Seeds And Their People - EP. 30: Happy 70th Birthday Karen Washington! Food and Plant Stories about our Queen.

Episode Date: April 20, 2024

Join us and 15 of Karen Washington's dear friends, family, mentees, and collaborators in wishing her a very happy 70th birthday with this episode featuring food and plant stories about our Farmy Godmother. Karen has been instrumental in the creation and guidance of neighborhood organizations such as Garden of Happiness, La Familia Verde Coalition and Farmers Market, and Bronx Green Up, as well as Farm School NYC, Black Urban Growers, and the Black Farmers and Urban Gardeners Conference. She serves on the board of Soul Fire Farm, the Black Farmer Fund, and the Mary Mitchell Center and has been a part of so many others such as Just Food (where we first met) and New York Botanic Garden, and was once the president of the New York City Community Garden Coalition, organizing to protect the gardens from development. She is one of the four co-founders and owners of Rise & Root Farm in Chester, NY. More importantly, Karen is a fierce fighter for gardens and justice and loves her friends and families with gusto and grits. We hope these stories reveal her love and knack for investing in community and her life-long commitment to rising and rooting for justice.  PEOPLE WITH KAREN STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Karen Washington Lorrie Clevenger - Rise and Root Farm, Black Urban Growers, and Farm School NYC; formerly of Just Food and WhyHunger. Leah Penniman - Soul Fire Farm Cheryl Holt - Karen's neighbor, Garden of Happiness Kendra Washington Bass - Karen's daughter Kady Williams - Taqwa Community Farm, Iridescent Earth Collective; formerly of Bronx Green Up Ashanti Williams -Taqwa Community Farm, Black Yard Farm Julian Bass - Karen's grandson Nicole Ndiaye - NAHE, Bathgate Community Garden Gabriela Pereyra - Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust  Aleyna Rodriguez - Mary Mitchell Center Ursula Chanse - Bronx Green Up, New York Botanic Garden Michael Hurwitz - Landing Light Strategies; formerly of Added Value and Greenmarket Kathleen McTigue - AmeriCorps; formerly of Just Food and New Roots Community Farm Frances Perez Rodriguez - Farm School NYC Jane Hayes Hodge - Rise and Root Farm; formerly of Just Food and Farm School NYC THIS EPISODE SUPPORTED BY: YOU! Please become a Patron for $1 or more a month at Patreon.com/trueloveseeds A Bookkeeping Cooperative: https://bookkeeping.coop/home/ ABOUT: Seeds And Their People is a radio show where we feature seed stories told by the people who truly love them. Hosted by Owen Taylor of Truelove Seeds and Chris Bolden-Newsome of Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden. trueloveseeds.com/blogs/satpradio   FIND OWEN HERE: Truelove Seeds Facebook  |  Instagram  |  Twitter   FIND CHRIS HERE: Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden   THANKS TO: Queen Karen Jane Hayes Hodge for helping make this happen Emilio Sweet-Coll for help with audio editing   Our Patreon members and A Bookkeeping Cooperative

They have no plan here, but can you say who you are and how you're feeling right now? I'm Karen, Washington. They call me Mama Kay, and I'm feeling glorious and so happy. I just heard so many wonderful stories about you, and I have a million of them myself, that I'm sure I'm going to add to this episode, too. But what do you want people to know? Now you're on your 70th circle around the sun. What do you want people to know about you and your work and the future of food? Well, I want people to know that I'm very humble that I tell people I'm an ordinary person trying to do extraordinary things.

I feel that I've been blessed to do this work and to make sure that there is people have access to food. I think it's food and health and housing. I think it's a right for all human beings. And I just try to be proactive instead of reactive and making sure that that is happening. My first memory of you that I'm going to tell people right now is late 2005 at La Familiar Verde Farmer's Market. My first experience of you, as I walked up, was singing at the top of your lungs about collard greens. Come get your collard greens. How did that go?

Get your fresh festivals, we grow them, you eat them, we grow them, you eat them. So I remember that. And I remember Miss Washington, God bless her, taking over the helm and started singing the same song. yes you were the youngster yeah it was the youngsters right and had the queens miss washington or miss weaver and miss nemley who uh have gone off you know so i'm just trying to carry the torch now now i'm the ogy yeah the ogy and we all love you so much thank you so much i feel the love you know when i looked around and i see so many different faces so many different races so many different ethnicity so many sexual orientation so many people it's just it makes me feel that

I've done the right thing in terms of bringing community together and bringing people together that love each other. I think that's important. It's very important. And we're grateful for you and thank you for this time and thank you for bringing this beautiful community of people together. We are here because of you. Most of us know each other because of you and you are a true connector, right? A true visionary. I know you won't claim it. I know you're humble, but I want you to know that we are grateful for it. Thank you, Owen. I love you dearly so much. Thank you. I love you, too.

Before we jump into the episode, before we jump into the episode, I want to thank a bookkeeping cooperative for supporting our podcast. And one of the members, the collective members, is Terry Rodriguez, a former, Farm School New York City students. So how appropriate. And they support farms like Risenroot Farms. So check out this ad and please check them out. Did you know that the community-supported agriculture model actually came out of a financial need to address cash flow for small farms? Does your farm organization need support with its finances? Do you want to learn about values-aligned financial management? A bookkeeping cooperative offers a range of services including bookkeeping, consulting, and engaging online workshops to develop

the skills and confidence of those working towards a just world beyond capitalism. Sign up at www.bookkeeping.coop. Again, the name of this bookkeeping cooperative is A. Bookkeeping Cooperative, ABC. Welcome to Seeds and Their People. I'm Chris Bowden-Nusam, farmer and co-director of Sancofa Farm at Bartram's Garden in sunny southwest Philadelphia and I'm Owen Taylor seedkeeper and farmer at True Love Seeds where a seed company offering ancestral seeds grown by farmers who preserve their beloved tastes of home for the diasporas and beyond through keeping seeds and their stories in community this podcast is supported by true love seeds and by our listeners

and thank you so much to our patreon members at patreon.com True Love Seeds, including our most recent members, Ambie and Jim. This episode is a collection of 15 short interviews about food or plant stories connected to Karen Washington, mostly from her 70th birthday party last week in the Black Dirt region of Chester, New York, where Karen and her team at Risenroot Farm grows vegetables for market. So I know you're about to run off to your farm, so I want to capture, some thoughts from you before I launched into a mini biography and the episode. Yeah, well, so it was a very exciting weekend.

The party felt quick, but I know we were there for hours. And it was just so awesome to be there with so many of the people who were there kind of at the formation of our relationship, our covenant with one another. That's right. Karen was actually there when we met. Yes, yes. And that's the important thing. So there was this full circle kind of feeling because not only was Mama Karen there, but you know, I mean, Maggie Cheney and, and, oh, gosh, so many other people, D.

Yeah, Sister D. So many other people were there who were sort of part of the story of you and I. And that was not lost, you know, on me, you know, the beauty and the power of that moment as well, too. Yeah, you're absolutely right. Mama Karen was there when we first met. When I first met you, I first met her as well, that whole entourage from New York. So that was exciting and that was beautiful. Of course, you know, it was a lovely spring day as well, not far from Rising Roof Farm right there, basically in the same neighborhood.

