ALCOA, Tenn. (AP) — A July 24 outing in the garden turned into more than an excuse to pick veggies for members of Project Hope in Alcoa.
The program, which was started by retired food engineer and Alcoa resident Logan Hill back in 2017, gives teens in the community the opportunity to produce food from the ground up. They learn the science behind amending soil, planting, weeding and harvesting the fruits and vegetables. Bugs and diseases become part of the curriculum for this weekend project, which lasts several months.
Participants apply for membership and are paid a stipend as they grow food that then is given to Alcoa seniors. The program is sponsored by Blount County Master Gardeners and Men in Community.
Those in attendance on July 24 included students Joshua Scaife, Peyton Potts, Aliyah Misako, Morgan Raiford and Caleb Ford. William Robinson did not participate.
On July 24, the five members came together at the gardens located at Hill’s home. Blount County Master Gardener Rosemarie Cirina is a Project Hope volunteer who eagerly shares her knowledge with these middle and high schoolers.
On this day, it was time to learn about mold, leaf rot, end rot, worm holes and even fly eggs and maggots on tomatoes, all of which can render them inedible. Cirina gave the demonstration. She had worked with these young gardeners previously.
“I teach them what’s in the garden and how to use it,” she explained.
Cirina and Hill both worked careers in the food industry and tomatoes were their expertise. Hill worked for Ragu, and Cirina, her family’s business. Her grandfather started the company after moving from Italy to the United States in the late 1800s, and it was passed down through the generations. Cirina’s father, James Sclafani, developed the pizza sauce recipe, for Don Pepino brand.
The lesson on July 24 turned to a pizza sauce cook-off, said Hill and Cirina. Hill gave the students sheets on which to compare the tomato sauces in things like natural color, texture and also flavor.
Hill said the kids preferred the Don Pepino sauce when tasted alone, but marked them equal when put on a pizza.
That these two tomato sauce connoisseurs would end up in the same town of Alcoa is remarkable. Don Pepino is based in Williamstown, New Jersey, while Ragu is in Philadelphia. Cirina lived and worked in California and England before settling in Alcoa. Hill grew up here.
Last Saturday’s taste tests were just some friendly competition, Cirina said. She was able to share some of her family’s techniques, like using only plum tomatoes in its pizza sauce. Plum tomatoes have less seeds and contain natural sugar, she explained. Lots of other brands add sugar to their sauces, she said.
The Sclafani family owned Don Pepino for more than 60 years before selling it. Her dad was 84.
Hill said the gardens are doing well. It has been a challenge to keep them watered, and bugs have attacked the squash. It’s all part of the learning experience, he said.
Tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, basil, spinach, eggplant and melons are being harvested now.
In addition to the lesson on diseases and the sauce taste test, these teens also got to make their own pizzas. Cirina then made a smoothie from some fruits grown in the garden.
She said she can see these students progress from year to year. Some have come into Project Hope knowing very little about the origins of food or its care.
“I see a lot more excitement and interest than when it first started,” Cirina said. “They seem to retain what is taught.”
She even sent them home one day with beets and asked the students to make something with them. A beet salad was the result.
There is no way to know if any of them will become chefs, restaurant owners or the lead cook of their families, Cirina and Hill said. But giving them this base of culinary teaching can open up other possibilities, too.
Cirina has a culinary degree and taught cooking classes for 10 years.
“They show up and they are hard workers,” she said.
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