AALV Sewing Group has a new time! Fridays at 1:30 at the O’Brian Community Center in Winooski (back room).
Please consider us for monetary donation, or for used sewing machine, fabric or to come teach a pattern. This project currently has no funding 
Also, All invited to come and visit! contact: josieweldon.aalv@yahoo.com
Oct. 30- mark your calendar. Old friends and new- those who love sustainable carpentry- or want to learn more about New Farms for New Americans. 10:00 we will start the raising of our timber frame wash station at the Ethan Allen in Burlington. Raising will be led by Jacob Muslin who designed and did carpentry for the structure, but we need your help. Enjoy New American food while you are there! If you would like to RSVP, or get more information- please contact Josie at josieweldon.aalv@yahoo.com or 343-7007
Great piece about the refugee agricultural movement across the country, including AALV’s New Farms for New Americans Project: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/10/us/refugees-in-united-states-take-up-farming.html?ref=agriculture
Come attend! Finished product will be New Farms for New Americans timber frame wash station.
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011104100321 Burlington’s Old North End- AALV’s home!
NFNA farmers presented last Sunday at the Northeast Organic Farming Association’s Winter conference. Jumah, Drupada, Khina, Devi, Sadia, Maryan and Abdullahi did a great job! The title of their presentation was: “New American Food” and here are the recipes they demonstrated:
Bhutanese Salsa #1:
1. Blend together: Tomato; Daikon Radish
2. Add these spices: Cumin; cooked, crushed Pumpkin Seeds; Turmeric, Salt
3. Add a little Lime Juice
4. Add Mustard Oil
(Mustard Oil and Daikon can be purchased at Vietnamese markets in Burlington and Winooski)
Bhutanese Salsa #2:
1. Shred cucumber (peel and all)- drain the extra cucumber juice after shredding.
2. Add cut cilantro
3. Blend with blender or food processor
4. Add these spices: Cumin, Salt, Turmeric
5. Add a little Lime Juice
6. Add Mustard Oil
Bhutanese seasoning #3
1. Crushed sesame seeds
2. Add these spices: Cumin, Salt, Turmeric
3. Add Lime Juice
4. Add Mustard Oil
Use to season your food!
Dhakanay (Bhutanese Fried Rice)
1. Put butter in a frying pan
2. Add rice to frying pan and brown in the butter
3. Add milk as the cooking liquid to frying pan
4. Cook rice in the milk
5. While cooking add sugar and desired spices. Suggested spices/flavoring include coconut, cardamom, etc.
Somali Bantu Samosas
Dough:
1. Combine flour, water, salt and oil and mix
2. Use flour and flatten dough on counter with a rolling pin
3. Cut flattened dough into squares to use as wrapper. (egg roll wappers available at grocery stores or African markets can also be used).
Stuffing:
1. Cook , chop and combine your favorite combination of these samosa fillings: potatoes, peas, carrots, corn, peppers, carrots, halal ground beef, onion, garlic, spices.
Construct:
1. Put a dollop of stuffing on each dough square and fold over three corners to create a filled, triangle pocket.
Cook:
1. Put a generous amount of oil in a pan and heat. Fry samosas on either side until golden brown
2. Remove from pan and lay on paper towels to drain oil
Somali Bantu Breakfast Snack
1. Slice Plantains in half lengthwise and then into 2 inch pieces.
2. Add a little water to a sauce pan, heat and add plantains
3. Add coconut shavings and coconut juice, if available
4. Add clove powder
5. Add crushed cardamom pods
6. Add a little oil
7. Add sugar to taste
8. Add salt to taste
Eat when plantains are flavored, soft and warmed all the way through
Somali Bantu Potato Cakes
1. Cook potatoes until a little soft
2. Slice potatoes, so that they are shaped like patties
3. Use orange corn meal batter mix from African Market and dip the patties in this batter
4. Fry the potato cakes on either side until batter is firm.
Serve potato cakes with this salsa: Chili, Garlic, Salt and Lime Juice mixed in a food processor.
