This is the seventh article in an eight-part series running that will follow our Chicago urban farms through harvest. Go back to part six. Go ahead to part eight.
If you think that urban agriculture is a recent trend, Gregg Gordon would tell you otherwise. He grew up in the 1960s on Chicago’s far south side in a neighborhood of row houses near 95th and Wentworth. Gregg describes it in those days as a quiet, close-knit community. Along the side of nearby railroad tracks, Gregg’s mother grew a large vegetable garden, maybe 1500 square feet.
Like a lot of black families in Chicago at that time, the Gordon family was originally from the south. Mrs. Gordon had grown up in Drew, Mississippi where her parents farmed vegetables, selling beans to a neighboring prison.
When Gregg was young, Mrs. Gordon grew a diverse set of vegetables: bell peppers, tomatoes, okra, cucumbers, tomatillos, onions, beets, carrots, hot peppers, watermelon, cantaloupe, winter squash, zucchini, collards, turnips, rutabagas, four or five different kinds of beans and three different lettuces. Mrs. Gordon didn’t do it alone, of course, Gregg had to help out. He says, “I was the one picked to do the majority of the help because I was the youngest boy.”
“I learned a whole lot more. Now it’s in me. It’s not just hobby. It’s fun, it’s rewarding and you see the rewards.”
“At first I didn’t like it,” he says. “I wanted to play softball and baseball and football, but I had to go out there and help her in the garden. But it paid off. The food was good.”
Mrs. Gordon was as good of a cook as she was a gardener and was famous for making southern favorites. Her cha cha (a preserved chopped vegetable relish, also known as chow chow) was famous in the neighborhood. Not only did little Gregg help out in the garden, he also helped out in the kitchen, shucking corn and dicing vegetables for cha cha. When he wasn’t chopping, Gregg watched his mother cook.
My dad would always say, ‘better pay attention, boy, ’cause there’s gonna be time you’re gonna need those skills.’ I knew somewhere down the line I’d have to utilize those skills.” He learned to add vinegar to collards directly to the cooking water, instead of at the end. He learned to parboil your rice, then rinse the starch off to get it extra fluffy. He learned to steam cabbage only briefly to preserve its crunch.
But the idyllic life of Gregg’s neighborhood didn’t last long. As Gregg was growing up, Chicago’s South Side was getting rougher and it rubbed off on him.
“I was hanging with the wrong crowd,” Gregg explains, “the wrong places, the wrong people. I did some of those things: using narcotics and drugs and gang banging. I thank God I’m still here.” Eventually, Gregg’s time on the street became a wedge between him and his family. “Because of what I was doing, I couldn’t be in mom’s house, so I had to respect her home. That’s why I left at a young age. I’ve lived on my own since I was 18.”
The intervening years were rough. When asked about them, Gregg simply says, “Sometimes we take a wrong turn.” But this fall, after a long period of unemployment, Gregg signed up for Chicago FarmWorks, one of Heartland Alliance’s transitional jobs programs, which includes job experience at an urban farm on Chicago’s west side.
Working at FarmWorks put Gregg’s hands back in dirt for the first time since leaving home. “I got a chance to revisit all those old memories of gardening and farming. There’s a lot that I knew and a lot that I didn’t know. And working with Andy and Jessica, I learned a whole lot more. Now it’s in me. It’s not just hobby. It’s fun, it’s rewarding and you see the rewards.”
“This program has helped me correct a lot of things and learn a lot of things.”
At FarmWorks, participants can take home any of the “seconds” – bruised or broken vegetables that aren’t suited for delivery, even if they’re still good to eat. (As Gregg puts it, “seconds are just as good as firsts.”) Now, cooking with farm fresh vegetables again, Gregg is returning to some of the recipes he learned at his mom’s hip.
“I do a lot of cooking. I do it with my two kids, my son really got into it,” Gregg says. Gregg’s son is learning by his side, just like Gregg learned from his mother. These evenings as a family cooking together are part of what Gregg calls “getting his life back on track.”
“I want my kids to have a prosperous and successful life,” Gregg says. “I don’t want them to make mistakes that I made. This program has helped me correct a lot of things and learn a lot of things.”
Gregg recently brought home a couple of FarmWorks’ butternut squashes and made one of his mom’s old Southern recipes: butternut squash with gravy. Gregg usually serves this as a side with fried liver. “That’s the same way she made it,” Gregg says. “And my kids love it.“
Mrs. Gordon’s Butternut Squash with Gravy
This makes a good side dish for four people
- 1 1/2 cup rice
- 1 large butternut squash
- 1 large yellow onion
- 2 tbl all purpose flour
- Peanut oil
- Salt and pepper
- All-purpose seasoning (such as Mrs. Dash)
Rice
Add rice with plenty of water to a sauce pan, bring to a boil. As soon as rice begins to boil, remove from heat and strain. Put rice back into the pot, then rinse with cool water. Repeat until water runs clear. Add sufficient water to cover rice, bring back to boil, then reduce heat to very low and cook for 15 minutes. Turn off heat, fluff rice with a fork, then let sit covered for 5 minutes.
Squash With Gravy
Peel and halve the butternut squash, removing any seeds and stringy pulp. Cut squash into ¼ inch thick strips and set aside. Slice onion into thin strips.
Heat a 12” pan over medium-high heat. Add enough oil to coat bottom of pan and add squash, turning once to coat. Cook squash until starts to soften, about 5 minutes. Add onions, stir and lower heat to low. Continue cooking squash and onions on low, stirring occasionally until squash is very soft and onions are caramelized. About 20 minutes. Remove squash and onions from pan, salt and pepper to taste, and set aside. Any excess cooking oil should stay in the pan.
Return pan to medium heat, adding two tablespoons more oil. Using a fork, rapidly whisk the flour into the oil, keep stirring constantly until flour starts to darken, about 10 minutes. Add a generous amount of seasoning and salt and pepper to taste,. Slowly whisk in water to roux, adding more as water absorbs until a thick, gravy consistency is obtained, approximately 1 cup.
Serve squash with gravy over rice.
This is the seventh article in an eight-part series running that will follow our Chicago urban farms through harvest. Go back to part six. Go ahead to part eight.
Dave Snyder is a writer and farmer whose poems, essays and criticism have appeared in Best American Poetry, Gastronomica, Colorado Review, The Iowa Review and elsewhere. He is currently Farm Director for Pisticci Restaurant in New York City. From 2012 – 2015, Dave worked for Heartland Alliance managing Chicago FarmWorks. This year he returns to tell FarmWorks’ story.
