson River Project.
LESGC photographer Paloma
Text by Beatrice
Beatrice's Hand
While this picture is obvious enough, this is a picture of my hand holding a crab at the Hudson River Project headquarters.
LESGC photographer Palom
Text by Beatrice
The Sea Horse
This picture is of the moment they were measuring the PH contents of the Hudson River.
LESGC photographer Ana
Text by Jessica
PH TESTING
Esta foto es de momento en que estaban mudiendo lo que contenio el agua del Hudson River. Pic PH test .jpeg
This picture is of the moment when they were measuring the PH contents of the Hudson River.
LESGC photographer Ana
Text by Paloma M. Gonzalez Lopez
Portrait of Paloma
Esta foto es de Paloma frente del Hudson River.
This picture is of me, Paloma, in front of the Hudson River.
LESGC photographer Ana
Text by Paloma
Oyster Beds
This is a picture of an oyster bed that is being studied at the Hudson River Project.
LESGC photographer Ana
Text by Letasha
Interviewing Mu
This is a picture of one of the interns at the Hudson River Project. His name is Mu and he is holding up a small crab that they are studying at the Project.
LESGC photographer Ana
Text by Letosha
Aquarium
This is a picture of the aquarium at the Hudson River Project. This picture shows a tank with fish. The water in this tank comes directly from the Hudson River, straight into a tube which goes into the tank, out through another tube.
LESGC photographer Ana
Text by Valerie
The River Project by Jennifer Suggs
The River Project is a private, non-profit marine biology field station for the protection and restoration of wildlife through research, education, and hands-on programs in urban ecology. Located at Pier 26 in downtown Manhattan, it is an excellent site to include in our Hudson River (Source to Sister Project). On this visit to the River Project the GALA girls toured the indoor facility, which contains a lot of small aquariums with fish, crabs, eels, and other wildlife from the Hudson River. This wildlife is used in the research to test for water quality of the lower Hudson River (and examine the quality of the city’s drinking water supply). The River Project interns were the leaders of this small tour, which was neat because it was teenagers teaching teenagers, and the girls paid attention. Late the River Project Staff, let small experiments out on the pier, these series of experiments were also testing water quality, level, etc. The girls were particularly interested in this activity because it put their chemistry skills to the test! They were able to see the real life applications of the chemistry experiments in school. From the tour, the girls learned about the Super Fund and how the Hudson River has been undergoing a serious clean up for over twenty years, since the days of heavy pollution in the 1960’s and before. Though the waters are cleaner today they still will not be safe for swimming and or fishing for many years to come.
The River Project
This is a picture of the home of the Hudson River Project. The photographer is Ana, one of the girls from photography class. She took this picture when we were about to enter the Project.
by GALA Girl Valerie
The Hudson River City Visit
By Letasha k Betancourt
The trip we took to the Hudson River Project was really fun. We learned a lot about the river. We got to see live specimens like sea horses and flounder and crabs. And we got to see specimens of a horseshoe crab. We had a real cool tour guide named moo he was one of the interns that showed us around. One of the cool things I learned was that it will take at least 10 to 20 more years to get the water clean enough to eat fish from it or drink water from it. The reason it’s so dirty is because of our pollution and the fact that General Electric dumps chemicals into the river polluting it even further.
Pastries and Apple Juice
We also sell pastries and apple juice at the Farmer’s market. We don’t only have produce . We also have “goodies”.
by LES GALA Girl Yahira
Making Art
Part of the Farmers Market is providing arts and crafts for the young neighborhood kids. This little girl is painting with water colors.
by LES GALA Girl Yahaira
Neighborhood Car Wash
This was a carwash on 8th Street and Avenue D . That’s Margarita Lopez with her car. A couple of kids gathered themselves up and made their own business to wash cars and get paid as a summer job. They had lots of fun, too!
by LES GALA Girl Christine
July 15, 2003
Farmer Brian Smiles
‘‘Farmer Brian Smiles" is a picture of farmer Brian at his family farm stand in Riverhead, Long Island, holding up some of his vegetables.
By Gala Girl Letasha
water girl
‘‘Raina loves water’’ is a picture of one of our bosses splashing around by the shore of the beach.
By Gala Girl Letasha
Pepper Plant
‘‘Pepper plant’’ is a picture of one of farmer Brian's crops that he grows on the family farm.
By Gala Girl Letasha
this is me
This is a ‘’portrait of me’’ at the beach.
By Gala Girl Letasha
interview
This is a picture of Renee interviewing farmer Brian at his farm, with a tape recorder for our newspaper, "Girls Out Loud."
By Gala Girl Letasha
hi jenniffer
‘‘Hi Jennifer’’ is a picture of one of the gala coordinators at the beach after we went to brains farm.
By Gala Girl Letasha
hey we do listen
‘’Hey we do listen’’ is a group shot of all the gala girls asking farmer Brian questions and then hearing him answer them back.
By Gala Girl Letasha
Farmer Brian
This is a picture of ‘’farmer Brian’’ leading the way to fresh produce.