Right, you could see other farms right next to the party where you could see that rich, black dirt that what a former peat bog or something like that oh was it a peat bog okay i didn't know that makes sense that's that's that's that now that you say that's what it feels like of course you know one of the crowning pieces of that day was her beloved son bryant providing the entertainment i didn't know the brother could sing like that i didn't know that he was a singer but um he just kept going and going it was all the hits and so for me you know definitely as a 70s baby he he went all the from the 70s through the 80s and the 90s and it was just awesome and you all can hear it in the background which I kind of like in these interviews you can hear some of these hits of yesteryear

yeah yeah I mean it was awesome and he had a beautiful band backing him up and just and just an honor to be able to sing for your mama on her 70th birthday what a blessing it was an all ages event which is something that I also love you know about this farming network, this community, particularly that community of New York farmers, that it's inclusive in the deepest, you know, sort of meaning of the word, you know, and in Mama Karen alludes to that, you know, in the first part of the interview where she's talking about, you know, how she felt, you ask her how she feels, and she talks about that, how, what a blessing it was for her, that it was a blessing to her to be able to bring together people from all walks of life.

who have this in common and you really felt that it's also really beautiful the kids seem to make friends so easily how we lose that and when we lose that i don't know but um brian made lots of friends even when they don't remember their names they still call them friends you know so that was cute it was it was a beautiful day why don't you tell us a food memory before you have to run out the door i guess one that that stays with me that i think a lot about is uh early in our relationship, we went and we stayed with Mama Karen at our house in the Bronx. And you showed me the gardens, you know, across the street where she had worked and where some of the mothers from that neighborhood had, you know, got everything started.

First, it was very exciting. It was like going to an auntie's house that you didn't know, that you hadn't known because I still didn't know Mama Karen very well at that point. But we went to her house and that morning she made breakfast for us and I was very surprised to see her cooking up grits. I still didn't really know a lot about my sisters and brothers in the north, black folks in the north, you know, and being a southerner raised on grits just about every day, it was this sort of powerful moment of connection that she was at the stove. stirring grits in the same way that my auntie or my mama would be, you know, and serving us up grits. And then really was the last thing I expected.

I'd always heard that New Yorkers had never heard of grits. But to see that there was that continuity of her southern roots. So to have that immediate connection and to be in this house felt like I was, you know, because the idea of the Bronx and even the name and the word and certainly, you know, the accents and everything about it was very exotic to me because it was just something I knew. about from TV. The thing that she served me one time that felt the most unfamiliar was pigs feet in that kitchen. Wow. Okay, so she really does hold on to that culture. I didn't know. I passed on the pigs feet, but I ate my fair share growing up in the South. But that might have been

the same night that we'd had this sleepover. I don't think you were there. It was maybe before, before I knew you, where she introduced a bunch of us to the movie White Chicks, which I want to thank her for as well. Oh, it's been so instrumental in our lives. It's so inspirational, and we've continued to repeat those ridiculous words for so long. Yeah, y'all white chicks. Such a movie could never be made today. Boy, I sure am glad it was. And I'm glad Mama Karen has introduced. us to so many important things, which I'm going to mention in a minute some of my stories too. But any last words before you run off to the farm? Yes. Well, I mean, you know, again,

like, you know, that, like I said, that reverberates with me that day at her house. And then she took us down into her basement where she had this extensive museum collection of African artifacts. I'm looking, we're looking at one right now, you know, a statue. Um, That's a traditional statue from Congo, and she allowed us to pick two items down there, and we still have them. We're looking at them right now. There's one that's a mask that I believe is from what is now Ghana, and it's a beautiful mask of a head with a raven on top who is pecking at a corn cob. To be able to go down into her basement and pick up that piece of Africa after, you know, those pieces of Africa after eating gris. in her steamy kitchen that morning was really powerful.

And I was also heartened to recognize that she was a woman of faith as well. So I just didn't know a lot about New Yorkers or black New Yorkers, but I recognized, you know, in meeting Mama Karen and in her sharing her life with us that day. And she was so happy to have us and host us. Her kids were all grown and gone. And so it was nice to be there. and let her do some mothering on us that day. You know, just really grateful for her example

and for the ways that she has continued to bless people all over the world. Sometimes she signs her name, Your Farmy Mommy. Yeah, yeah. She's definitely that she's a godmother of farming in this region. All right. Well, I'm going to continue. you to introduce this episode. Thank you. Thank you. Love you. Love you. Okay, Chris is off to his

farm. I want to tell you all a little bit about Mama Karen before we jump into these interviews, just because people mention things she's done and organizations, and I'd like you to have a sense of the timeline and what those organizations are to some extent. So I'll try to be quick. I'm not going to use notes because they're tripping me up, and I hope I get this correct. So Mama Karen was born in 1954 in the Lower East Side. By the 60s, her family moved to Harlem. Her parents were both involved with food in some way. Her dad had a farmer's market, even, a farm stand, and her mom worked in the school cafeteria. And they also, he was a fisherman. And I've actually fact-checked one thing in this episode, which was about the blowfish,

because it was unclear what the story was. And she said, yes, when she said, yes, when she was a kid, they would catch the blowfish and see them all puffed up and throw them back. So from an early age, coaxing food from the waters and soils of New York City, she was seasick, she told me as a kid, so she didn't go out with her dad. But by the time I met her, she was taking regular trips on boats for fishing. We went in the Long Island Sound one time. I got to go with her family and friends a long time ago and catch a bunch of fish with her. So anyway, let's move forward by the mid-1980s, she moved to the Bronx and had her backyard garden, started Garden of Happiness with her neighbors, as you'll hear, joined Bronx Greenup through the New York Botanic Garden, as you'll also hear in this episode. Moving forward to the late 90s, Mayor Giuliani was selling off community gardens, really vacant lot.

A lot of them were actually community gardens. and so there was this effort to protect them and karen was as usual kind of towards the helm or at the helm she helped to found new york city community garden coalition an organization to fight for the gardens they were able to protect a lot of them she's a fierce advocate and actually when i met her so many years later she was i believe the president of the new york city community garden Coalition at that point in like 2005, six, if I'm remembering correctly. And we would also go to City Hall, a whole, you know, huge network of gardeners and farmers, thanks to the early advocacy work of the New York City Community Garden Coalition to fight for the community gardens when they

needed fighting for. And she would say that these elected officials work for us and they need to be accountable to us. We need to be able to say what we need and want from them. And that kind of help me wrap my mind around what is advocacy and how can we hold the power as the people. She helped also in the late 90s start La Familia Verde Garden Coalition in the Bronx with a bunch of Bronx community gardens. She was, you know, one of many, many. And that's where I first met her, as you heard, at the community market. In my memory, they had approached green markets. the citywide farmers market organization being like we want to start a market here in the South Bronx and we're kind of pushed away, we're told that it wouldn't work to get farmers

to come to the South Bronx, let alone customers in the neighborhood to buy the vegetables. And as usual, she was like, okay, a watch, we'll do this. And they started what I think was one of the first or the first Just Food City Farms markets, which were community-run markets in New York City with some connection to community-grown food in the gardens. And so powerhouse, you know, yet again, making things happen in the neighborhood, in the community, despite what, you know, the reservations of other people.

