Showing posts with label #nutrition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #nutrition. Show all posts

Monday, November 29, 2021

Life Lessons: Weaving Nutrition, Wellness, Books, & Animal Love into a Fully Textured Journey of Happiness

My interview with Lifestyle Motivator Nancy on a recent Ladies Who Lunch Conversation 

Nancy Addison is the kind of woman you like right off the pickle dish. Maybe it's her Lonestar roots.

She is vibrant, curious, passionate, engaged, and full of delights.  

You think you know her but even after many years, you are pleasantly surprised to learn some new aspect to her prismatic personality.

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

New York Yankees & Celebrity Chef, Andrew Carmellini celebrate Harlem Grown

Yankees' Masahiro Tanaka harvests cabbage at HOPE chef's garden event. Photo courtesy of Yankees
This is a first in a series of bylines written by Garden Glamour guest reporter and intern, Shannon Ho

Recently, the New York Yankees and celebrity chef, Andrew Carmellini paid tribute to Harlem Grown

garden and greenhouse on 134th Street as part of the team’s, Helping Others Persevere and Excel (HOPE) Week annual program that since its 2009 launch, the entire Yankee lineup celebrates "individuals, families, or organizations worthy of support.” 

This year, the team and Chef Carmellini surprised Harlem Grown founder Tony Hillery and kindergarten students from PS 125, involving the children in gardening work and healthy food prep demonstrations. 
Yankees' Masahiro Tanaka Is Ready to Dig
Harlem Grown was chosen by the Yankees as an exceptional group to recognize during this philanthropic week. Harlem Grown founder Tony Hillery changed careers in the wake of the 2009 recession, leaving his successful limousine business to eventually create Harlem Grown. It was conceived after Hillery realized that there were little-to-no healthy food options in his neighborhood of Harlem. Wanting to change that, Hillery took an abandoned lot across the street from PS 175, reclaimed it via an application to the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, and converted the space into an urban farm. 
Chasen Shreve at L - RIchard Bleier at C - Michael Pineda at R - in the Harlem Grown Greenhouse














“When we learned about Harlem Grown’s beginnings and the difference they were making in the community, it became clear that they were an organization that should be recognized as part of HOPE Week,” said Michael Margolis, Assistant Director of Baseball Information and Public Communications for the New York Yankees.  Margolis also explained that the Yankees team had a preexisting relationship with celebrity Chef Carmellini, and when asked to participate in the day’s events, the chef was “extremely gracious and enthusiastically volunteered his time and energy.”


Chef Andrew Carmellini provided salad demo to budding chefs. Tony Hillary (L), Ivan Nova, R. Photo courtesy of Yankees 

New York Yankees in attendance included: Masahiro Tanaka, Andrew Miller, Michael Pineda, Ivan Nova, Rob Refsnyder, Austin Romine, Chasen Shreve, Kirby Yates and Richard Bleier. 
Andrew Mill shares picked cherries; Tanaka - C, Rob Refsnyder - R














During the ceremonies, the team presented a donation to Harlem Grown on behalf of the Yankees Foundation. Other participants involved were the hip hop group, TheLox, Miss New York USA 2016 Serena Bucaj, and singer-songwriter Kany GarcĂ­a.



Sheek Louch - Jadakiss - Tony HIllery - Styles P - Serena Bucaj - Kany Garcia

Recognizing Harlem Grown during this year’s HOPE Week was based, in part, on the link - or affiliation - to the Yankees’ own healthy dietary habits mission. Players’ dining is coordinated via Cynthia Sass, the Yankees’ Nutritional Consultant, who was also present at Harlem Grown for HOPE Week.

Kirby Yates at L and Chasen Shreve at R Digging at the Farm.
Group Shot with Everyone - Players, Staff, Celebs and Kids














“Our organization is focused on preparing our players in every way, including helping them to incorporate a balanced diet for optimal performance,” Margolis said. “What Harlem Grown is doing is no different. They are showing children what they can eat to feel good on a day-to-day basis and provide the building blocks for a long and healthy life.”


The kindergarteners from PS 125 were chosen to be recognized alongside Hillery because of their working association with the Harlem Grown program and their participation and contribution to the garden and greenhouse throughout the school year. The Yankees Hope program provided the students a hands-on learning experience with an award-winning, farm-to-table chef, in a fun and delicious way. Together, chef and the students harvested, cooked and enjoyed eating the salad that Chef Carmellini prepared.

HOPE Week commenced in 2009 as the Yankees’ way of giving back to organizations, individuals and families off the field. The mission of HOPE Week each year is to inspire and encourage others, and that the acts of goodwill performed reach beyond those who receive them. The initiative hopes to spread altruism, with the fundamental value of “people helping people,” according to the Yankees Foundation.
Yankees Donation Is Presented to Tony Hillery


“Tony Hillery saw a need for healthy food options in the community and opened a door to a new way of thinking about food to hundreds of children and their families,” said Margolis. “Even more importantly, he is able to bring the actual food into their lives.”