By Gala Girl Letasha
caught you
‘’ Caught you’’ is a picture I took of Lou fixing her camera to take more pictures on Brian’s farm which is located in RiverHead Long island.
By Gala Girl Letasha
JESSICA
My name is Jessica and I am a member of the Lower Eastside Girls Club since I was 13 years old. Now I am 17 years old and I attend Manhattan Center High School.
I love the music group NYNC!!! My favorite color is red. I have two brothers and a sister and I am the oldest.
In the summer, I am working at the Girls Club in a program called GALA. Every Saturday, we work in the Farmers Market.
In this picture, I was making my own journal to write about my experiences this summer.
By GALA Girl Jessica
CHRISTINE
Hi, my name is Christine. I am 16 years old and I go to Eastside Community High School. I have three sisters and two brothers. In my free time, I like to talk on the phone, listen to music, hang out, go to parties and go to the beach. I also work at the Girls Club since I was 13 years old but I have been attending the Girls Club since 1997.
By GALA Girl Christine
SCRUMPTIOUS STRAWBERRIES
In our Farmers Market of the Lower Eastside Girls Club, we sell many fruits and vegetables, along with fresh Granola Bars, Smoothies and Natural Homemade Soaps.
This is a picture of a lady named Carmen, buying strawberries at our market.
By GALA Girl Ana
FARMSTAND
This is Brian’s family’s store. They sell many different vegetables and lollipops.
They also sell chocolate marble cheesecake and other great things.
By GALA Girl Roselleen
Trip to Farmer’s Brian’s Farm Project Description by Jennifer Suggs
This summer we have been visiting the farms of our farmers at the market. This is a neat opportunity for the city girls to visit farms out of the city. In July we visit Farmer Brains family farm 3 hours outside of the city. Brian led the girls on detailed two-hour tour of his family farm. Brian’s family has been farming for over a hundred years on both sides. He now grows on two different farms. We toured the large farm, where he grows the majority of his vegetables. Farmer Brian is unique in that he grows a diverse variety of vegetables (cauliflower, broccoli, squashes, onions, leeks, string beans, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, corn, various greens, pickles, cucumbers, beets, dill, cilantro, basil), Today most farmers specialize in growing one crop, but Brian prefers to farm the traditional way, growing a variety of crops to sell at local markets. He believes it is safer, because monocroping leaves the chance of loosing your crop to one pest, or storm, etc. Brian takes such pride in his work and his passion is obvious as he shows us every row on his large farm. He shows us all of his machinery, his historic barn still in use, the greenhouse, the irrigation system, the tractors for every purpose. Then he shows us every crop, talking about how it is grown, how it is harvested, what problems he has with it, why he likes or does not like to grow it. It was so interesting and even our City girls were enthralled with farmer Brian. Before heading back home he showed us his other farm where he grows potatoes, and then he drove us by the beach one mile away were the girls were delighted to run on the sand for 10 minutes. One last stop at the Gajeski Produce Stand where made some purchases from Brian’s family and then we took off for the city. It was a great day on the farm.
SIGNS
These are the signs that the farmers uses to let the people that drives by to read information about the farm.
By GALA Girl Roselleen
FARMER BRIAN'S HANDS
These are farmer Brian’s hands which he uses to farm.
By GALA Girl Roselleen
PURPLE CAULIFLOWER
This is a purple cauliflower that Brian is growing in his farm. This was my first time actually seen a purple cauliflower.
By GALA Girl Roselleen
BRIAN'S CAT
This cat is one of Brian’s cats and his name is turnip. Turnip was on top of Brian’s Green House.
By GALA Girl Roselleen
LANDSCAPE
This picture was taken when where were going through the many fields of corn.
I love this picture because of the angle of the way the picture was taken. It gives you a general feel of how large the farm is.
BY GALA Girl Beatrice
KITTY
This picture was taken 1 second before the cat (which was above me on a tent) had secreted himself from view. This was one of the many cats Brian and his family own. Their names vary anywhere from Turnip to Thelma and Louise.
By GALA Girl Beatrice
CAULIFLOWER
This picture is basically a bird’s eye view of the cauliflower growing at Brian’s farm.
I like this picture because it is very inquisitive in a sense. People that have never been to a farm before don’t exactly recognize n what cauliflower looks like when it is growing. I thought when taking this picture that I could share that with people on the web.
By LES Gala Girl Beatrice
ABSTRACTION
This picture was taken in the garden of Brian-Gajeski's family farm in Long island, when the auto focus on my camera, focused on the wrong thing.
The sunflower (which was premature) was the main focal point of my picture and instead of the camera focusing on the foreground in focused on the background, which gave it a very abstract look.
