Connecting with the heart of the farm

by Vegetable Connection | TheVegetableConnection.org

“Mom, my favorite smell is that of a fresh tomato plant.” Wow, that’s music to my ears! I thought maybe I was doing something right when my 13-year-old son, Alphonse, said those words to me in our garden this summer. It made me think of all the kids in our community garden this summer, on The Vegetable Connection property in Rogers Park, who hopefully have similar experiences getting their hands dirty and figuring out how their vegetables come to life. Creating a generation of vegetable eaters was something to be excited about every day.

Our connection to this experience of growing beautiful, healthy food is what I call the heart of the farm. I learned this when I was a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) member at Happy Heart Farm, the first CSA farm in Colorado, several years ago. Being part of a farm community, experiencing the growing process with the farmers, and getting excited about what is harvested each week changes your experience of eating and what food means to you. Although I was a nutritionist for many years, getting closer to where my food comes from has made me passionate about healthy eating and appreciate the farmers who work so hard to overcome all of the challenges of farming to provide the best food possible for our community.

Happy Heart Farm also founded The Vegetable Connection (TVC), a nonprofit that has served Larimer County for 16 years. TVC’s mission is “to connect families and farms to inspire lifelong healthy eating.” They now work with six farms in Larimer County that practice organic and sustainable farming, and this year have served 55 families from Estes Park to Red Feather and in between. They help low-income families access local vegetables by subsidizing CSA shares. TVC purchases the shares from the farms and then raises money to offset the costs that the families pay. It’s not a one-time donation, but rather the families are CSA members like everyone else on the farm and get vegetables six to ten months out of the year. TVC also offers nutrition and cooking classes to help people learn how to use all vegetables and eat more seasonal ingredients long-term. The underlying goal is to inspire families to eat healthier, specifically to eat more plant-based, high-quality vegetables from local farms, which not only helps fight all the major diseases, but also helps the environment. TVC hasn’t just told people what to eat, they’ve given them the means to do it. They’ve put vegetables directly into the hands of families and shown them how to use all the vegetables they get from their local farming partners. The Vegetable Connection also helps support our local food economy by providing more financial security to small farms that go above and beyond to provide produce from the healthiest, safest soil, resulting in the most beautiful, flavorful vegetables.

The Vegetable Connection hopes to create a generational shift toward healthy lifestyles by teaching children in our community garden and on the farms where their food comes from how to prepare it and how to love vegetables for life. It’s not about saying it. It’s about doing it, which influences their views and motivations to want to be healthy themselves. Research shows time and time again that eating as many vegetables as possible is an important key to good health. Giving prescriptions instead of drug prescriptions can protect people from disease and allow them to live more fulfilling lives. Plus, public health research confirms that a reduced-cost CSA share plus nutrition education creates long-term changes in eating habits. In the TVC classes, we see kids filling their plates with vegetables and plant-based meals instead of turning their noses up at them. We have parents tackling health issues through healthy eating. We see neighbors building community together by gardening, cooking, and eating all summer long. Our Program Director, Jill, knows every story and every name. She makes sure no one falls through the cracks and helps guests troubleshoot their CSA pickups or show them how to use their vegetables efficiently with new recipes, preservation techniques and cost-effective meal planning.

TVC invites you to celebrate the beauty of our local food at the Heart of the Farm Dinner on August 24May,which raises money for TVC’s programs. There’s something magical about sitting under the stars, eating food grown on the land, and laughing and smiling with your neighbors. The meal will consist of a six-course meal prepared by Santa Elena’s and featuring vegetables from Well Fed Farmstead, with dishes like Mushroom Tostadas with Hazel Dell Mushrooms, topped with a spicy tomato chutney made from tomatoes grown by Well Fed and canned in a TVC canning workshop. There will also be courses of local summer squash, eggplant and carrots, and to finish, a peach cobbler, made with Colorado peaches, of course. One of the values ​​TVC believes in is that “participation in a community feeds the soul.” Our community of supporters and our participating families experience this at our events and workshops, realizing that it’s not just the food that nourishes our bodies. It’s the connection and sense of belonging we give to one another. This is the heart of the farm.

Join our community. Learn more or donate at TheVegetableConnection.org and come to our Heart of the Farm Dinner event on August 24th.th6:30pm-9:30pm, featuring live music, an elegant 6-course meal featuring locally sourced ingredients, and drinks and beer from Horse & Dragon Brewing. We hope to see you there!