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

The Horticultural Society of New York (The Hort) Hosts Its 4th Annual Urban Agriculture Conference (UAC)



The UAC will offer hands-on demos at several sites including (pictured) Randall's Island Urban Farm, a 3,000 square foot urban farm created through GrowNYC and the Randall's Island Park Alliance that offers environmental education and nutritional learning
Double-down for homegrown. For two blissful, farm-fueled days – and evenings -- Thursday, May 29 and Friday, May 30 -- The Horticultural Society of New York (The Hort) and attendees will travel to working urban farms in Manhattan and Queens for its fourth annual Urban Agricultural Conference (UAC), promising to break records for attendance.
The program will focus on urban farming as a viable and successful business venture and an additional, augmented food source for urban dwellers.

The Urban Ag Conference will feature hands-on demonstrations on all aspects of urban farming from bee pollination to wicking beds, cover crops, youth empowerment and aquaponics, at various sites including, Smiling Hogshead Ranch in Long Island City, Battery Urban Farm at Battery Park, Randall’s Island Urban Farm and Wards Island Farm on Randall’s Island, and Boswyck Farms and Build it Green! in Astoria.

The conference will also include a film on European urban and organic farming, along with a panel discussion led by Billy Polansky, general manager, Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture.

“Today, urban agriculture isn’t the little known entity it was when we launched the conference in 2010,” says The Hort’s Director of Horticulture and Public Programs George Pisegna. “This year, we are focusing on educating the food industry, consumers, environmentalists, and many others on ways to make urban agriculture succeed as a viable business,” Pisegna explained.
It is wouldn’t be wrong to note that the burgeoning commitment to urban agriculture here in Gotham – and across the country -- has been ignited by The Hort, its leadership, and networking community support.

The UAC opens May 29th at Mombucha’s Magic City, a kombucha-maker’s facility in Greenpoint, with a screening of Guerilla Cycling: Growing on a Bike, a short film by urban grower Tom Boyden from F.H. King & University of Wisconsin Madison Horticulture Department. The film chronicles Boyden’s 5,000-mile bike journey through organic and urban farms in western and central Europe.  Guests will enjoy locally sourced food and cocktails.

The next day (Friday, May 30th), at NYU’s Kimmel Center (Rosenthal Pavilion, Washington Square), boasts a full day of robust Urban Ag content, kicking off with keynote speaker, Polansky.
Following Polansky, moderator Adam Saunders, public outreach coordinator, Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture will lead a discussion: The Business of Farming: Organizational Structures & Operations, focused on the tools needed to support successful urban agriculture ventures from incorporation as a non-profit, land access, paid labor and volunteers, programming, design in urban food systems, as well as the ways urban dwellers can support viable food economies.
Panelists are Kelsey Ripper, Equal Justice Works Fellow, from the Lawyers Alliance for New York; Community Food Lab’s Erin White, principal; Feedback Farms’ co-founder Thomas Hallaran, and Daron ‘Farmer D’ Joffe of Farmer D Organics.
In the afternoon (1:30 to 5:30 pm), participants will choose a workshop track offering hands-on, on-site demonstrations.  Attendees choose one of five locations:

1. At Smiling Hogshead Ranch in Long Island City, they will learn how Container Gardening can develop alternative gardenscapes to grow abundant, healthy food in limited spaces.  

2. At Build it Green! in Astoria, Composting & Soil Management will offer a first-hand view of small and large scale composting operations and techniques that maximize the complex ecosystem underneath crops. 
Riverpark Farm
3. Outdoor classrooms on Farm Education at Battery Urban Farm in Battery Park will show how to practice food sovereignty and make healthier choices.  
Battery Urban Farm



4. Farm Practices will demonstrate varied techniques from chickens to bees, mushrooms to propagation, to establish balanced farms at Randall’s Island Urban Farm and Ward’s Island Farm.  




5. Hydro & Aquaponics at Boswyck Farms in Astoria will show how alternative designs; new technology and sustainable systems support high productivity.  
Boswyck Farms










Demonstrations will be led by known professionals including Zachary Pickens of Riverpark Farm; Thomas Hallaran and Clare Sullivan, Feedback Farms; Jonathan Wilson, Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden; Gil Lopez, Smiling Hogshead Ranch; Erik Martig, Build It Green! Andrew Blancero, NYC Compost Project on Staten Island; David Vigil and Cameal Tapper, East NY Farms!; Cara Chard, City Growers; Esther Gottesman and Perri Erlitz, Edible Schoolyard NYC; Anna Ellis, Camilla Hammer, and Josie Johnson, Battery Urban Farm; Nick Storrs, Randall’s Island Park Alliance; Lily Kesselman an Yanet Rojas, City Chicken Project at Just Food; Andrew CotĂ©, Silvermine Apiary; Andrew Casner, Project EATs; and Lee Mandell, Boswyck Farms.

Further, conference attendees have the rare opportunity to visit these examples of urban farming and see that farming in town is not only doable but vital – and doable.
A bus will be provided to the Randall's Island demo.  The Hort staff will provide MetroCards to the attendees for the other four locations to amplify how a quick subway ride will transport you to a bucolic farm right in the heart of New York!

The closing reception will allow for a discussion of the day’s events and a preview of the future over complimentary beverages from 6 to 9 pm at Good Co. in Williamsburg.
For a complete agenda, visit http://thehort.org/UAC/

About The Hort
The mission of the Horticultural Society of New York (The Hort) is to sustain the vital connection between people and plants. Social service and public programs educate and inspire, growing a broad community that values horticulture for the many benefits it brings to our environment, our neighborhoods, and our lives.