CORNELIUS TODAY • July 2017 • 29
It takes a village: Tasty dishes come from our community garden BY GRANT GOSSAGE The seed planted five summers ago at a Cornelius town hall meeting – little more than a notice about other community gardens in North Carolina then – has since sprouted into a remarkable partnership. Today, the Cornelius Community Garden sits back from busy West Catawba Rd., just off of Exit 28 toward downtown. On either side of the stone path to the garden there’s an original artwork. To the right is Edwin White’s metal statue titled “Shared Findings,” and to the left is Monique Luck’s organic collage, “Our Pieces of Earth,” fitting for the garden’s entrance sign. Fences enclose raised beds that Cornelius residents can rent out for 25 dollars a year each. The fee gives gardeners access to on-site tools, such as wheelbarrows and shovels, as well as water. The city provides the garden’s water at no cost, and various businesses deliver free dirt and mulch. Produce from three to four community boxes is designated for donation to the neighboring Smithville community and to local non-profit organizations. Often, too, individuals donate produce grown in their respective boxes to those in need. The Cornelius Community Garden prides itself on being organic: free from man-made chemicals and com-
mitted to nurturing the whole ecosystem. The garden sets aside work days in which residents can help weed the community boxes and along the fence line. The next work days fall on the 24 and 26 of this month; any and all are welcome to serve. Gardens supply fresh ingredients to avid home cooks like Brenda Hall of Cornelius. She was born and raised in Rocky Mount, where early on she learned not only about southern cookHall ing (especially Sunday potroasts and skillet-fried chicken) from her mother but also presentation. Mrs. Hall recalls a typical Saturday when her friends in the neighborhood would come over for lunch. “My mother was the kind of person who, Saturday lunch, she’d take bread out of the bag and put it on a plate,” Brenda said. “She’d take potato chips out of the bag and put them in a bowl.” Even though her father was a conductor on the railroad and often worked nights, she remembers sitting down to dinner every night as a family whether he was there or not. Her mother’s presentation never changed. Whenever she hosts friends and family members in her home, Mrs. Hall is particular in the same manner her mother was.
“I’m really funny about presentation,” Brenda said. “I like for everything to match. I have several sets of dishes that I’ve had for a long time, and it depends on what season it is how I decorate the table.” Brenda attended Nash Community College in Rocky Mount, earning her associate degree in nursing, and at UNC Pembroke, received her bachelor of science in nursing. After her second marriage, she left Rocky Mount for Oak Island, where she lived for 14 years before retiring from her 30-year career as a nurse. In the wake of her husband’s death, Brenda relocated to Cornelius to be closer to her son Brian and his two children. She has a second son who lives in Wilmington, three other grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. They visit around this time of year, and of course Brian and his kids do too.
Carrying on tradition, Brenda prepares southern meals for her children, their children, and their children’s children seldom relying on recipes. “My first mother-in-law was a very good cook. I cooked a lot of things like she did and like my mother,” she said. “I don’t go by recipes. When I make a meatloaf, I make it by memory.” In the last week or so, Brenda made a trip to her plot at the Cornelius Community Garden, picked out string beans, and in her words, “just came home and cooked ‘em the good old southern way.” Besides the string beans, she grows a couple kinds of pepper, eggplant, okra, tomatoes, among other colorful vegetables. She has, as have dozens in the area, taken advantage of a neat partnership in Cornelius. “The community garden is new for me this year. It’s a wonderful thing.”
SOUTHERN CHICKEN PASTRY
Ingredients:
• One Whole Chicken • 64 oz. chicken broth • 3-4 cups plain flour • 4 tbls. Crisco shortening
Preparation
Cover chicken about 3/4 with water and bring to boil. Reduce to low rolling boil and cook until chicken done and falling off bone. Remove to cool. When cool de-bone and place chicken back in pot and add extra chicken broth.
Pastry Cut shortning into flour and enough chicken broth to make dough come together. Roll thin (thin enough to almost see through). Cut into strips approximately 1” X 4”. Place in boiling chicken/broth, one strip at a time, letting boil between layers. Gently “shake” pot back and forth(like popcorn) and cook for 10-12 min. Serve with green beans, slaw and cornbread. Recipe by Brenda Hall
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