Rooted

Last week wrapped up our Badger Rock Middle School summer session, and students completed their new beehive building project! They constructed a Kenyan Top Bar Hive, a style of bee hive that allows bees to build their comb as they naturally would down from bars across the top, instead of being constrained by a foundation. It's also easier to inspect bees and collect honey with this type of hive because you don't have to move heavy supers like on the Langstroth style hives we already have at Badger Rock. Students capped off the project by clearing an area in the garden for planting native wildflowers with the seed balls they made in the fall, to support both our honeybees and native bees!

One of the most powerful and inspiring answers to big issues including broken food systems and climate change is the kids in our communities. We believe young people are the key to building a resilient future. When kids grow food themselves and learn to cook with it, they’re far more likely to eat fresh vegetables and grow up with a care and concern for their environment. When we bring children into these conversations about climate, food justice, and culture early, we can create real, lasting change.

Rooted's Farm to School programs are doing this by providing school garden educators to teach gardening and cooking lessons in eight MMSD schools, as well as providing similar hands-on garden education at neighborhood centers, through the many field trips we host at our farms, and in our year round partnership with Badger Rock Middle School. You can help support this work! Join us at Quivey's Grove on Thursday August 13 for a special vegetable-focused dinner benefiting Rooted. Learn more: https://rootedwi.org/event/quiveys-grove-fundraising-dinner/

Thank you to IBEW Local 159 - The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers - for generously sponsoring Rooted's Garden Nights and Farm to School Aid at Troy Farm this summer! We've been lucky enough to work with IBEW ourselves in the past: they helped update and expand our electrical system at Troy Farm. IBEW also offers apprentice programs for young adults looking to become electricians. Thank you to IBEW Local 159 for supporting Rooted and the Troy Farm community!

It's green bean season at Troy Farm--a quintessential summer harvest, and one that lets our farm team slow down and connect. Even the fastest bean pickers have to go plant by plant and check their work for thoroughness, which makes it great for chatting or reflecting while harvesting. Beans are a phenomenal producer, and the sheer volume of beans that you can harvest off one planting is just staggering. We look forward to continuing to share the summer green bean bounty with our Troy Farm produce recipients!

Summer field trip season is in full swing at Rooted's Madison School Farm and Troy Kids' Garden. Take a look at what the students have been up to!

Our community is in pain right now. When the world is upside down, one thing we can and have to do is keep showing up for each other every day. Making the space for people to discover the joy, wonder, possibilities, learning, and connection that is waiting for them when they step out the door and into the garden is one of our greatest joys. Growing food and sharing meals prepared from a fresh harvest heals us. We recognize that there is a great need for healing in our community, and it is only together that we can hold all that comes our way and continue working to build the world we know is possible.

We’re excited to celebrate 20 years of Troy Gardens Cohousing!

Troy Gardens is an award-winning community that has become a model for permanently affordable homeownership, environmental stewardship, and neighborhood connection.

The vision for Troy Gardens began in 1995, when MACLT, community members, and partner organizations came together to preserve 31 acres of land on Madison's north side. After more than a decade of collaboration, the housing community was completed in 2006, creating a neighborhood unlike any other in our region.

Today, Troy Gardens is home to:
• 30 cohousing homes, including 20 permanently affordable homes MACLT stewards
• Troy Farm, Madison's first certified organic urban farm maintained by Rooted
• 15 acres of restored prairie, woodlands, and natural open space
• A 26 acre community garden with 327 plots serving nearly 190 families each year

For two decades, Troy Gardens has demonstrated what is possible when affordable homeownership, local food production, environmental conservation, and community are intentionally woven together. It stands as one of MACLT's most significant accomplishments and continues to inspire communities across the country.

To learn about the community gardens, farm, and natural areas of Troy Gardens you can visit www.rootedwi.org

Our Rooted in Urban Agriculture Youth Employees were busy in the kitchen making farm-based baked goods for this week's Troy Farm Garden Night! They made several Badger Rock youth favorites: sweet potato brownies, carrot cake muffins, and pumpkin cookies. Also available to purchase at Garden Night: popcorn, pizza by the slice (until we run out!), lemonade, beer, and a homemade garden mocktail.

Garden Night is this Thursday, July 23rd at Troy Farm. The event is FREE, family-friendly, and open to all! More details: https://rootedwi.org/event/troy-garden-nights-2/

We are still basking in the glow of A Summer Night's Dream this past Saturday, and are so honored by the collaboration that made it happen. It’s not one person, chef, dish or idea that brought the magic - it's the collective coming together to make a special place feel even more special.

There are so many people who contributed to this event to thank and recognize for their good work. To begin, we are especially grateful to our amazing guest chefs:
Chef Evan Dannells of Cadre and Lola's Madison
Chef Tory Miller of L'Etoile Restaurant and Graze
Chef Yusuf Bin-Rella of TradeRoots Farms (Collard Fest is TONIGHT)
Chef Mickey Walker of Heirloom Bakery and Kitchen
Chef Kipp Thomas of Kipp’s Catering.

Thank you!

Now is the time to place your pizza orders for this Thursday's Garden Night at Troy Farm! Order your pizzas by tomorrow, Tuesday July 21st, then get ready to enjoy them hot from the fire at Garden Night July 23rd.
Order now: https://troyfarm.square.site/

Also at Garden Night: live music from local band Connor Lyle & the Mother Guys , kids garden activities led by Troy Kids' Garden Manager Laura Bettenhausen, free gardening advice with Troy Farm Collaborative member Kim Fruin, garden mocktails and beer to purchase, and more. Bring a picnic blanket and a friend or neighbor, and enjoy a beautiful evening in the gardens at Troy!