I remember soon after that, around 2007, basically a bunch of my farmer friends went on a farming lady's retreat to kind of talk about the future of urban ag in New York City. And also around that time, Karen went to the UC Santa Cruz Center for Agricology program for about a year and came back. And this was around 2007, 2008, 2009, when a lot of people were meeting about what is the future of urban ag in New York City. And they would meet in the just food offices where I worked and other places where she was like, why should I, why should people like me have to travel the country, leave our jobs, leave our families to get

this kind of education and why isn't it happening here in New York City. There's so many people that want to learn to farm and garden and work for food justice. Let's make something like that here. And while it was a big coalition of so many gardeners and farmers and advocates, my memory is that Karen Washington's framing around we need an accessible farm training program here was part of the driving force for creating farm school New York City. And we were lucky to have a like a multi-year planning grant, which allowed the slow, long process of visioning, what would an accessible, decentralized farm and food justice training program in New York City look like based in the community gardens, the long-term community gardens in the city,

like Garden of Happiness, like Takua Community Farm, like Hattie Carthin Community Garden, et cetera. And so that's what people are referring to when they say Farm School in New York City, which I believe started in maybe 2011, the first class, give or take. And I was a teacher there for the Training of Trainers Program until around 2018. And a lot of times I'd stayed at her house while I was teaching once I moved to Philly in 2012. And sometimes it would actually teach that course with her. Many people mention bugs, black urban growers. And that's, you know, that was partially started.

by Karen Washington and Lori Clevenger and many others, because why couldn't there be a for us, by us, kind of black urban growers organization and black urban growers conference? And so that was kind of, I believe, also started around 2011, the first conference, and Karen's been at the helm with amazing people with that organization as well.

she retired I think around 2014 look at me just throwing dates out without knowing but I'm giving you an estimate here from her physical therapy profession which she had studied and become a physical therapist in the early 80s and this was always a huge inspiration to me to see that she was doing all of these incredible things having this huge impact building community, fighting for justice, starting organizations while having this other full-time job that paid her bills and allowed her to do this work. And I had, before meeting her, had made a choice to go into like a career of food justice and, you know, urban agriculture. And, you know, I had also grown up growing food as a hobby and had been a member of community gardens before that. But I was very always inspired that she was able to do this job that involved healing people, you know, as a physical therapist and very involved in the health of the human body, you know, so not that unrelated to food justice. But she was having this as her profession

meant that she was not beholden to any particular organization or funder and she could be outspoken and she could move where she needed to move in terms of the food justice movement. And I really admired that. And I think it's not that unusual for the old school community gardeners of New York City and beyond. There just wasn't a career in this work in the same way as there is now, where people can make this their life's work as a kind of job. But people who saw gardens like the one across from her street and just did what needed to be done to make them safe spaces that were also nurturing. the community, a source of food, a place to gather, a place to organize. And I just really admired

that, and I'm grateful for that groundwork that she and people like her were able to do to pave the way for so many of us who are now involved. And I could really see the benefit to this not being her paid work, but being her work of passion, especially in those early days. I want to also talk about Rise and Root Farm. You'll hear about that in this episode. We hear from three of the four of them, Karen, Jane, and Lori. Sorry to miss you in this episode, Michaela. Chris and I actually were in early meetings with them,

and we're going to maybe be part of Rise and Root Farm, and we all still lived in New York, not Chris, but the rest of us, and it didn't really work out that we would join them. I mean, honestly, Chris would not move to upstate New York or anywhere further north than he already lives. But we love them like family and are so grateful for them and so excited about what they've been doing. So Risenroot Farms up in this black dirt region, as you've heard about.

And grows vegetables for market and does a lot of important community work as well in gatherings. I think that's all I want to say. I actually went on longer than I expected. I want to look quickly at my notes to see, I guess there's three things I wanted to mention I already said the thing about the physical therapist part one thing that stood out to me with my relationship with Karen like a memory that's really important to me was that I think it was around 2007 or so I had been to the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit a little before then and wanted to go back and had this funding from Heifer International and I had I asked Mama Karen if she would come with me to Detroit to tour the gardens and farms, and we went and did that and went to a big meeting of the greening of Detroit, all these community

gardens. And I remember Mama Karen saying a few times on that trip to the gardeners, like, this looks like New York in the 70s and 80s, you know, the disinvestment, the vacant lots, but also all the community organizing and community farming. And she said, this is your moment to protect these spaces. You know, what happened with Giuliani in New York can happen here. And it's time to organize and protect these spaces for the oncoming development and gentrification and so on and devaluing of the work that you've done. And so that really impressed upon me, you know, the early days of my relationship to her, what she had been through and what she had been able to accomplish.

And, you know, I really heard the weight and the urgency of, of, of, those directives, really. And I just had, like, such a wonderful time with her there in Detroit. You know, right around that time, we also were able to go to Milwaukee, as Chris mentioned. And that's where I met Chris. And Mama Karen and at least a dozen other community gardeners from New York City were able to go to the Growing Food and Justice Conference in 2008. And just being able, So these moments being able to travel with Mama Karen and be part of a national or international food justice and garden and farm movement, but also these moments of just being in her home and staying there so many nights and hearing her watch baseball in the other room,

falling asleep or eating a delicious breakfast with her or, you know, just catching up. I mean, from the small to the big moments, I really love Mama Karen. And I was talking to Emilio, who is helping edit some of these episodes now, about why are we even putting this episode out? And because it's like this kind of intimate birthday episode. But Emilio said, you know what? Your podcast is not about how to grow food. It's not technical. It's about how to grow community.

you know, and this really illustrates that, this episode. So thank you for that insight, Emilio. I'll say that Mama Karen in the early days of true love seeds and rise in root had asked to grow a Goligichi crop, and so took on the Sea Island Red Pea that year as a connection to her Galagichi ancestry. And so I'll just make that little blip my plant story, but this whole episode is my Karen story,

and I hope you all enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it, and especially Mama Karen, I hope you feel all of the love. So let's transport us to Mama Karen's 70th birthday party. Here we go. Okay. Wait, you got to say who you are. So I am Lori Clevenger, and I am co-farmor with Karen, Washington, and Jane Hayes-Hodge and Michaela Hayes-Hodge at Risenrood Farm.

Okay, what's your food story or plant story about Karen Washington? My food story about Karen Washington is Swiss chard. I hated Swiss chard, did not like Swiss chard at all. And then Karen made Swiss chard for me once with white beans. It was really simple, but it was so delicious, and now that's one of my staples. So Swiss chard and white beans. Do you grow those things here? we do gross was charged we do not grow the white beans though but maybe someday okay that was a very

short story i'm going to have to ask you 500 follow-up questions um well well tell us in a nutshell what your farm is just so people have context so our farm is a cooperative farm owned by the four of us and we are multiracial, multi-generational, multi-gender identities and love people, love food, love the earth, and that's at the center of our work. And that's what we try to keep focused on and how we make our decisions together is just like, is this healthy for all of us? And if it's not, we don't do it. And if it is, it's, you know, very clear choice. So in the days before Swiss chard, you know, can you tell us how this wonderful human came into your life? Karen Washington was a board member for Just Food and also one of the organizers for the community gardens and farmers markets in the Bronx.

