• Earth Day Tree Planting
• Core Values Corner
• Appomattox River Cleanup
• Getting Greener Everyday

Fresh from the Garden
Spring is the season for asparagus!  Enjoy this delicious, nutritious perennial at its peak freshness in a scrumptious frittata recipe:

Asparagus Frittata
by Janet Aardema, Pathways Fiscal Manager

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 green onions, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
⅓ cup sliced fresh mushrooms
⅓ cup grape tomatoes, halved
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
2 cups asparagus pieces, cut into 1-inch lengths
5 eggs
1 teaspoon half and half
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
½ cup goat cheese, crumbled

Preheat the broiler. In a 10-inch cast iron skillet, sauté the onion, the green onion and the garlic in the olive oil for 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms, the grape tomatoes, the herbs and the asparagus pieces and continue sautéing, stirring occasionally.

In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, half and half, salt and pepper until pale and frothy. Pour over the vegetables. Sprinkle the crumbled goat cheese over the eggs and cook over low heat until the eggs are set, about 8 minutes. Remove the skillet from the stove and put it under the broiler for 3 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and the eggs are firm. Serves 4.

Core Values Corner:
Up on the Roof

• We create environment that allows us to embrace new ideas and to take on risks.

• We are responsible for creating learning experiences for ourselves, co-workers, and community.

"Where did you say this came from?" asked YouthBuild student Darquita Jones as she shoveled another forkful of salad into her mouth. "We grew it here." "We grew it? Where?"

"On the roof, of course!"

At Pathways we are welcoming in spring, not only for the nicer weather, but because spring is also a time to be planting in the garden. Last year, Pathways partnered with Virginia State University to bring 30 Cell-U-Gro garden units to some of our neighbors in Petersburg. These units allow for a garden to exist in areas where no growth was possible before. For us, this includes the installation of a 480 sq. ft. vegetable garden on our rooftop.

We jumped at the chance to partner with VSU on this project. It has allowed us to put into practice several of our core values. Although we have several garden enthusiasts on staff, the idea of growing our lunch on the roof of our operational center was new and exciting (and perhaps apprehensive for some). Was it a good idea? Is it helpful to us and the community? Is the project going to be a success? Maybe, we don’t know yet. But what is most important is that we are giving it a try. We are open to seeing if it works, using it as a learning opportunity, and seeing if it is important to our community.

Embracing this new idea of a rooftop garden has already bared fruit (mostly vegetables) for us. Many staff members have gotten involved by adopting garden units of their own. Some of our students and staff tend to the garden learning new things about food and horticulture. Garden units all across town are being planted and tended. Growers are sharing seeds, tips, labor, and ideas. So as we embrace new things, we in turn create ripe learning opportunities for ourselves and those around us. And taking risks and learning new things doesn’t seem all that scary when the fruit of our labor is a juicy, sweet, organic watermelon from our rooftop.   

YouthBuild student Quinton Haskins tests out Pathways' experimental bicycle-powered water pump which will be used to get water from our rain collection barrels to the roof.

A few years ago on a camping trip with elementary and middle school students from the city, my husband and I were leading the children on a hike through the woods when we came upon a wild plum tree heavy with ripe fruit. We stopped for an unexpected treat, and much to our surprise when offered a plum, one of the children wrinkled his face and said, “Ugh! You can’t expect me to eat that.” “Why not?” “It is growing on a tree and you have no idea what might be on it.” “Where do you think the fruit you eat comes from?” “Well, they make it at the grocery store, where it is clean.” No amount of conversation could convince this pre-teen that his store bought fruit had been harvested from a tree such as the one in the woods.

A few years later on another camping trip with young adults also from Petersburg, we prepared our food each day from fresh ingredients. By the end of the second day, several campers exclaimed, “Man, we are tired of this stuff, we need some real food.” “What do you classify as real food?” “You know, real food.” After a few more exchanges, we discovered that real food to them meant potato chips, hot pockets, cookies, soda, and real chicken from their favorite fast-food restaurant.

Somewhere between these two events we began our urban gardening project where local youth and adults grew flowers and produce, prepared meals and served them to each other and the larger community. The young man afraid of the wild plum learned first-hand how to grow his own collards and potatoes. The youth expanded their food repertoire as they prepared the soil, planted the seeds, tended the plants, harvested the produce and prepared the feast.

Last summer I had the privilege of touring the garden of my uncle, James, as he pointed out his prize crops and his flourishing olive tree nearby, and shared with me decades of gardening stories. We would stop every few yards for me to harvest the hiding melon, the vibrant peppers, or the colorful beans. My husband saved and dried seeds from several of the plants for us to have this summer. The seeds were started inside and are almost ready to move to the garden, and others of those seeds are being shared with our students here for their rooftop garden.

The cycle begins again. This was the last garden that James planted, and the last tour he gave. The seeds, the knowledge, and the passion he shared live on in the plants springing fresh from the dirt as a whole new generation of gardeners discover the excitement of growing their own food, find that it is real, and begin to understand the importance of nurture.

This newsletter is filled with stories of folks, young and not-so-young, doing their part to make life and the earth on which we all live sustainable, to nurture themselves and their community, to bring nourishment and beauty to the often neglected, and to offer creativity and fun in the midst. We hope you will be inspired by what you see, read, and feel, to commit to at least one act of sustainability that will build life and awaken hope in your corner of the world and beyond.

Petersburg’s Washington St. corridor will be getting a little bit greener thanks to Pathways.  The Petersburg non-profit is planting 60 flowering crabapple trees along the barren sidewalks of the 1100 and 1200 blocks of Washington St.

The tree planting is part of a larger beautification project funded by the Home Depot Foundation through the Virginia Local Initiatives Support Corporation.  Future plans include transforming Pathways’ 28,000 sq. ft. gravel parking lot into an attractive green space and creating an eco-friendly demonstration garden.

This greening project will also serve as a training opportunity for students of Pathways’ YouthBuild, workforce development, and AmeriCorps programs.

City Council member Ray Coleman broke ground on the project, yesterday, on Earth Day, along with Pathways' Executive Director, Dwala Ferrell, YouthBuild students Patrick Smith and Rahamond Davis, and staff member Ron Thompson. The tree planting is scheduled to be completed in the coming weeks.

Cleaning Up - Down By the Riverside

Overgrown bushes, uncut grass, bottles and cans and men congregating for their daily fishing routine is a little of what you would see if you stopped by the Johnson Alley entrance of the Appomattox River. This area of the river is a very sad sight, yet it has the potential to be so much more. Both staff and the young people within our organization pitched in on Global Youth Service Day to help make that potential visible. Our young people demonstrate the overall mission and goal by which we as an organization live through their commitment and ownership for this on-going project in their community.

Other recent green youth projects include: 

• Picking up trash along the Washington St. corridor, which Pathways has "adopted" through the Adopt-a-Street program
• Landscaping, clean-up, and post-hole digging at a halfway home for ex-offenders
• Creating a compost pile for Pathways' rooftop garden
• Planting trees along a major thoroughfare