Chefs, buying groups and food businesses- please put your special orders in for NFNA produce before April. If you would prefer sales calls/emails during the growing season, please let us know! NFNA wholesale season is from Mid-June through mid-November. Call or write Josie at 343-7007; josieweldon.aalv@yahoo.com
NFNA Profile: Clothilde Ntahomvukiye, 63 and Michele Mpambazi, 64 are married and farm together in the New Farms for New Americans project. They were both born in Bujumburi, Burundi. They have been farmers since they were children.
”Some kids did not go to school in our country; instead they went with their parents to learn the trade of farming. Even if you are a student in rural Burundi, when you leave school, you go straight to the farm field to help your parents and see how they are doing. You bring them water, food and help them. When you have a day off from school, you spend it in the field, farming with your parents.
I (Michele) went to school and worked eight years as an elementary school teacher. However, I still farmed with my wife, Clothilde. We had land about half the size of Winooski. Some places we planted bananas, some places trees, or beans, or cassava, or coffee, or corn, or sweet potatoes. I (Michele) sold a lot of food at an open air market, and the rest of the food I brought home for my family to eat. We were well off!”
In 1972 there were problems starting between ethnic groups in Burundi. Michele and Clothilde had two children, so to keep the family safe they walked to refugee in the Congo. They lived in the Congo one month, and then went to Rwanda where there was U.N. run refugee camps.
“After a while we were allowed to live as normal citizens in Rwanda (refugees are not allowed to work, own land, businesses, etc). I (Michele) worked as an elementary school teacher again, teaching Rwandan children and gained land to farm on. We lived in Rwanda for 22 years. However, in Rwanda in 1994 there was the genocide and we had to run again back to the Congo, where we were in a refugee camp again. I hated to see that war and genocide, because I had already seen it. The war in Rwanda spilled into where we were living in the Congo in 1996. Then we fled again, taking boats across Lake Tanganyika to Tanzania. In Tanzania we were refugees in the Mtabila camp for 10 years. I was teaching and also farming again in the camp there. A neighboring refugee camp was shut down, and these people had to join us. There was so much crowding! We still did not want to go back to Burundi, because we did not have land, or a life there. The U.S. government stepped in at this time to deal with the overcrowding of refugees in Tanzania. The U.S. offered resettlement to some Burundians who did not want to return to their country. We were one of those families, and moved to the U.S. 2008.
Now that we are in the U.S., even though we are old, we are not sitting at home. We are still producing and earning money for our families, and maintaining our agricultural heritage. We are very proud of that!”
The local USDA Farm Service Agency has provided invaluable and excellent support to the New Farms for New Americans (NFNA) project this year. In addition to running training sessions, linking farmers to land and marketing opportunities, providing business technical assistance and micro loans to farmers in the program, they have won donations, and $6,490.00 of funds to be put directly to the project. Thank you Farm Service Agency for your efforts to provide equal outreach and opportunity to all members of Vermont’s farming community!
AALV is also pleased to announce that New Farms for New Americans just won a significant award of funding from the US Department of Agriculture’s Outreach and Assistance to Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers Program (OASDFR). You can read the announcement of the OASDFR awards here: http://www.AALV is also pleased to announce that New Farms for New Americans also just won a significant award of funding from the US Department of Agriculture’s Outreach and Assistance to Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers Program (OASDFR). You can read the announcement of the OASDFR awards here.
New Farms for New Americans farmers are vending at five local farmers markets each week. We’ll also be selling at the new South Burlington Farmers Market. Visiting the New Farms for New Americans stand at farmers market to say hello or purchase vegetables and prepared food is a great way to support the New Farms project. We love to see friendly faces.
Tuesdays: Old North End Farmers Market, 3:00-6:30
Wednesdays: Burlington South End Farmers Market 3:30-6:30 and New North End Farmers Market, 3:00-6:30
Thursdays: Winooski Farmers Market, 3:30-6:30
Saturdays: Williston Farmers Market, 10:00-1:00
One Sunday a Month: South Burlington Farmers Market at Healthy Living, August 23 and September 20 9:00-1:00
Schedule a language interpreter online with AALVInterpret or call 985-3106.
AALV is a United Way member organization.