And so I met Karen when I started working at Just Food with a bunch of other superstars, one of which is interviewing me right now. nice yeah now almost 20 years later you're farming together and you eat Swiss chard and white beans together yes yes and also I just have to say one of the things that like I remember most from the initial meeting and like just my first learning about Karen Washington and who she is is just this quote each one teach one and also that there's another quote that I can't quite remember how it goes but like if we're not all arriving together then we're then you know something needs to change like she's not about leaving anyone behind and yeah and like that was really inspiring to me and how I want to try

every day to live my life is just if I'm going up so is everybody else yeah I'm so glad I ask follow-up questions because now I don't need to interview anybody else the episode is over you said it all no I didn't there's so many amazing people here you yeah this is going to be a rock star episode like all of them but still yeah I'll edit that part out but thank you Lori thank you Owen my name is Leah Penaman and I'm from Soulfire Farm in Grafton New York I've known Mama Karen since my late teens we met at a NOFA conference back when I was green as a farmer and that you could count on one hand the number of black and brown people in these organic farming spaces. So I went around with slips of paper

profiling anyone who looked like they were POC and inviting them to commandeer a room at lunchtime and talk about our experiences in the movement. And Mama Karen was one of the people who came and just took us all under her wing as mentees and encouraged us to stay in farming. And it's truly because of her that I continued on as a farmer eventually opening my own farm. So the crop, you know, the seeds and the plants that inspire me most when I think about Mama Karen are, of course, tomatoes because she credits the tomato with converting her to the magic of growing her own food. So when we grow our, you know, our cherries or our plum tomatoes, anything super sweet. And I take that first bite in June, I think of Mama Kay.

and I thank Mama Kay for all she's done for the rising generation of Black Farmers. Yay! Beautiful, thank you. It's perfect. Thank you, Leo. Hi, my name is Cheryl Holt. I met Karen in 1983 at the screening committee for where we lived, and we moved in at the same time, August 16, 1985, And we've just been friends ever since.

And when I moved in, my father was born in North Carolina, and he wanted a garden. So that next summer, he started a garden. Karen asked questions, and she just took it beyond and started gardening. And from there, she started talking about the urban gardening and just traveled with it, with the community garden across the street. Then with the farmer's market, she went on and on. So I got on board with the farmers market and the community garden back in the early 2000s. And we just, I mean, we just did so much.

I even remember a time when we had the big blizzard and I had to feed the chickens because Karen was in Georgia and I was the only one up in the north area and I lost my house keys and couldn't find them for two weeks until the snow melted. me to find but we have done so much together in terms of gardening and i didn't realize how much of a good person she was until i went to one of the bugs conferences that they had in new york city and it was just awesome that's wonderful what's your father's name marshal holt and what was his farm like down in the carolina have a farm he just like he lived in north carolina and the people in the South always has something around their house. So he always had a garden. Then when he moved to New York, after he lived in 178th Street for a while and he moved to Co-op City, he had a garden on his balcony in Co-op City. He had green peppers, he had collard greens, and I'm trying to think

tomatoes. He had those three things growing on his on his balcony. He must have been happy when you got that house. Oh, yes, he did. He came, and that's when I realized, you know, like people tell you, you have to do this and that. And it was so simple the way he garden. It was nothing like how they tell you in the books what you have to do. Okay, so your garden was there first, and did that inspire Karen, or how did this turn out? I think it did inspire Karen because at that time, I don't think she had a garden at first year. My father did the garden the first year, and they would talk all the time.

And then after that is when she really got into gardening. And I garden, but she took it to the nth degree. I'll say, as you can see here, all these gardeners and farmers. Yes, yes. I mean, she has just, her life has just been to go out and get more people to believe in the things that she believes in. And it's just awesome to see so many people here loving what they have learned from her. It's just awesome. So when you retired and you started growing in the garden across the street, this is Garden of Happiness, what did you plant?

Okay, I had collard greens, string beans, green pepper, oh gosh, wait, let me think. Zucchini, I'm trying to think of all the different things. Swiss chard, oh gosh, I know a lot, I had so much growing, everything that I could probably. possibly fit and that those two little things was full. Yes. Beautiful. And my garden was right next to Karen's. Yes, uh-huh.

And she would always, like my father taught me how to garden a certain way. And with all of her backgrounds, she learned the best ways to garden, and she would have mounds, where you only pour the water around the outside. And I would wonder, say, my collard greens are so small compared to hers, you know. but she just took it to the empty degree in gardening what's one thing that you'd want the world to know about your friend Karen Washington she is the most loving person I've ever seen she she has no okay how do I put it she loves everyone okay and she sees the best in everyone and she tries to bring out the best in everyone and this is worldwide wherever she goes she has

so much love within her. She's just a beautiful person. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. Welcome. Go for it. My name is Kendra Washington Bass, and I'm the daughter of Mama Kay, known as Karen Washington. And one of the stories that I can recall as a little girl was, I would say, her first food justice moment. We moved to the Bronx in 1985, and we were just getting the house setup. And as new community members, we wanted to spruce up the front yards. And I remember going by mom to buy some plants and to put in the front of her house. And the next morning, there were holes in the front yard where the plants once were. Now, this was during 1980. So it was the height of the crack epidemic, which was rampant. So there were people who were stealing them

and reselling them on the street. So my mother took it upon herself to never let that happen again, and she jerry-rigged an alarm system. When she replanted, she put some string around the plants, strung that string up to the top floor in her window tied to a bell.

And one evening, the bell rung. And she runs downstairs, notices that there's a gentleman who had just gone, on, pulled him up, put it inside the shopping cart. She jumped into her car with a pitchfork. Chase is after this man, puts the pitchfork to him, and he says, Miss, I didn't know it was you.

And she said, you will never steal again from my yard. I say that story just to just to illustrate the pride that she had, not only in our community, but she was doing it for the others where there was shopping carts full of plants and shrubs. things of that nature. And if you know that story now, you know Karen Washington, because she will never let Mother Earth be destroyed by anyone, and she will use a pitchfork on you, so watch out. Thank you so much. What do you remember of kind of the beginnings of Garden of Happiness? Oh, my goodness. First of all, I was a 12-year-old young girl, moved again into the Bronx,

and across the street just seeing what would have been additional houses if it wasn't for some bedrock that was in that space. And the city was not going to do anything to it, and it started to become a dumping ground. And I do recall a gentleman, a nearby, who came out to clean it, and my mother joined him. And that was the start, again, of creating a garden of happiness. And little by little, she started to become more comfortable understanding how to cultivate the earth. And then as children just watching my mother take that ownership, so did we. I mean, my brother and I eventually started working at Bronx Greenup and doing the work to help create the Garden of Youth, which was nearby. So the Garden of Happiness was this beautiful oasis that at one point was a blight.

and it all started with a plastic bag and a shovel. And from there, it is sort of the sort of epitome of what you can do in a community when a community has an agency and there are people who are fighting for it. That's awesome. Everyone's been telling me when I ask, what should you know about Karen Washington? They say she's caring, she's loving, she's kind, and those are all absolutely true. and I like how your story tells us how she's badass. Oh, yeah, she's fierce as all.

I mean, I get my fierceness from us. Sometimes it's not that good to carry that strength around because you do get tired, right? And I think one of the messages she also tries to teach is, what are we doing to build the capacity of others around us so they can take on? So what's our legacy? What do we want to leave behind so that the fight can continue? And my mother is loves fiercely, right? And I think that's what you'll see from her.

It's passion, fierce, compassion, and a fight, not for herself, but for other people. And that's the part that people are afraid of. And that's the part that I think we need in the world, people who are fierce, fearless and fierce about the way they love and the way they treat people. Yeah. Awesome. That is perfect. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thanks. Okay. My name is Kitty Williams.

You might know me as Kiddisha. I know Karen will. Okay, my story or stories with Karen is one. Okay, so I thought about it and I was like, actually, yeah, I worked with Karen a lot during the pepper or the hot sauce project in the Bronx. So I spent a lot of time with her learning about and caring for the Serrano pepper plants and her hot tunnel at her garden, the Garden of Happiness, in the Bronx. And I also have memories of watching Karen care for not just baby chickens, but kittens out of the chicken coop at that garden.

