Tag Archive | "Gardening"

Turning unemployment into time well spent

Nilka Martell has transformed her street since she lost her job last December. [HAZEL SHEFFIELD/The Bronx Ink]

It was a burning hot October afternoon in the Bronx when a small crowd of neighborhood kids gathered to watch a fallen tree airlifted into a truck by government workers. While the children stared, one local resident rushed forward to ask the workers if she could take wood chips to fill the tree pits and flowerbeds in the street.

“They said we can call whenever we need mulch!” said Nilka Martell, a mother of three. “That stuff costs hundreds of dollars to buy from the store.”

Martell would know. She has transformed Virginia Avenue in Parkchester since losing her paralegal job last December. After a long, cold winter unemployed and on benefits, Martell started volunteering for Department of Parks in April before gathering the courage to embark on a beautification project on her own street.

“You get so discouraged when you’re unemployed,” said Martell. “A friend and I got involved in volunteering so we don’t sit at home and go crazy, and at the same time we’re helping the neighborhood.”

Martell is one of an increasing number of New Yorkers keeping busy with volunteering as unemployment continues to stay high. Though New York falls far behind the national rate for volunteers, survey data compiled by government agency Volunteering In America shows that there was a climb in the number of people offering their time for free last year, from 16.4 percent in 2009 to 18.5 percent in 2010. That increase means an extra 300,000 people volunteering in New York, bringing the total number of volunteers to 2.8 million.

Statistics from Volunteering In America show that when unemployment hit 9.3 percent in 2010, 18.5 percent of the population took part in volunteer work. This is up from 2007, when the recession was officially declared. That year, 5.2 percent of New Yorkers were unemployed and only 14.7 percent volunteered.

Martell worked for a paralegal firm for 19 years before she lost her job. “I just figured I’d find another job quickly,” she said. “I’ve never had a problem finding a job.” As a single mother with two teenage children at home, it was a stretch to care for her family on savings and benefits and Martell had plenty of time sitting around at home to worry about the bills. After sending out resumes all winter, she starting to look at other ways to fill her time.

Though Martell was originally looking for legal work to help her get back into employment, she kept stumbling on online ads asking for volunteers with Department of Parks. Eventually, she signed up.

Soon Martell and her children Isaias, 13, and Lia Lynn, 15, were volunteering in parks all over the Bronx every weekend. Martell started looking for something to do closer to home. “I’ve lived in Virginia Avenue for 36 years and it’s always been such an eyesore,” Martell said. “There have always been high weeds, garbage and dog waste.”

“I thought, why not do something right here?” Martell said. “That way if I get bored I don’t have to wait until there’s an event.” She asked the owners of the C-town supermarket across the street if she could start caring for the flower beds behind their parking lot. Without any public funding, Martell and her friends were extremely resourceful, buying cut-price plants, saving dead bulbs and improvising border fencing from bits of scrap wood.

In just a few months, Mexican sunflowers started spilling into the street and bees appeared. Some residents even began clipping the big green leaves of the elephant ear plants to plant in their own gardens. Now, when Martell goes outside to work on the beds she is often joined by children from around block. Some of the kids are still learning English after moving from the Dominican Republic, but they are all keen to help water the flowers and plant new bulbs.

“This is a neighborhood where there are so many different cultures, but because of this project these kids have come together,” Martell said.

Though Martell is still sending out her resume for work, she’s now considering taking her beautification project elsewhere in the Bronx, helping other local residents transform their streets and invest in their communities.

“I didn’t think this was going to become this big,” she said with a smile. “If I hadn’t been laid off at this point in my life, there is no way I would be doing volunteer work.”

http://vimeo.com/30708266

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Edible Garden’s season finale

Celebrity chefs and gardeners teamed up on Oct. 17 for the season finale of the New York Botanical Garden’s Edible Garden exhibit to show visitors how to take their homegrown vegetables from the ground to their dinner plates – just like the pros.

Todd English giving audience members a taste of the beets he used in his risotto. Photo: Brent Ardaugh

Todd English giving audience members a taste of the beets he used in his risotto. Photo: Brent Ardaugh

Start small, and start easy, said Sonia Uyterhoeven, the gardener for public education at the New York Botanical Garden.

“Start with chili peppers, zucchini or tomatoes,” Uyterhoeven said. “Go to people’s gardens and learn what grows well in your neighborhood. Know the needs of the vegetables.”

The next step is learning how to cook them.

Todd English, the chef and owner of Olives Restaurant in Manhattan, taught audience members how to dress a side of risotto with paper-thin slices of beets, roasted in vinegar and wine.

“I call this my little treasure chest,” said English.

English used the risotto as a side dish for lamb chops.

“He’s a very amazing chef,” said Catherine O’Hara, an educator from Manhattan who had a front-row seat at English’s demonstration. “That was the most original, creative use of beets.”

Jennifer Rothman, 36, the associate vice president of children’s and public education at the New York Botanical Garden, coordinated over 200 cooking demonstrations since June, sometimes stepping in and doing demonstrations herself when chefs could not attend.

“I love the cooking demos,” Rothman said. “But tomorrow I have off, and I’m looking forward to that.”

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