Article Summary: Brilliant Detroit Morningside offered a program in the Brilliant Bites series which teaches how to get the most out of meals in terms of nutrition and budget. Kat Vernier created a homemade pasta sauce for participants to sample and local youth helped pot tomato plants to take home, perhaps to make their own sauce later this summer.
If you walk into the Morningside hub on a sunny Thursday afternoon in June, you may be greeted by waves of messy hands as the children around the table enjoyed walking tacos and nachos. In the living room, a table was overflowing with boxes of produce – tomatoes, strawberries, lettuce, and from Eastern Market, onions, apples, peppers, and collard greens. From the kitchen wafted the smell of tomatoes and garlic roasting in bubbling oil. Kat Vernier, who leads the Brilliant Bites program, was chopping more ingredients for a simple, yet delicious, pasta sauce. She was visiting the hub to show families how to make use of tomatoes and give away freshly potted plants. As the sauce simmered and the flavors melded, Kat led the children outside to plant tomato seedlings to take home with them.
At the picnic table outside were fabric pots, bags of dirt, tomato plants, and a watering can. The kids were eager to get their hands in the dirt, breaking up clods as Kat poured dirt from large bags into the pots. Their nimble hands pulled out rocks and discovered worms inhabiting the soil. Kat took the opportunity to explain the benefits of having worms in your soil, revealing that it is their poop that enriches it, which drew a few “ewwws!” out of the crowd. As a grandmother reminisced about catching worms as a child to use as fishing bait, more families arrived. Bounding out of his parents car, a little boy asked enthusiastically, “are we playing in the dirt?” With the plants securely tucked into their new homes, all that remained was watering. From their water-spotted shirts, it quickly became clear who the most zealous waterers were. With watering cans almost half their body size, the children quickly supplied the tomatoes and moved on to watering the ornamental flowers that flanked the pathway to the hub’s front door.
By the time the planting activity wrapped up, Kat’s tomato sauce had cooled and was ready to eat. She had taken the roasted tomatoes and garlic, blended it smooth, and spooned it over pasta. The kids gathered around the table to sample the pasta. Many added parmesan cheese “to taste” and judging by the amount they added, they clearly had a taste for it. “Cheese goes with anything” was the rallying cry. There were mixed reactions from the tasting panel, with some finishing their portions and grabbing more while others fatefully deemed the dish “nasty.” The great thing about your sauce, as Kat shared, is that you can customize it to your own taste, adding salt, spices, herbs, or experimenting with other vegetables. As a sweet final treat, Makalah, the Morningside Community Engagement Coordinator brought out housemade popsicles made with watermelon and strawberries. It was a perfect finish to a bright sunny afternoon on the eastside of Detroit.
A primary goal of Brilliant Bites is to teach food resource management and how to make food dollars stretch. Our recent program at Morningside is a great example of this. In giving families tomato plants of their own to take home, we are able to provide a sustainable source of fresh produce. Kat’s demonstration of how to make pasta sauce is an example of both food preservation, in increasing the shelf life of the tomatoes, and maximizing the nutritional value of meals. We hope to see you at an upcoming Brilliant Bites event!