And they also had roosters, allegedly, and that coop. So there were baby chicks and that coop, and it was cute. Also, oh, another thing that I noticed from Karen's garden, too, is that she worked with the local community and mostly Central American, South American people. And they were growing a lot of herbs from those regions. and I remember even though I don't like it, there's a lot of Popolo that grows out of Karen's garden and that starts to spread to other gardens because of it. Yeah.

That was the first place I ever saw Popolo too. I don't like the taste or the smell, but I think it's beautiful, and I love how excited the community gets about it growing there. They also grow Epizote out there, corn, they have some fruit trees, the Asian pears, they have grapes. Garden of Happiness is so beautiful, so many food. And then also up in Rising Root, they have all the stuff.

Karen has like really got food going down everywhere. A really interesting thing, and this is not food related, but I was just pointing out while Karen was talking and like pointing these different people out, I'm looking at the people and I'm like all those people have touched people now too. There's a whole web of people changing how we see and understand food and food production and hopefully setting the stage for a big wave of change like in our food system and the way that we connect and commune with food and the earth. beautiful can you say your name too my name is Ashanti williams do you two remember well first of all

you said do you say where you worked I am a co-founder of iridescent earth collective in Delaware County New York which is a mutual aid farm centered on growing food for the Bronx I also used to work for Bronx green up at the New York Botanical Garden where I worked very closely with Karen and I'm also a farmer and gardener at talk about community farm in the Bronx okay and how about you I am the founder of Black Air Farm Collective, the Black Centred Farm Collective up in Washington County, New York. I'm a farmer, and I also farm in the Bronx at Taco Community Farm, and Kitty is my sister. And that's how we met when you were both teenagers.

And you worked, you know, growing food there, but also had a farmer's market. And wasn't there a connection between your market and Mama Karen's market in terms of the machine that took the Oh, yeah, the FMMP program, wild. Yes, we did share an EBT machine with Karen's market. That's wild. So, like, to think about it, because I'm like, wow, I'm 36, that means that was a long time ago, but not. It doesn't feel like it. Because it's not, yeah, Karen and Just Food and all those people, a lot of people that we see here at this party, right?

Yeah. We're doing, like, really grungy, like, on the grounds movement stuff, trying to make sure people, especially the most marginalized, had access to friends. food. And like, yeah, that was one of the programs, the FMMP program. It's so much bigger now, too. I remember, like, even after that, working with the Department of Agriculture to get them to let farm stands accept EBT, and now that's a thing in the city. So, yeah, like, I realize all this work is not just impacting Karen in her immediate community, but, like, rippling effect throughout the state. It's awesome. Just for people that don't know these acronyms, that's so people could use what we used to call food stamps, right?

Snap, yeah. So it's Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program as a SNAP stands where, yeah. What is FMAPE? Farmer's Market, Nutrition Program, yeah. Okay, my last thing, do you remember when you all were still teenagers coming here together on a field trip? Oh, we were to Regalski Farm or something, I think is what it was called. It was amazing. We took that long ride up, which was only like an hour.

Now that I think about it, yeah, a little more than an hour. It was me, you, Rosie. A good time, yeah. Wait, was that a farm school trip? I think it was before farm school existed. Just food? Just food trip. Yeah. We all got in two lines on the farm.

Yeah, I think about that all the time. Yes, my introduction to the black dirt too, yeah. And that's when I learned that the soil sometimes is prehistoric because it's the bottom of a lake. So it hasn't been touched by, you know, manufacturing all the other stuff. So I just remember on that trip that they lined us up. And we had to jump so we could feel the ground, like, jiggle, because it's not, it's not, like, solid all the way underneath.

And here we are. Years later, Karen and them are farming here. I've got to bring it back to Karen. I forgot for a second. I got excited. Sorry, Mama Karen. This is about you. What's one thing you want people to know about Karen Washington?

She's amazing. I feel like she's always helping community. She's always, like, spreading resources. This is not necessarily food-related, but I do remember her always giving me good references for different programs. So I applied to do an AmeriCorps program and went to her house and sat down with her. She helped me fill up my application and she did a really good reference for me and I ended up getting into the program. Yeah, I just, Karen is kind.

People think about nice, but Karen is kind. Karen, she's like, yeah, like when you think about what community means and how to do that, she's an expert. She totally gets it. She brings people together. and in such a way that feels like loving and supportive and warm, it feels correct. Yeah, Mama Kay is the correct name. She is our mother.

Yes. Thank you both so much. Yeah, thank you. Happy birthday, Karen. Happy birthday, Karen. My name is Julian Bass, and I'm Karen Washington's grandson, first grandson. And I've had a very interesting relationship with my grandmother. She was always just grandma for a long time until I was in high school.

And I came up here for the summers to Rise and Root Farm to work on the farm. I actually did that for two consecutive summers. The first time it was supposed to be a punishment. But the second time I was like, yo, can I go back? But they were filming a documentary about my grandmother. And I got to be there for the first time I ever heard this story about her while they're filming it. And she's talking about the first time she tried a real tomato. And all of, it almost, it's almost like it clicked right then in that moment.

All of the things about food justice and the disparity between, you know, what a lot of people say is low income, but it's just minorities. You know, it's people who are the haves and have-nots being separated. And food is where it all starts. And so my understanding and respect and honestly how proud I am of how far she's coming. It all clicked in that moment, and I started to see the world in a different way. So, yeah, I mean, I know I do entertainment now, but I really feel like I would be wasting my time if I didn't continue pushing that purpose along, especially now that I understand how important it is. Awesome. Well, when you came up here to work at the farm, you know, what was it that made you excited the second time around?

I had never really experienced nature in this way before. I mean, now I live in the mountains, so I've sort of gotten back to that. But, you know, my grandma's so good at cooking, and she's so good at everything, so she's able to make the situation pretty stellar. And it was just a Greens farm at the time. I'm not sure what they grow there now, but I don't know, just breathing the air, seeing the mountains. I hadn't really seen real mountains.

Stone Mountain in Georgia doesn't count. So I just, I don't know, I loved it. I loved the air up here. I loved riding the bikes of the ice cream shop. And I don't know, I couldn't think of a better way to spend the summer. What's your favorite thing that she cooks? Oh, my goodness. Oh, no, that's a hard one.

She just made collard greens, and I think this past, maybe this past week. uh for easter actually i think that might be the best thing that she like has locked down i'm she just everything she makes is really the best version of anything i've had i met you i'm sure you don't remember but around 2006 or seven you and your brother i was building chicken coops in your grandmother's garden and i don't know how old you were then but at my memory you were probably like five or six and um what do you remember of of her garden in the south bronx Yeah, the Garden of Happiness, right? Yeah, I remember the chickens.

You know, in the city of New York, to see somebody making it more green in any ways is amazing. Knowing that that's my grandmother is actually kind of ridiculous. She really is the most caring and most giving, thoughtful person of all time. I know I haven't seen all of her ups and downs. I know humans are human. But

I recognize that the way my mom is able to educate comes from her experiences with my grandma, you know? And that sort of love is a part of generational wealth, right? Learning to cook and learning how to, you know, feed yourself is a part of generational wealth that doesn't have to do with money. And she's a very, very smart person. I think some people don't know that, but you know it when you meet her, when you hear her speak. So the compassion, the intelligence, and the ability to look forward, right, to be able to trust the generation to come forward and, you know, continue the work that you're doing.

