Recipes & Holiday Wishes from GWSC
Pictured: GWSC full-time staff, Green Team, friends & family from the community, and members of the Board of Directors gather for a group photo at our annual holiday treat swap.
Happy Holidays, from Groundwork Southcoast
From all of us at Groundwork Southcoast, happy holidays! No matter how you celebrate, we wish you warmth, happiness, and peace.
Food is the great connector, something that binds us all together. We see this through our work in the Riverside Park Urban Farm and Community Garden, wherein community connection was cultivated as 160 garden plots, provided for free to low-income residents, burst with healthy food throughout this past growing season. This year, our garden plots produced an incredible 2,630+ lbs of produce.
Groundwork Southcoast has always considered food access an integral piece of climate resilience, but now we have the data to back it up, thanks to our thermal imaging tools. While summertime surface temps can reach 126°F at our Riverside Park garden site, a raised bed without plants reduces temps to 96.7°F and with foliage, it is reduced to 84.9°F.
Food access = climate resilience.
In celebration of food, which unites us in celebration and builds collective hope, we would like to share some of our favorite recipes submitted to us by our community members.
GWSC Community Recipes
Malagsy Haricots au Coco
- Origin: Madagascar (Americanized)
- Submitted by: Margaret Broughton, GWSC full-time Stewardship Manager
- Prep time: 10 minutes
- Cook time: Overnight
- Serves: 6–9
Ingredients:
- 1 lb Great Northern Beans (dry)
- 3 cans coconut milk
- 1 cup water
- 2 tsp salt (more to taste)
- 1 tsp curry powder
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp fresh or ground ginger
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 cups rice (uncooked)
- Optional: small tsp dried hot pepper or chili flakes
Directions:
- Cook rice in one pot as usual.
- Rinse & soak beans in water overnight (at least two inches above beans). Beans will absorb a lot of water; you can add more water in 4-6 hours.
- Next, rinse beans and put in Crock Pot or large stovetop pot.
- Add 3 cans of coconut milk. Fill water in each can to get leftover milk and pour all into pot or Crock Pot.
- Add salt, curry, turmeric, ginger and mix for 15 seconds.
- Optional: Add dried hot pepper or chili flakes for spice (small tsp)
- Turn Crock Pot on high; if using stove top: bring to a boil and simmer, then cover.
- For 1 hour: cook on high, then stir for 15 seconds. If not bubbling, keep on high and check every hour until bubbling.
- Once bubbling, add cinnamon stick and stir.
- Bring to LOW heat. Cover, and continue to cook in Crock Pot for 30 minutes.
- Add brown sugar and salt and continue cooking until beans are cooked through.
- Remove cinnamon stick and turn off heat, letting the beans thicken in sauce.
- Serve over a bowl of rice.
Mazotoa homana oo/Enjoy your meal!
Soft Ginger Cookies
- Submitted by: Francine, GWSC Board member Bob French’s lovely wife!
- Prep time: 20 min
- Cook time: 10 min/batch
- Serves: 2.5 doz
Ingredients:
- ¾ c. butter, softened
- 1 c. sugar
- ¼ c. molasses
- 1 large egg (room temperature)
- 2 ¼ c. flour
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ¾ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp salt
- Additional sugar
Directions:
- In large bowl, cream butter & sugar until light and fluffy.
- Beat in egg & molasses.
- Combine dry ingredients and add to cream mixture. Mix well.
- Roll into 1 ½” balls.
- Roll in sugar.
- Place 2” apart on ungreased baking sheets.
- Bake at 350 until puffy and lightly browned, 10-12 minutes.
- Remove to wire racks to cool.
Enjoy!
Stay tuned for more recipes shared on our social media.
Give the Gift of Climate Resilience
Climate resilience and access to healthy food are the greatest gifts you can give this holiday season. Groundwork Southcoast has been (literally) digging into hyper-local climate and environmental justice work since 2017, focusing on the areas of greatest need in New Bedford and Fall River, Massachusetts. This holiday season, make the tax-deductible gift that has the power to transform and uplift our community, from its people to our physical places.
TODAY, FRIDAY, 12/22, IS THE LAST DAY for your donation to go TWICE as far. Thanks to our friends at the Lenny Zakim Fund, your contribution to GWSC will be matched dollar-for-dollar, but only if you give before 11:59 PM TODAY, Friday 12/22.
Give Today
Missed the deadline for the match? That’s okay, there’s still time to make your year-end donation to support our food access and climate resilience work! Thank you for your support.