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Whitelock Farm Celebrates Its Bounty

A farewell to summer in the heart of Reservoir Hill.

Though the 75-degree weather in October felt like summer, it was harvest time at the Whitelock Community Farm!

For kids it was all about hotdogs and face painting, tossing basketballs or even pressing apples to make cider.

For grownups there was end-of-season chitchat, one more chance to “wobble” when the line dancing began, the poetry slam where contestants had 10 minutes to come up with poems about unconditional love – and the food competition.

For a whole lot of folks, the main attraction was the food competition. Greens – kale, collards, mustard – and kugel, a pudding made with noodles or potatoes. Greens are generally associated with Southern Black cuisine; kugel is associated with Jewish cuisine.

“There’s a lot of co-mingling of cultures and food and that’s by design,” observed Rabbi Daniel Cotzin Burg of the Beth Am Synagogue, one of the key partners in the Reservoir Hill Improvement Association that supports the farm.

"That’s very much Baltimore,” added Dominic “Farmer Nell” Nell, who raises microgreens like cabbage and radishes, including a pink one in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

"Delicious," proclaimed Tara Perez.

More than six years ago, hundreds of volunteers began the process of turning abandonment into abundance when they created an urban farm on what had been garbage strewn vacant lots that were themselves testament to failed urban development plans. Through their version of people power, they reclaimed the land, beat back the food desert and forged lasting relationships.

A different kind of season was also evident at this fall festival: the political one. No Boundaries Coalition, a community partner that sponsors a farm stand at the Avenue Market on Saturdays, was not only displaying produce but also registering people to vote just days before the deadline in Maryland.

In the end, some people won prizes, including Rabbi Burg's daughter Ellie and her friend Wriley Katcoff, for the best kugel; and "Chef DeShawn" Richards, who came in second to Farmer Nell in the greens cook-off. "I'm a 14-year-old who makes some of the best Southern greens in the City of Baltimore, Maryland!”

But the Rev. Dr. Karen Brown, “our community pastor,” as poet-emcee Anthony Pressley called her, offered final words for those who put together this shindig.

"You all showed off and you showed out!”