That's awesome. Thank you. Golden, appreciate it. Hi, my name is Nicole Jai, and I am a Bronx community gardener. Shout out to Bathgate Garden and Cook's Community Farm in the Bronx. I met Karen Washington some time ago when I was trying to be a community gardener, and she gave me like a crash course on farming. She was on her way out, meaning retiring, and she said, girl, you got to learn this. And I just stuck by her side for, you know, working with her with her farmer's market. And when I made a mistake, she was sure to tell me and correct me on how to, you know, farm better in an urban area.

And it prepared me to be on 100 acres now. and I manage 10 acres on 100-acre farm, and I also have a bunch of hemp farms that I partner with because I'm licensed to grow industrial hemp in New York State, so I partner with the Amish, and that's my story. Wow, that is an awesome story from Community Garden in the Bronx, so 100 acres. Wow. So are there any particular plants you all connected on? Yes, food. I was growing anything you can imagine to grow in a community garden,

vegetables. I have a mint bed. I have all type of peppers. I grew watermelon, candelope, okra, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash. I mean, anything you could possibly think about, we have in our community garden in the Bronx. And so you were helping with the La Familiar Verdei Farmers Market? Can you tell people what that is? Yes, so the Lafamilia Verdee Farmer's Market is the farmer's market that they started in the Bronx on Tremont Avenue. And she was going around to community gardens, to encourage them to grow food for the farmer's market. And I was one of the gardens that grew food for that farmer's market. Wow.

So cool. What's your farm called? Nahi Farms. Thank you so much. Thank you. My name is Gabi, Gabi Pereira. I met Karen probably seven years ago, my first week of work. She told the story about the tomato that she planted for the first time, the seeds that

she planted for the first time and not only that right so she spoke about the tomato she spoke about the relationship to the to the community she spoke to the relationship of power of decision to food that that tomato gave her and i just went back home and that ate my tomato for the first time right i think i probably back then i 30 35 years and it was the first time and that I appreciate a tomato. I went to the farmer's market, I go a tomato from rice and root, and I ate that tomato to make sure that I was

honoring that tomato for what it was, right? So that beautiful combination of flavor and power of food that brought current 25 years ago to the point, of we need to do something everybody has a right to eat a tomato like that so i am not super fun of tomatoes in general but since that day i appreciate the beauty and the power that a single seed can give to people to their connection to what is important for them so it's not only the travel of seed to farmer, farmer to land,

land to plant fruit, and to the person eating it. It's the stories that comes with it and the power of our generations that a single seed can give to remember when we don't remember anymore. So that is why since that day, I have a lot of respect and love for what Karen did to me. me. Since them, I'm working on social justice, food justice, and they inspired me to be a farmer. So now I am farmer Gabby too. So, yeah, what a tomato can do, right?

Wow. So wonderful. What's your farm called? Jara, Jara Farm. It is in Middletown, New York. We grow food from Latin America and from the African diaspora. My wife and I are starting this farm. We started three years ago. She is African-American. I'm from Venezuela and Uruguay. And I got seeds from Venezuela, from Aji Dulce. And Yara in Kaketio, there is an indigenous language, means water.

And our land is in wetland, so it's mostly water. And it seems like Ajit Dulce seeds, love. this land and to me is that bridge of nostalgia and putting roots in this land as well that is my way of belonging to the land so every time that I have those seeds in my hand and I planted I play Venezuelan music I celebrate I give the thanks and and I hope that with those Ahidulze people can have the same memories of home that I got when Karen Washington taught me that a tomato can give you that power. Yeah, for real. That is perfect. Thank you so much. I told you. I have a really good story about Karen and the way that she has inspired generations of people just to see

on the simple things how powerful are. Mm-hmm. Thank you so much. You're very, very welcome. So my name is Elena Rodriguez, and I've known Karen now for about 15 years. I first met her at the La Familia Verde Farmer's Market in the Bronx as a volunteer out of college. I grew up in the Bronx, born and raised, but didn't know that there was community gardens in our area, didn't know what it was to grow anything ourselves, everything that I did would die. I said the only thing I kept alive during college was a cactus, and that's because they don't need a lot of water.

Like, I managed to do that for four years. But when I met with Karen, she taught me so much at the farmer's market and learning about where our food is coming from, the food system of the Bronx, and how that looks like through community gardens. But one of the things that stood out to me the most was her story about the tomato. And she had asked me to become a garden instructor at Garden of Happiness. And I was like, ha, I don't know, what am I going to do? Where am I going to start? What am I going to teach? I don't know nothing myself.

And she was like, I know you could do it. You got this. Like, you can do this. And it was with kids that were already in the garden. Their families would go to the garden all the time. And she wanted to give them something more. She wanted them to get some education around understanding why it's important to eat healthier, where our food comes from.

And just giving them more of an educational background, along with that, also gave a stipend. So when they went to school, they were able to start to purchase, at least the basic supplies to go to school. And when I went into that program, I went into that with that mindset of thinking about Karen and how everything changed for her when she ate that tomato from her backyard. And I wanted to bring that to the kids. And it did. It really worked when we got them to try new things that were either in the garden, really giving them the opportunity to use their five senses by smelling, seeing, tasting, all of that.

to expand their palettes because we know they were around all these things all day by being in the garden with their families, but were they really interacting with it? We brought in new things that maybe weren't growing in the garden at that time for them to try and then have conversation. And these were young kids, like they were five to eight years old. So they're like wanting to try, but at the same time they're a little like, I don't know. So it was a big trust thing that they had to trust in you where they decided to take an act in it. But it was great to see And I brought that with me when I started working at the Mary Mitchell Center with the kids that we have here and connecting schools to our local gardens. So one of the things we do is connect a lot of local schools to the Garden of Youth, Garden of Happiness, and the other gardens.

We're very blessed where we are. We got like five community gardens here. But always with that mindset of saying when they come in here, they have to taste, smell, or see something new, that when they leave, they're going to remember that. They're going to remember this moment in the garden of connecting them back to the soil and realizing that, wow, we can grow this ourselves. We can get this fresh produce local. I know how a tomato is grown. I know where an apple comes from now. And these are basic things that New York has to offer and the city.

From when we were talking a little earlier, you have your own tomato story. You know, you were also a five senses participant in the Garden of Happiness. It was called the garden sprouts was the garden program. I was a part of Pepe was always in the garden with me at Garden of Happiness. And there was a time where he just pulled up a papolo plant and was like, here, you know, taste it. And I'm someone who's very, very picky, like, extremely picky. You don't take me out anyway. But I was like, I got to try and let me see.

But I was like reluctant at first. It was hard for me. And it was something I've never seen before. And he was like, no, no, you have to try it. You have to try new things. And he helped me, along with Karen, to be very open-minded, not just to tell the story, not to just be the mentor towards the kids and helping them to guide them. You have to also do the act.

