Today we visited Woodlands Trail Park, we are expected to do most of our service here through restoring and collecting data with the native plants. After Hurricane Katrina the habitat had to be restored and is nowhere near as tall or full as it once was over a decade ago.
Another full day in beautiful New Orleans! We spent the morning learning about the history of the French Quarter. On our walk we stopped at the neighborhood farmers market. Afterwards we were given an opportunity to help out a local organization called Capstone. Capstone is this incredible self sustaining group that gives back to their neighborhood. They have developed a self sustaining system, called an aqua culture, to grow crops. Which are then distributed throughout the neighborhood at local gardens for the community to use. They also make their own honey!
By the afternoon we received a tour of the site we will be performing restoration at called Woodlands trail. This is a deciduous forest which was damaged during the storm of hurricane Katrina. However the forest is still trying to recover. My favorite part of today was learning about the different tree species that we will be surveying within this ecosystem. Luck for us the Mulberries were ripe, we couldn’t stop eating them!
We had another great day here in NOLA, we started the day out by getting some food for tomorrow’s cooking lesson. While we were doing that our teacher gave us a little history lesson about the French corner which was rather fun and killed about 2 hours. After that we went to help a group out called Capstone which helps family grow there own food, enjoyed giving back to the community, then after that we went to the area where we will be doing the bulk of our research and learned about the plants and the procedure. That was about our day. 🙂
This is here we will cook tomorrow (3/19)
Aquaculture area
This is where we will do most of the research
After a long day out on the town and the forest, a few girls and I headed to Frenchman street to check out D.B.A and listen to some John Boutte! (Rhymes!)
The Jazz bar itself was loud, but the crowd would shush each other whenever John sang. Every song was amazing! Nothing quite feels more like New Orleans then listening to some good jazz . At the end of his gig we went up to buy CDs, and I lended him my sharpie to sign them! The line wasn’t long initially, but grew rapidly after 15 minutes. I got to sit on stage and chat with him the whole time. Eventually, I told him to keep the sharpie in exchange for a photo! Overall such a good choice. A great end to the third night of our trip.
Us and the sharpie!
Today, after visiting the New Orleans Cooking School, we traveled to neighborhood gardens called Capstone. This location is ran by David who moved here years ago and began this project with a single honeybee hive. The mission of Capstone is to become familiar with the local New Orleans and to help them get back on their feet. The lower ninth ward was a large agriculture area and when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005 all of this was wiped out. Most of the families wanted help from people who “were like them” instead of outside help from different organizations. Years after the hurricane, David has managed to turn disconnected relationships to beneficial ones as well as that single bee hive to extensive garden beds, volunteer projects to remodel abandoned homes, and a variety of other things. What is unique about the garden beds at Capstone, is that it is ran off a hydroponics system. This includes a 3,000 gallon fish tank with catfish, Koi, and other fish, and a series of pipes that filter this nutrient rich water into the flower beds and back into the fish ponds. This closed system is sustainable in that families can harvest fish and fresh vegetables all at once using recycled water.
Below are pictures of the tank and the pipe systems that lead the water where it needs to go.
Today we spent some time volunteering at a community garden in the lower 9th ward. At first, I was not sure what to expect. Overall, it was a very rewarding experience and I am pleased I got the chance to help in any way possible. The people there were all very nice and the amount of time they dedicate to garden for other people is so selfless. This made me take a step back and realize what is important in life. We are all very lucky to get this opportunity to travel and do service learning for those in need. 
Capstone community garden
Today we started our morning by going shopping at a local farmers market for the ingredients to use in our cooking school that we’ll be attending tomorrow. After that excursion we ventured over to Capstone which is a nonprofit that provides community gardens for the people in the Lower Ninth Ward. We split off into teams and my team walked a few blocks over to work on one of the garden lots. We helped by weeding and planting some new vegetable plants. We planted eggplant, cucumber, and tomato. After we finished we went back to the main house and David gave us a tour and explained how the non-profit began. In addition to all of the gardens, there were goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits and several beehives on the property. The eggs from the chickens are eaten and all of the animal waste is used as fertilizer. Capstone was such a great place and I would definitely go back if I’m ever back in NOLA.
-Rachael
Jeyla and I were asked to help with the aqua culture garden. There was a small pond containing koi fish and catfish. As Jeyla explains in the video, the fish urine produces ammonia which is then converted into nitrates by the algae that occurs in the water. The nitrate helps to fertilize the plants floating in the pond while also using less water to water the plants. We both helped plant new seeds into the floating pots.
-Juliana
Yesterday we enjoyed a few hours wandering the French quarter and the architecture was amazing! The people were obviously interesting and the vibes were very upbeat. Jazz bands were playing on street corners, which was awesome to see! 
