Rooted

We're excited to introduce our chef line-up for A Summer Night's Dream, starting with Chef Yusuf Bin-Rella! Farms Yusuf is a longtime collaborator with Rooted, and is a Troy Farm Collaborative grower in addition to being a chef. After a trip to Africa in 2019, Yusuf returned to Madison on a mission to grow and connect people through food of the African diaspora. On his plot of land at Troy Farm, he primarily grows collard greens. Yusuf joins a growing group of urban farmers across the county fighting for food equity and social justice. Through his signature collard greens, he shares his culture and aims to heal the community. We're grateful to have Yusuf with us once again for A Summer Night's Dream to share his talents and his passion for food and farming! We hope you'll join us: https://rootedwi.org/summer-nights-dream/

Besides all the veggies we grow at the Badger Rock, you may also be acquainted with two other members of our urban farm community: our honey bees and our chickens!

This spring the Badger Rock Middle School garden classes suited up to learn about the bee hives, see the nectar the bees collected in the comb both before and after becoming honey, and observe both adult and baby bees. 1/3 of the crops we grow depend on pollination, and our bees help!

Students also got the chance to hold all eight hens in our Badger Rock flock, and collected dozens of eggs from them to use in their cooking classes and sell at our farm stand. The hens were all raised from chicks by our students, who also named them: Cruella Deville, Ginger, Big Bertha, the Lorax, the Onceler, Basil, Tw***ie and Midnight.

We've wrapped up our Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month celebrations, and our AAPI virtual workshop series is available on our YouTube channel! Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4nayYFOnRsNCFT2eqHk3EuQZpEwqMB_u