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Great Give Day 2020

5/7/2020

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Great Give Day is Thursday, May 14. This year, Convivium needs your support more than ever.

First, let us start off by saying, thank you. Thank you for all of the support you have shown us during this time already. Those who have reached, purchased a gift card, placed a food order, and liked or shared a social media post – we truly appreciate your thoughtfulness.

Great Give Day

Your Great Give Day donation, which can be scheduled now, will support our Endowment Fund. Our endowment ensures that Convivium can remain a resource to the community and the North End for years to come. Your donation means that we can continue teaching people through example about all aspects of the food cycle – everything from starting seeds, raised bed gardening and composting to canning, cooking and baking.

What we are doing now

Although we are currently closed to the public, we are still committed to maintaining all of our gardens – about 14,000 square feet – including 12 Common Bed gardens, contain produce that is available for free for the community. Through this period, we are also partnering with Project Rooted to distribute, no-cost sack lunches to kids throughout school closures; over 150 lunches are picked up here at Convivium each weekday. And we continue to be a virtual resource to the community through educational garden videos and recipe sharing.

Looking forward

We are also taking this time to reflect and find creative ways to re-open in a way that keeps everyone safe. Creating community and a sense of belonging has never been more important, and learning the skills to grow and prepare your own food has never been more timely. There are exciting plans to come for Convivium and we appreciate your support in helping us endure the closure!

How you can help:

  • Schedule a gift.
  • Donate on May 14. Save the date and follow along as prizes are given away throughout the day!
  • Spread the word. Tell your friends you will be giving to Convivium on Great Give Day and that you need their help.
  • Post about Great Give Day on your social media. Let your friends and followers know how they can give and how their donations help. Don’t forget to use the tag #GreatGiveDay to reach more people.
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Edible Landscaping

4/24/2020

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As many of you know, Mike and I live in the Convivium Farmhouse, the yellow house right next door to Convivium. So it was important to us when we remodeled the house in 2015  to incorporate a landscape design that not only looks good, but was also in keeping with the principles and ideas that we are trying to teach through Convivium. Mainly, that with some forethought, you can grow A LOT of food in small space and make it look good too.

Luckily, we have AJ to help us with all of this, because as eager as we are, he is much, much more knowledgeable in this arena than we are. It’s important to note that we have a very small yard – a small patch in front of the porch and then on the side, the rest is taken up with our side deck, so when we say our entire yard is edible, we aren’t really talking about that much space. That said, we are able to produce a lot of food year after year.

We have broken up our yard into some distinct areas and planted a mixture of perennial fruits, fruit trees and herbs (those that come back year after year) and annual vegetables (those we have to replant every year).

Strawberry Hedge This hedge is right along the sidewalk in front of the house. We planted it with two varieties of ever-bearing strawberries — Toscana and Berri Basket Hot Pink. These plants have been prolific, even the very first season we grew them. Because they are ever-bearing, they do not produce a ton of berries all at once, but rather produce berries throughout the entire growing season. So we are enjoying fresh strawberries from this patch from mid- to late June all the way through the first hard frost in the fall.


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Maple Syrup

4/17/2020

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We have just completed the third year of Convivium’s Community Mapling project. This is one of many projects that we do here at Convivium truly captures the essence of our mission — to create community around food.

Each January we put out a call to our Facebook and email list followers for families in the city limits of Dubuque who have a maple tree in their yard. Then in late February, my husband Mike and I visit those individuals and drill taps into their trees.


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The families are then asked to bring us the sap that runs from the tree. The sap will begin running when temperatures dip below freezing at night and above freezing during the day.  When it comes out, honestly, well, it looks like water. And basically, it is water. That is why it takes about 40 gallons of maple sap to make only one gallon of maple syrup.

That process is done by boiling…and boiling and boiling. It takes a long time to evaporate all of the water. But it is that boiling process that eventually produces the lovely golden-brown syrup that we are familiar with.

This year we produced about 2 gallons of syrup from 90 gallons of donated sap from the maple trees throughout our community.  How amazing is that?
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Typically, we hold a pancake breakfast in late April to celebrate all of this and of course, to sample the delicious syrup. We’ve had to put that on hold this year because of COVID-19, but the syrup will keep and we will be celebrating the harvest as soon as we can.

Real maple syrup is a staple ingredient in our house Maple Balsamic Salad dressing, which we use on salads as well as a sauce to roast vegetables in for of Maple Balsamic Roasted Vegetables on our menu.

Below is both the dressing recipe and instructions for roasting vegetables. Enjoy!

Maple Balsamic Dressing

1-1/2 c olive oil
1 c balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
½ tsp Kosher salt
¼ c. pure maple syrup

In a bowl, combine vinegar, mustard, salt and maple syrup. Whisk to combine, then slowly drizzle in olive oil while continuing to whisk. Whisk until fully combined.

