the
Weehawken Reporter Urban gardens blossom
NINE WEEKLY NEWSPAPERS SERVING HUDSON COUNTY • STORIES UPDATED CONTINUOUSLY AT WWW.HUDSONREPORTER.COM • A PUBLICATION OF THE HUDSON REPORTER
VOLUME 27, NUMBER 1 • SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
From ginger to hibiscus: What’s growing in Hudson County
MAMA MIA! – Broadway star and Weehawkenite Joi Price, who has performed in ‘Mama Mia,’ teams up with musical partner Suzanne Carrico starting July 29 to sing in a cabaret revue of Broadway tunes centered around the notion of pregnancy and family called ‘Great Expectations.’
‘TILL IT’S ALL TILLED – Gifted fourth through seventh grade Weehawken students raked up the dirt in front of Town Hall Tuesday in line with their summer program’s “Helping Hands Across Weehawken” theme.
By Vanessa Cruz, Adriana Rambay Fernandez, Stephen LaMarca, Gennarose Pope, and E. Assata Wright
A
Reporter staff writers
mid the twists of steel and brick that characterize cities, Hudson County still has urban oases – whether an outcropping of vegetation in a local park, or a secret garden cultivated in a resident’s back yard. From restaurateurs growing their own ginger to hibiscus plants in a back yard to turtles in the marshes, we’ve found a few special places where Hudson County looks like the countryside.
inside www.hudsonreporter.com
Business Directory
p. 8
Classified
p. 10
Letters
p. 15
Open House Directory
p. 13
Sports
p. 6
Growing ginger for his customers
Take a stroll down the patron-packed Bergenline Avenue in West New York and you are inundated by shops, banks, restaurants, and concrete. Gardens or yards are the last things on your mind. Unless you know Jin Liang. Liang owns Ginger Grill just north of the corner of Bergenline Avenue and 50th Street. Most of his patrons are unaware that (literally) behind the scenes, in what used to be a concrete and dirt space filled with trash and beer bottles, lies a veritable Asian garden of Eden. Ginger, taro, bitter melon, and scallion flowers line the carefully cultivated rows of green. The secret, he says, is to add the leftover water from the pounds of rice he cooks for his restaurant to feed the many thriving plants that, for now, feed his family and staff. That is, barring the ginger, which he uses to make his homemade teriyaki sauce while most establishments buy theirs pre-made. Liang started his garden when he opened his restaurant over two years ago. He wasn’t able to keep the garden up as much as he may have wanted last year because business was so busy, he said. But he hopes to change that one day soon. He also hopes to eventually open his gar-
see GROWING page 5
Pregnant pals to perform
Local ‘Mama Mia’ star and friend appear in cabaret about being ‘in the family way’
T
By Gennarose Pope Reporter Staff Writer
hough she’s expecting a baby, Weehawkenite and Broadway star Joi Price never thought she’d be expecting at the same time as her childhood friend Suzanne Carrico. Nor did she think they’d haul their pregnant bodies on stage together. Both women grew up together in Flint, Mich. Then, two years ago, Price saw her friend’s name on the New York City Metropolitan Room marquis. “I thought, ‘I know this woman. I just have to go,’ ” Price said, and their friendship was
ing on the topic of a collaborative show seemed a no-brainer. “The subject had already been picked out of us,” Price laughed. “Something this special only comes up so often. To be going through our pregnancy and doing a performance together about the experience is truly extraordinary.” And so their cabaret revue “Great Expectations” was born.
Working ‘Mama’
Price left Flint behind for the big city to pursue a career in musical theatre. She sang in small productions until her big break in 2000
“It’s been wonderful to be able to fill the waiting [for birth] with musical expression of the experience.” – Joi Price immediately rekindled. They also began to perform together. Carrico was married last December, and in January, she approached Price and said, “I have something to tell you.” Carrico was pregnant with her first child. Hardly a week later, Price approached Carrico and said, “I have something to tell you.” Turns out she was pregnant with her second child six years after having her daughter, Alexa. After that incredible coincidence, decid-
when she became Audra McDonald’s understudy in “Ragtime.” Two years later she joined the tour of the Broadway production of “Mama Mia.” Shortly thereafter, she was cast in the on-Broadway production, playing the supporting lead role of Allie. “It’s not unusual for a touring actor to be cast in the Broadway version,” Price explained. “If
see EXPECTATIONS page 4