You also have to open yourself to try new things. And when I tried the papolo, I didn't like it that much. But I did, I could say I tried it. And I love the smell. Like, we always have it at the farmer's market. And I absolutely love the smell of it. But it was something for me that was like, okay, I have to challenge. myself in different ways to get connected back to food because I feel through times and through

different generations, we lose that. We get more connected to processed foods. And we lose our connection to what's actually growing out of the soil. And Karen and Beppe, for me, connected me back directly to soil, not to be afraid to get dirty. Like when I had my first daughter, my daughter was literally sitting on the woodchips just crawling around with all the gardeners around her getting there and they're like oh her outfit oh you know soap will take that off that is fine let her just explore it's totally okay I think it's so important I think that that's so important that I have Karen and I have buffet in my life to influence that for me and I think it's so important for everyone that Karen's touching now for us to continue that so we make sure that

this next generation is coming, that's coming up, is not disconnected from the soil, keeping them connected to the earth and understanding really where our food comes from in the food system for the Bronx. I think it's a really important thing. So my name is Ursula Chance and I know Karen primarily through the Bronx Greenup program of the New York Botanical Garden. I met Karen right, well, a little bit, a few months maybe before I started working with Bronx Greenup. I started in 2005. Karen's Garden, Garden of Happiness, was the first garden in Bronx, Green up helped with. The garden started in 1988, and she saw other neighborhood residents trying, you know,

across the street out her window, you know, cleaning up, trying to do something with this eyesore that she found herself living across the street from and, you know, just came together with other community members and neighbors to just start that work. And the Bronx program had been formed at that time to help these efforts in the Bronx of people who were hand-in-hand trying to create these gardens and beautiful spaces. And so I remember Karen telling this story of just seeing the Bronx Greenup band coming and these two women coming out with Bronx Greenup and explaining the program. It was Terry Keller and I can't remember the other woman who's the first director of Bronx Greenup. And then she just continued to be a present

and inspiration and supporter to the program for, you know, to this day. Like 36 years now. What is one, like, food or plant story that can kind of illustrate your relationship to Karen and her work in the world? So one story we're thinking about is the Bronx hot sauce story, which is also something that continues. But that was something that started in 2014 is when the now small X peppers approach growing YC to start this initiative, this idea of creating a hot sauce using peppers that were growing at Bronx Community Gardens.

And so they had, you know, there's maybe a couple sites. I wasn't involved that first year, so I'm not sure. But they, you know, they didn't have a lot of sites involved. And then they reached out to Karen. that was that was great because you know once karen hurt she thought it was like this could be something this is you know they were going to um buy the peppers for four dollars a pound and i think she realized like the impact of that this could start like urban ag and created creating added value product and um this seemed like a good opportunity so you know immediately she was like she said we should

organize a meeting you know get everyone together meet the small expo folks hear about this project. So we did that. We had the meeting. And then we had, I think, like 20 gardens the first year participating. And then that was 2015. And then after that, we had, you know, the next five years, really through the pandemic, we had a really strong showing of gardens participating growing Serrano peppers that were made into the Bronx hot sauce. The pandemic slowed it down a little bit, but there's still gardens that are involved in it. And Smallax, meanwhile, has expanded nationally. They have all different hot sauces now with different garden projects around the country.

I think Karen gets a seed and she realizes, like, I got to just let her know about this and bring them on board and, you know, help kind of put the light on this opportunity. Because I see how this, you know, can benefit and impact to more gardens and more people down the road. I'm just so grateful to have Karen in my life, like all these years. I don't know. I just feel like she's just been such a steady presence, especially for me in this role. And even after she moved away from the Bronx, you know, there's still such a strong connection. So I'm just, yeah, I'm just so so grateful for that. I feel like I just feel like I've had this continued sense of like love and support and just guidance, inspiration, all these years. Beautiful. Well, thank you, Ursula. Yeah. Thank you, Owen. My name is Michael Hurwitz, and I met Karen in either 2001 or 2002 in the old just food offices. I think it was on 8th Avenue in the 30s, right?

For the trading of this old group of training of trainers, Karen, It was me. It was, God, I think Ailey was there as part of East New York Farms, Eucl 5,000, Tauqua Farm, Bissell Farm. So you had Bronx, East New York, you had Red Hook. And I think we would meet about once a month. And obviously, it didn't take long to realize how special and how wonderful Aaron was. She became a friend.

She became a mentor. and we just have had such a wonderful relationship over these last 23, 22 years. Again, I go to her for kindness, for friendship, and for learning. And it's been amazing to watch her journey, to watch Rise and Roots journey, to watch Bugs's journey, just to see the incredible evolution of farming. It's interesting because I can think of so many stories that Karen and I have shared about vegetables and about seeds and about how seeds arrived to this country

and her relationship with certain vegetables. But the food product I'm going to choose and I'm maybe totally making this story up. But every time I see a blowfish, I think of Karen because I think we sat in her backyard in Chester one day and just had a conversation about blowfish and one of the fish mongers at the green market, Farmer's markets always has blowfish when it's in season, and I always get tails.

My kids and I love to eat the tails, and we will batter it. We try to batter it in cornmeal, but sometimes we'll just do it in flour when we choose to be healthy. We'll spray it and bake it, but obviously better when we fry it, which we probably do more often. And then eat it like lollipops. And I swear we had this conversation because literally, every time I see a blowfish, or think about a blowfish, or I see the Simpsons episode where they talk about blowfish,

Karen comes speaking to me. I'm sure there are other things that Karen pops into my, like when I see them, and Karen comes pop into my head and it's not food related. You know, someone's sitting on your shoulder, but blowfish is the food

that I'm going to, in the story that I'm going to share for her 70th. So here's to lots more birthdays and here's to lots more blowfish. That's great. And just so people know, can place you more, I mean, it's been 23 or 24 years since you were at added value, Red Hook Farms.

And now you're still working with farms, but it's been a long journey. It's been a long journey from added value to green market and now landing light strategies, which is my own, my oldest, well, my youngest child, sorry, added value would be my oldest child and I have two actually humans in between. And yeah, now working with farmers thinking about infrastructure and then also looking at ways to put more money into people's pockets to go buy the food they want here in New York City. So yeah. Well, thank you so much for sharing your memories of Karen and making this episode even more special. I really appreciate it. And thank you and lots of love to you. It was great seeing you the other day. Great seeing your face

now and hopefully won't be too long before we do it again. My name is Kathleen McTagg and I know Karen through the city farms program, which was a community garden program of the organization, Just Food, and I worked with Karen through the Garden of Happiness and La Familia Verde Garden Coalition. I met Karen probably in 2002. Maybe, no, actually, 2001. It's probably when I met here when I interned with Cornell Corruptive Extension. Okay.

Well, what's like a story from that time that'll, like, tell us a little bit about Karen? Well, I was thinking, and like, since I heard the prompt, I was, obviously, my mind went straight to, like, garden and fresh vegetables and eggs and other things that I've obviously been around Karen. but then the story that I landed on was actually not really garden or probably even local food related, but at the farmer's market that Lafamale Verde had, Karen and then the community gardeners and volunteers that would run the market would take sort of like a shared lunch break every day and they'd go across the street and get fish and some other stuff in the local market and then they'd take corn and other veggies that they were selling at the market that day. make a big salad and sit together and made sure that everybody ate.

And even if I was only there for like, you know, 10 or 15 minutes, I'd make sure that I had a plate. And I just thought about, you know, it's obviously the fresh food and the food we want to get out to the community and why the market existed is sort of easy to speak to that sort of market piece and fresh food access piece. But I think what was most impactful is the idea of like taking care of the, the people who are at the market who are working the market and the idea of like that community and just every Tuesday for I don't even know over a decade I think during the summer months like

just knowing you could go there and hang out and have lunch and knowing that like you know an elderly woman would get up and make sure you were sitting and you were eating and you were being taken care of and I think that does the idea of like pausing and taking care of each other and making sure that we're all good is like a feeling and a vibe that I've always gotten from Karen and La Familia Verde. You know, I met you several years later, and one of the things you told me, when you hired me to work in the city farms and that I've always carried with me, is that you were like, if you're not spending half your time just hanging out with old ladies and old men in their gardens,

getting to know them, and not having an agenda, then you're not doing your job. And that kind of reminds me of that thing you told me. And I took it very serious. I actually remember the first time practicing it because it was a new idea to me with Miss Washington, one of the, one of Karen's elders down the street at a different community garden. I remember thinking, okay, this is what Kathleen told me to do. I'm just sitting here. We're just getting to know each other. It's hours of going by.