Roasted Balsamic Vegetables

4 c. roasting vegetables – cut into 1” chunks (zucchini, mushrooms, onion, cauliflower, carrots, broccoli)
¼ to ½ c Maple Balsamic Dressing
salt & pepper to taste
cooking spray

Preheat oven to 450. In a medium bowl, toss vegetables with dressing, salt and pepper. Spread in a single layer on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray Roast for 15 minutes, turning and stirring once half-way through roasting time.
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Rosemary-Garlic Potatoes

4/10/2020

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So, how is everybody doing? These are such strange times. I keep reflecting on the fact that this pandemic and the media and social media response to it, coupled with the fact that we are all very isolated right now (and rightly so), are serving to unite us all in this low-grade hum of fear and anxiety.

But then I look outside and I see that the robins are back, and my rhubarb is pushing through the earth, my chives have sprouted and the neighbors daffodils have unfurled and I take great solace in the fact that nature and its never-failing cycles persevere. And that very fact alone is a great anchor of strength and comfort for many of us right now, myself included.

And so, the gardens at Convivium (and those that work in them…thanks A.J.) are also soldiering on. We spend a great deal of time in the winter planning our gardens – what to plant, when to plant it – in order to maximize use of the produce in the kitchen. With the restaurant closed until April 30 (but likely much longer), our meticulous plans have been upended. (Join the club, right?)

But we have decided to share our garden-to-table journey with you here and on our social media pages instead. We want you to also feel the comfort of the quiet strength of nature that we see here at Convivium each and every day – and be able to recreate it at home, if you wish.

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We started this week with a little re-cap of last year’s potato tower class. What is a potato tower you ask? It is a way to grow potatoes vertically, in a wire cage above the ground. Great for small spaces and for those who don’t want to do the backbreaking labor of digging up potatoes.

It is tradition in the Midwest to plant potatoes on or around Good Friday, so we typically hold a potato tower workshop the Saturday before Easter. This year, we sadly had to cancel it, but I’d like to share some photos from last year’s class and also some instructions here, in case you would like to recreate these at your home. Click here to view a pdf of the supplies and step-by-step instructions.   
Next up, is the rosemary — a very important part of the Rosemary-Garlic potatoes. It is also difficult to start from seed and expensive to buy a large number of starter plants, so we start our own each year instead. Last fall, AJ dug up a couple of our plants from the garden and put them in pots. They have been hanging out in our coffee shop window all winter. This past week, he took cuttings from the plants and started a whole new crop for our gardens this year. Here is a photo, or click to see a video of him explaining the process.  

And we can’t forget the garlic! Garlic is actually a crop that needs to be planted in the fall and we doubled our garlic crop this year. We go through a lot of it here in the Convivium kitchen. As an organization, one of our core values is that “you can never have too much garlic”. We are growing two different varieties this year – ‘Music’ and ‘German Red’. Each were chosen because of flavor, clove size, good storage qualities and peelability (is that even a word?). 
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Put them all together and what to you get?  Rosemary-Garlic Potatoes! See below for the recipe.

We are thinking of you all and are trusting that we will all return to the ‘normal’ cycles, routines and rituals of our lives – and hopefully that includes a breakfast, lunch or brunch every now and then here at Convivium. But until we meet again, we will be sharing our garden-to-table journey with you here along with our recipes from our breakfast and lunch menu.

Stay well. Leslie   

Convivium’s Rosemary-Garlic Potatoes

Serves 4
2 lbs Yukon gold potatoes
2 sprigs rosemary
3-4 cloves garlic – unpeeled
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
  1. Preheat oven to 450 F.
  2. Wash potatoes and chop into 1-inch chunks.
  3. Place in a single layer on a cookie sheet. If they don’t fit on a single layer, then use two cookie sheets.
  4. Drizzle olive oil on top of the potatoes and gently stir around to make sure all of the potatoes are lightly covered.
  5.  Place garlic and rosemary sprigs on the sheet(s) with the potatoes. Season with salt and pepper.
  6.  Roast for 20-25 minutes – or until crispy and fork tender.

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LOCATION & HOURS
​2811 Jackson Street 
Dubuque, Iowa 52001


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Convivium Urban Farmstead is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve life through food. 
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  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Our Team
    • Our Values
    • Employment
  • Food
    • Restaurant & Coffee House
    • Catering
    • Free Casseroles
    • Free Food Boxes
  • Gardens
    • Our Gardens
    • Gardening Classes
    • Tours & Field Trips
  • Programming
    • Classes
    • Demonstrations
    • Experiences
  • Our Space
    • Event Rental
    • Facility History