Roosevelt Growhouse Harvests for Food Day

By Ando Muneno Mon., Oct. 24 2011 at 2:32 PM

Categories: Gardening, Urban Gardening

Ando Muneno

Today is Food Day 2011 and restaurants around the Valley including Cibo and Windsor and at least one food truck (Short Leash Hot Dogs) are primed to participate by serving locally procured vegetables, harvested yesterday by a group of volunteers at the Roosevelt Growhouse in downtown Phoenix.

Student Apinaya Arunkumar carefully harvests arugula.

We've talked about the Growhouse often, including in this post last year and, according to event coordinator Margaree Bigler, it has grown into a completely self-sustaining operation funded by the sale of eggs -- they have a chicken-- and their vegetable harvest. The Growhouse sells most of their produce to local restaurants and at the Phoenix Public Market.

Project manager Braden Kay said that they planned to harvest several vegetables: red bok choy, chard, arugula and red Russian kale. In a couple of weeks he hopes to harvest three kinds of beets including the Bull's Blood and golden varieties.

Find out what local chefs are getting their hands on after the jump.

Project manager Braden Kay and Windsor chefs Kevin LeBron and Jacob Cook discuss the uses of freshly harvested arugula.

Windsor chefs Kevin LeBron and Jacob Cook showed up early to check out the produce they were about to purchase. They sampled straight from the ground -- and got excited. LeBron and Cook were pleasantly surprised by the arugula they tried, describing it as having an almost spicy flavor. Cook complimented the arugula's delicate texture and Lebron said that they would likely combine the arugula and the red Russian kale into into a salad seasoned with a light fennel dressing. Available tonight, we're told, at Windsor. Nice!

Inspired? Want to get involved? The Growhouse welcomes volunteers every Sunday, from 10 AM to 2 PM. Check out the Growhouse blog for more information.

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