And I was like, doing my job. Yeah. No, I mean, it's super important because that's when like the trust gets built and the relationships. And like you can't do any of the community work without that foundation. And they were just, all the women and obviously the men at Laugh-Mileverde just like demonstrated that so effortlessly of just like taking a break and like connecting on a human level before, before even thinking about the rest of it, right? Like that's the, that's the way that we need to start any of this, the work that we're doing. Yeah, totally. Well, what's one thing you want people to know about Karen that they might not know?

Like, I don't know how I'm trying to think of something that's not a joke. No, I mean, something that is pretty impressive. I'll just say from when we traveled together, we had the opportunity to go to Cuba together. And, like, I had more Spanish vocabulary than Karen, but for some reason, Karen just, like, communicated, like, way better than I did. And just, like, just the idea, again, I think just, like, creating that human space of, like, being so open and welcoming just, like, with a smile and a hug. and like an energy that like didn't, you know, doesn't necessarily matter. I know Karen is also like poignant with her words as well, but I think that she brings this like transcends sort of like time and space and language in this case.

So yeah, I think just any sort of morsel or time that you got with Karen, I think just, yeah, be a big psych that you have it because we're all sort of blessed in the realm of Karen Washington. Yes. Absolutely. And that trip to Cuba has kicked off a whole different life trajectory for you. And now we're talking, you know, when you're, you're, can you say where you are and maybe show us in a verbal way what trees are growing outside your, your room right now? Sure. Yeah. So I, when Karen and I were in Cuba, I ended up meeting my now husband of, well, we actually met, I want to say it'll be 20 years ago this fall. So, yeah, a good long time ago. And we've since had many international living situations and children.

And now we have landed in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico. We're right at the base of El Junque Rainforest. So I feel really fortunate. We have just a half acre, which is actually the same size as the New Roots Community Farm that I worked at in the Bronx as well. So it's a good layout for me to think about space and what can fit in a space like this. But yeah, we have right outside my window, I can see our pana, which is breadfruit. And then we also right flowering right now is our avocado tree.

I just harvest some guavas the other day. Plantains and bananas are sort of in constant rotation. And I haven't seen the mango flower yet, but it should be pretty close behind the avocado. So, yeah, just trying to, little by little, we put in our compost system and just trying to, yeah, continue the dream of being in the Caribbean and farming for ourselves and connecting with community through food. Awesome. Well, I want to thank you for being kind of the one to bring me into the city farms fold in New York, which is how I met Karen, and for passing along what you've learned from her. around community building in a way that's very important for me. And thanks for sharing your stories about Karen. Thanks, own. Thanks for doing this for Karen.

I hope she just fills all the love that she's been giving out right back at her in multiple folds. My name is Francis Perez Rodriguez, and I know Karen, through a loved one who introduced us back in 2016, they'd known each other through food justice and social justice organizing, with youth in the South Bronx over a decade ago. And when I started my urban ag journey, this person suggested that I get in contact with them and I was able to, through my organizing and gardening work in the South Bronx.

So I went to farm school. I was a student and I worked there. And when I did my apprenticeship, I think around 2018, I did it at Rising Root Farm. So thankfully, Karen was gracious and helpful and compassionate enough to pick me up from the train in the South Bronx. She'd wait for me every Monday morning. We'd meet around 7.30 a.m.

and we'd drive up to Risenroot. And one day after work, we stopped at a nearby farm to ask a question about produce for her La Familia Vende farmer's market in the Bronx. So we stopped there to ask the question, and we also bought these very beautiful, perfect peaches from that farm. and we got back in Karen's pickup after a long day on the farm and we bit into those peaches and I still think about this moment to this day. I remember, you know, after a long, hard day being excited to just kick back. The sun was shining. There was a nice breeze and we were just really enjoying those peaches. I was honored to be in her space. I was honored to have an alone moment

with her. I was honored that she got me a peach and they were so delicious. There was almost like, a childlike energy, like, yeah, it was just really fun and funny and sweet to be biting into the peaches and laughing and, you know, the juice dripping down our faces. And I just remember thinking, wow, I'm sitting here with this icon, you know, with our dear, dear, dear, with our dear, dear Karen. Yeah, it was a really special moment and I think about it a lot. And I'm grateful to have been on the farm with her and also specifically to have had a peaches moment with her.

My name is Jane Hayes Hodge and I've been besties with Karen for lots of years and the way I first met her was I was placed as an AmeriCorps Vista at her, with her community garden and farmer's market in the Bronx. One of the plants that I think Karen probably introduced me to the most

is collard greens. Being a white girl from the suburbs, collards, with English upbringing, colors were not really a part of my diet, but she really taught me to love them, and I still do to this day. I very much love them, and I love growing them, and I love eating them. And I remember helping Karen take care of her little garden plot at the Garden of Happiness, and she's very proud of her color greens, and what else did she have in there? She's also really into Swiss chard, and I'm sure someone must have mentioned her Swiss chard and beans dish.

Yeah, she's really gotten into that. But she also had peppers and tomatoes and chickens. What's something you want people to know about your best friend, Karen, Washington? Mama Karen. I'm allowed to talk about f***is. I suppose so. Okay. Then maybe we'll have a second thing.

and then we'll have a more serious one. Okay. Okay. One thing I think the world should know about Karen because everybody knows that Karen is an amazing person and she's really like made a huge impact in the world and have a lot of respect for her. And one thing I want people to know about her is that she'll really defend that also. Okay. So backup one. Okay. Here's the backup one. She'll really defend that also. Okay. So backup one. Okay. Here's where I can go with this. Karen taught me two things that were super really formative for me. I met her in my early 20s, and I was really just learning about the world. And the first thing that she taught me is to surround myself with positive people.

And she would say it over and over and over again. And I was out of time where I was really making choices about the kind of people that I wanted to spend time with. And I had listened to that advice over and over again. And as a result, I've had this life full of richness, and so much of it came from that advice. So that's the first thing. And then the second thing is how Karen taught me that I'm a queen. Remember this one? And you're a queen. And that person over there is a queen. And we all deserve to be treated like queens. So never to settle for anything less than someone who's going to treat us like royalty. You are a queen, Jane. So she. Thank you. You are also a queen.

okay and so just for logistics you're jane hodge you are i'm jane hayes h now i'm sorry jane hayes h h and rise and root farm yes we used to work at just food just placing you in the story could you maybe okay sure yes so once again my name is jane hayes hodge and i've known owen taylor for something like 15 years 19 19 years and i used to be his boss so just everybody out there should know this that I was one of his first bosses ever now I'm a little scared of you definitely the best boss ever sorry Kathleen and um what else was I said oh and I'm one of the four owners of Risenroot Farm along with Karen Washington and Michaela Hayes Hodge and Lori Clevenger great okay this is wonderful thank you Jane thank you Owen I should get out of here

Thank you so much to Karen and her friends for sharing their stories and their lives with us. Thank you also to Emilio Sweet Call, who helped edit this episode all the way across the country in California. And thank you for listening and sharing this episode of Seeds and their people with your loved ones. Please continue to share this episode and others with someone you love and subscribe to our show in your favorite podcast app. Thank you also for helping our seedkeeping and storytelling work by leaving. giving us a review and also ordering seeds and t-shirts and so much more from our website. Trueloveseeds.com. And again, if you'd like to support our podcast for just $1 a month or more,

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