Uptown Summer participant Taria picking peaches hanging over the fence.
The squash patch in Collard City Growers photographs well.
The squash patch in Collard City Growers photographs well.
Planting elephant ear bulbs at Collard City Growers
Uptown Summer Assistant Alfonso in the garden
Getting your hands in the dirt can be good for your soul
Kohlrabi grown at Collard City Growers awaits pickling
The kohlrabi harvest was preserved by Uptown Summer youth
Preparing kohlrabi to be pickled
On a rainy morning, Uptown Summer took the time to preserve some kohlrabi from Collard City Growers
Pickling is an ancient and easy method of food preservation
Pickling kohlrabi in the Sanctuary on a rainy summer morning
The kohlrabi was grown in Collard City Growers
The Uptown Summer youth took the pickled kohlrabi home with them
Using dill vinegar to preserve kohlrabi. The dill and kohlrabi were grown in Collard City Growers
Easy refrigerator pickled vegetables: slice vegetables, 1 T sugar, 2 t salt, dill, spices, 1 part vinegar, 2 parts water.
Collard City Growers welcomes many friendly visitors, like Nayroo.
Sweeping up brush cuttings in front of the Sanctuary on 6th AVE.
Cleaning up a hedge outside of the Sanctuary on 6th AVE.
Saving seeds from over-wintered collard greens grown in their namesake, Collard City Growers.
Eggs from Collard City Growers chickens & quail
On a tour of the Sanctuary’s permaculture campus, we’re reminded why green space is so precious in the city.
Tomatillos growing in Collard City Growers
Kale growing in Collard City Growers
A monarch butterfly upon an echinacea flower in Collard City Growers. The garden hosts a diversity of life in Troy’s North Central neighborhood.
Uptown Summer participants help tend tomato plants inside the hoop house at Collard City Growers.
Uptown Summer participant Ciara loves the golden cherry tomatoes grown at Collard City Growers.
Sisters Taria and Angeles in the sunshine at Collard City Growers.
Collard City Growers added raised beds and small livestock inside the hoophouse in 2020.
The chickens are a source of delight and valuable to the biodynamic compost system used at Collard City Growers.
Uptown Summer participant Amajea helps care for the chickens at CCG by helping to clean their nesting boxes.
Uptown Summer participant Angeles captured this monarch butterfly resting on a blooming squash plant at CCG.
Uptown Summer participant Amajea snapped this photo of bolted greens and their seeds in CCG.
CCG Garden Coordinator Alexis holds a milkweed pod. Milkweed, the only food of the monarch butterfly caterpillar, is edible to humans if prepared correctly.
A milkweed plant in CCG. A designated stand of milkweed in the garden supports the endangered monarch butterflies who visit each year.
Grape vines grow on a trellis at Collard City Growers. The grapes on this vine are particularly sweet.
Uptown Summer participants harvested fresh food nearly every day from CCG. Underripe blackberries and a stand of bee balm can be seen on the right.
Collard City Growers boasts a sizeable blackberry bush in its northeastern corner.
CCG produced an abundance of strawberries, blackberries, and cherries in 2020.
Uptown Summer participants harvest blackberries to snack on
Blackberries may stain your fingers but they contain potent antioxidants
Uptown Summer split their time between Collard City Growers and producing media in a socially distanced way inside the Sanctuary. The Sanctuary entrance sports a hand-painted reminder about the importance of wearing masks.
Strawberry plants in Collard City Growers produce some of the most delicious fruit we’ve ever had.
The southern border of CCG sports vigorous grapevines.
Uptown Summer participant Tarea captured blooming anise hyssop in CCG.
A bush of black-eyed Susans pops in Collard City Growers.
A stand of echinacea blooms year after year in Collard City Growers.
The different breeds of chickens at Collard City Growers provide a beautiful variety of colored eggs.
Produce from Collard City Growers harvested by Uptown Summer youth includes summer squash, delicata, sugar pie pumpkin, lemon cucumber, greens, eggs, onion, grapes, and a basket of peaches
With grapevines growing on the fences, some maintenance is required before things get overgrown.
Grape leaves are edible and delicious. Prepared in a brine, you can stuff them with all sorts of things – from goat cheese to salmon.
Collard City Growers produced cucumbers and squash.
The different breeds of chickens at Collard City Growers provide a beautiful variety of colored eggs.
Uptown Summer participant Angeles captured blooming anise hyssop and chamomile near the gate at CCG.
A residential house near CCG is serendipitously painted mint gree.
Uptown Summer participant Taria works with lines in her photography.
Arugula seedlings growing in a planter at CCG.
Sanctuary interns gardened alongside Uptown Summer in CCG
Uptown Summer participants harvesting collard greens, the namesake of Collard City Growers
Uptown Summer participants found these photo-worthy green grapes growing on a fence at CCG.
A lemon cucumber hanging out and waiting to be harvested in CCG.
Uptown Summer participant Ciara found a bunch of green grapes while gardening at CCG.
Yellow squash amongst green foliage in Collard City Growers.
Pears looking tempting on the pear tree at CCG.
Uptown Summer participants harvest peaches at CCG.
A plants’-eye view of gardening.
Is it true that you are what you eat, Jamel?
Just outside CCG is bustling 6th Avenue in North Central Troy.
Uptown Summer worked across the block on the Sanctuary’s campus.
Peaches are one key to happiness.
You really have to get in there to get the peaches sometimes.
There’s plenty of mint growing in the garden, which we use to make mint tea.
The garden makes a visual contrast to the pavement and brick buildings of 6th Avenue.
Uptown Summer participant Taria picking peaches hanging over the fence.
A row of collards greets CCG guests just inside the gate.
Chamomile from Collard City Growers was harvested for the tea sachets offered at the 2020 Black August People’s Clinic.
Purple basil was one of the varieties of the crowd favorite herb grown in CCG this year.
Squash blossoms are a favorite of bees!
Orange lillies pop in August. On the top left is an invasive ailanthus tree, obviously recognizable by its Skippy peanut butter scent!
Elephant ear bulbs, planted by the Uptown Summer youth, were donated to CCG by Harvesting History.
An elephant ear bulb beginning to show!
We love squash of all sizes and shapes!
A sunflower blooming next to the carriage house.
In the fall, CCG’s sunflowers offer food that attract birds, like bluebirds and chickadees.
We welcomed Astra to the Sanctuary family this year!
A buff orpington (front) and a black australorp (back) in the chicken coop at CCG. The chicken coop got a redesign this year to incorporate the chickens into the compost system.
Uptown Summer youth worked with macro photography during the program.
Sunflowers pop up all over the garden, spread by falling seeds and birds. Sunflowers are hyperaccumulators and take up lead and metals from the soil.
A patch of echinacea flowers.
Experimenting with macrophotography, Genesis captured blackberries at varying stages of ripeness.
Experimenting with macrophotography, Genesis captured blackberries at varying stages of ripeness.
Baby collards
One of the earliest perennials, Asparagus becomes a forest in the summer.
The elephant ears planted on day one were blooming by week four.
Alfonso holds some produce harvested from CCG.
Alfonso holds some produce from the garden.
Uptown Summer youth pick some collards in CCG.
Blackberries and collard greens in Collard city Growers!
Alfonso worked to get the hoop house door open for us. The wood had swollen shut with moisture!
Collard City Growers coordinator Alexis holds a yellow squash grown from seed at the garden in North Central Troy.
Blackberries continuously ripen for about a month in CCG. They go great in a cobbler with fresh peaches.
Green hydrangeas growing along the fence at Collard City Growers.
