We were fortunate to visit and help out at a community garden in Louisiana’s Lower Ninth Ward, called Capstone Community Garden. The man running the garden, David, moved to Louisiana post-Katrina to do what he can to help out the locals. The garden contains an aquaculture setup and a variety of livestock, and makes use of empty plots of land that have not had houses re-built on them yet.
Last night we packed all 14 students into Sean’s van and visited Paul Sanchez, a New Orleans local and American guitarist at Chicky Wah Wah. There he played an acoustic set alongside three other artists. One of the artists left from Chickie Wah Wah to Siberia where he played sea shanties alongside a men’s sea shanty choir.
Our group stayed behind at Chickie Wah Wah for the end of Paul’s set, then went with Paul to Siberia to listen to the sea shanties. We danced and sang along for the greater part of an hour before we realized it was nearly midnight and time for us to go.
We were still so excited from our time at Siberia that we bullied Dr Sean Anderson into playing more sea shanties for our drive back to the Mustard House. To our surprise (and delight) he was already prepared with songs that we had heard that night. Despite our lack of sleep, we all loudly sang along in our packed van to each shanty making it a fun night to remember.
Capstone Community Gardens is located in the lower ninth ward, one of the neighborhoods most drastically affected by Hurricane Katrina. The organization’s mission is to tackle food insecurity in a sustainable and community oriented fashion. They achieve this by employing a variety of techniques, such a aquaculture (with goldfish and koi), gardening on multiple plots (15) throughout the lower ninth ward, raising animals (goats, chickens and ducks) for fertilizer, capturing rain water, beekeeping, and using solar energy.
At Capstone, we split into two groups. One group worked on gardening, and the other cleaned out the animal cages. The animal waste was dumped in the compost pile, which will later be used to add nutrients to the garden soil. The gardening consisted of pulling weeds, planting vegetables, and distributing mulch and bits of cardboard. David explained to us how important it is to focus on both of these aspects- the animals and the plants. The balance between them is key and is what makes Capstone so successful and productive. Since it’s opened, they have given away 16,000-18,000 lbs of food! It was wonderful to participate in such a kind and helpful endeavor.
Yesterday we had the pleasure of meeting Mark Sanders, the founder of Basin Street Records. In nostalgic fashion, we met at the Morning Call Cafe, where Mark worked in 1978 and we had coffee and beignets for breakfast. He spoke to us about his label, the music industry in New Orleans, and his experiences with hurricane Katrina.
Mark started his record label in 1998. He worked with local jazz greats like Irvin Mayfield, Bill Summers, Kermit Ruffins, and Jason Marsalis. By 2005, the label had six full time employees and a work space. Then Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana, bringing devastation and chaos to all aspects of life in New Orleans. Temporarily, Mark relocated to Austin, Texas. Despite losing the work space, his home, and many other obstacles, he stayed steadfast in his determination to pursue his passion and share the sounds of New Orleans with the world. He managed to keep the label alive by working out of coffee shops.
Since then, the label has made a miraculous rebound and seems to be as strong as ever. Currently, they have 3 full time employees and work out of Mark’s home. They are still putting out albums and finding fresh new artists that exemplify the spirit and resilience of New Orleans.
On Wednesday we had the pleasure of planting a garden for our friend Carol Arceneaux at his property in Buras.
Buras is on a thin strip of land between the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. Since Katrina only about 10% of the population has come back.
Carol’s property has several concrete slabs where homes once stood, he tells us that he used to have several neighbors on all sides of him.
Other than Katrina, the residents of Buras have lost their homes to several other hurricanes, Buras has a levees one each side so that when water flows over them it essentials becomes a bowl and the water has no where to go.
We first dug the perimeters of the planting bed, and turned all the soil manually with shovels. We then spaced our vegetables apart, planted them and watered them.
The soil here is rich and is one of the many reasons why these wetlands were converted for agricultural.
Upon crossing the Mississippi en-route to Mustard Seed Ministries, a large flare burned through the Louisiana sky.
While burning excess gases from oil production is a common theme in Southern California, I had never witnessed a flare of this magnitude and quite so close to ground level. Yet, this flare was relatively minute in comparison to the large off-gasing that occurred on March 10th.
To get the full story we visited Mark Schleifstein, Environmental Reporter at NOLA.com, formerly known as The Times Picayune. Mark explained that the source of the flare was the firm Chalmette Refining, LLC. According to Mark, the company claimed to have been performing routine maintenance when the large flare up occurred. In the midst of repairs, one of the compressors malfunctioned shutting down and shunting all gases to one of two emission stacks causing a large eruption of flames into the sky. While by law Chalmette is required to issue a report explaining what the cause of the flare was and what gases where release, the company has yet to do so. In the words of Mark Shchleifstein this behavior by the oil industry constitutes, “just another day in paradise” in Louisiana.
Link to NOLA.com article and footage of flare up.
On a beautiful day, we headed out to do more transects in the Woodlands Trail Conservancy. After hacking our way through endless black berry we counted the various plant life
As we get ready to go into the field each day, we make sure to prepare a nutritious lunch. While we take our food and what we’re eating seriously, we also know to have a little fun with it.
We visited the Woodlands Plantation this afternoon where we learned about the restoration and the historical purposes the buildings served. The original plantation was created in 1834 about ten miles away from its current resting place. The buildings that were reconstructed and preserved included Spirit Hall, the original plantation house, and the original slave quarters:
On the plantation we observed alligators that live on the land year round. The biggest one came out and seemed a bit curious about us too, with a little coaxing from Foster, the owner and preservationist of the land and area:
Foster also discussed his observations of the now plentiful black-bellied-tree ducks, which were not present in the area until about ten years previously. This invasive species is indicative of climate change, and can be found crowding the levees across the pond pictured above.
We also enjoyed a a crawfish boil, as seen below:
It was many of our first times enjoying this cultural activity, and the setting couldn’t have been more beautiful.
Deep in the woods our team headed by Rainey Barton we surveyed the various plants that make up the forested area of Southern Louisiana. We counted native and non native evasive plants to figure out what the composition of the forest is.