By LES Gala girl Beatrice
East Hampton
These following pictures are of our visit to East Hampton, Long Island. The trips main purpose was to visit some of the farms that were around there. You can sort of call it an adventure because some of the girls who came with us had never been to a farm, or seen where most of the foods we grow is cultivated. As you can see in some of the pictures, there are miles and miles of vegetables, some fruit, and some herbs. I guess you could say that we as Americans are spoiled because we are able to grow so much food with out any hassle, though lets not forget the fact that there are still people today who are starving. The other main purpose this trip may have had is to show where all the food comes form when we have our farmers markets. By now I think you should now what market we are talking about but just in case you don’t know, We have farmers markets in our neighborhood so the people in our community have access to fruits and vegetables and keep in there minds that there is a way to eat healthy.
July 11, 2003
ICE COLD LEMONADE
This is a picture of the customers at the farmers market, held on Avenue D every Saturday until October 25th. The basic purpose of this is to bring fresh produce to communitiess where alot of people aren't given the opportunity to buy it. I don't have a particular reason as to why I chose the photo of two people yelling "Ice cold lemonade", to invite customers to buy our products.
By LES Gala girl Beatrice
Gala arts and crafts
This is a picture of G.A.L.A (girls as activist,leaders,an advocates) girls from the Lower Eastside girls club Paloma,Ana,Jessica,Christine,and Valaire along with Celeena are sitting at the arts and craafts table@the farmers market making journals for poetry. I choose the photo because it shows the begining of a new creation.It doesn't show much about our lives but more of our creativity.
By GALA Girl Renee
Customers!!!!
Here in this photo are 2 customers purchasing some potatoes at the farmers mareket.This farmers market is extra special because this market built by the G.A.L.A girls in the girls club.G.A.L.A means girls as activists ,leaders and advocates. I choose this photo because it shows people from the community buying products from the farmeres market which was the whole purpose.This show that people are happy to see a change in their community.
By GALA Girl Melanie
Farmers Market Opening Day June 28, 2003
christine, paloma, jessica, roseleen, valere, yahaira, melanie, eileen
i picked this picture cause i like the color red. in the picture it shows that we're all pretty organized and that we're all content with our lives at that paticular moment in time. it also shows some of the produce that we sell at the farmers market.
These pictures are from one of our first Farmers Markets. On that day we had a lot of face painting, (for the younger kids) and arts and crafts. We also had programs for the mothers on how to enroll their daughters into the LES Girls Club and how you can help by volunteering. We have Farmers Markets in this area of town to show people that there is a right and healthy way to eat.
By GALA Girl letasha
Farmers’ Market Project Description by Jennifer Suggs
While we weren’t on the Hudson River this summer, the GALA girls were on the land…. farmland that is, visiting farmers in Long Island and working hard at our weekly Farmer’s Market. The Farmers’ Market was a massive undertaking that the Girls Club took on this summer, and with help of the GALA girls we have managed to make it a success. Continuing with our ongoing effort to promote nutritional education and support sustainable foods and local farmers, the Girls Club has opened their very own community (non Greenmarket) Farmers’ Market on Ave D. Recognizing that Ave D (largely Puerto Rican, low income Spanish speaking) is a long way away from Ave A ( largely Anglo middle class), we wanted to bring fresh fruits and vegetable to the families that most need them yet have no access to them. These are the families of our girls. The bottom line is that we can not promote a healthy lifestyle at the Girls Club without making an effort to improve the community’s access to fresh foods and awareness of nutritional issues.
Working with the Ryan Nena Health Center and community Senior Centers, we significantly boosted the neighborhood residents’ use of WIC and Senior Coupons in the Farmers Market Nutrition Program. Essentially we have a created the only space where people can redeem their coupons for fresh fruits and vegetables every week. Considering that 35% of New York Hispanics are known to be overweight, this Farmers Market is doing a great service to the Lower Eastside community in promoting the consumption of healthy food while supporting local farmers and NY agriculture. We are also working on providing cooking demonstrations and classes to neighborhood moms in our Sweet Thing’s kitchen. The idea is that mothers can learn how to prepare the fresh foods that they buy at the market each week. We had our first mother’s cooking class on August 13th with the Chef from Paladar, a local Puerto Rican chef who has made it big in the culinary world. More classes are to come once a month in the fall.
The GALA girls have been working all summer to make the market happen each and every week. It is a lot of work to set up and take down the market, advertise for it, work the Sweet Things stand, assist farmers, helping younger kids with Arts and Crafts, etc… Every week the girls worked shifts 9-1 or 1-6. These market days, were not only days of labor they were learning opportunities. The girls participated in poetry workshops with Celena every weekend in July where the main topics of discussion were food, nutrition, and politics. Forcing the girls to address important issues such as understanding where their food comes from, making connections between poverty and obesity, comparing the differences between fresh and processed foods, and learning the “nutritional value” of food and how that affects one’s health. Our poetry sessions became spoken word seminars on food politics, a weekly process which opened all the girls’ eyes and made them think. The end product as a PSA on Veggies for Public Television.
July 02, 2003
FLORIDA BACKYARD ORANGES
They make yummy juice! Navel oranges are native to Florida and a common backyard tree.
Posted by: Marjorie (Florida resident)
