Mezzacello: Home Is Where The Lab Is

Mezzacello: Home Is Where The Lab Is

Mezzacello: Home Is Where The Lab Is
Mezzacello from North 20th Street

It never occurred to me that people might think that Mezzacello is a place that I go to do my work. Increasingly I meet people that ask me where Mezzacello is and then are surprised to learn that My home and Mezzacello are the same place. Mezzacello: Home is where the lab is.

How This Came About

I have written on this topic before. I fell into an opportunity to build a series of gardens to explore growing food and developing ecosystems and systems that would make that easier. I also am employed by the PAST Foundation and it seemed mutually beneficial to create an Applied STEM laboratory to explore the intersection between food and community.

I credit PAST Foundation for inspiring me to start Mezzacello. It was when I began working with PAST in 2014 that I began to see the disconnect young people had between food and how it’s made and the wider disconnect between education and how what when we teach kids about food. I just copied what PAST Foundation was trying to model to schools and I never stopped.

Growing America to STEM Outdoor Innovation Lab to Mezzacello Urban Farm

PAST Foundation has been innovating in this space for over a decade. They ran a successful program in the mid 2000s called Growing America which sought to teach Applied STEM ideas to inner-city kids in the hopes that it would improve diets and understanding of food. And it did, but there was still a missing component.

Then I was hired to run the SOIL program alongside Kat Deaner (who was the PI for Growing America at PAST) and it was my job to help schools make good choices in implementing spaces for outdoor and food innovations. That’s where I learned that systems integration and commitment to seasons was key. It was that realization that drove me to create the learning lab at Mezzacello.

Complexity and Dependent Systems Integration

Very much like my job at PAST Foundation, it is not always easy to explain what I do here at Mezzacello – so I will make this easy. I live here and explore here to try to make the world a better place to live in and to find balance. The city is a dangerous place to be hungry and vulnerable in and I want to be a positive change for good in that space.

I love living in a place that inspires people and allows me to really manifest my mission of Grow, Maintain, Sustain, and Explain. During COVID19 lockdown, Mezzacello literally saved my life and my sanity. It was a beacon of hope and purpose for me in a world gone mad.

The key to success is a relentless commitment to iterative teaching and learning. Here I have failed – alot. But I learn from that failure.

The real innovation here is to not fear change and failure, but to treat it as a data point. I do hate failure, but I hate hard work even more. If I can develop a more robust and sustainable system via that failure, then that is a success in my book.

Here’s to continuing to push through and create a better world. The next steps are building my charity presence and non-profit status and finding new partners and sites to expand my mission. Wish me luck, I’ll probably need it.


Making Decisions – Good and Bad Choices

Making Decisions – Good and Bad Choices

Making Decisions – Good and Bad Choices. This is my cooking expertise. i am an adventurer by nature — and this is my greatest failure as a cook.

I lack imagination and sophistication when it comes to preparing food. I think like a chemist (and some would say a sadist). I imagine that flavors and textures will go together and I try to WILL them to be good. As you might imagine this is not enough.

Do What Comes Natural

Consequently this is the origin of the “North and South Korea” doctrine at Mezzacello. I grow and pay for foos, Rick prepares food. We do what comes natural to us and what we are actually good at.

If you come to a fork in the road, take it.

Yogi Berra

There are a few meals I CAN cook, but they are very specific and I do not have to guess at flavor profiles. I have posted a few here before. And generally speaking if I tell Rick that I will make that, he’s fine. Any other time it’s Rick saying, “If Jim hands you a fork, run!”

Therefore I should strive to never cook. Never destroy the oven – twice, burn the toasts, bake carbonized cookies, or moist-free chicken. It’s just not my skillset.

This is how dreams die.

So I will go back to planning and making things happen at Mezzacello during the summer. I will eat microwaveable meals, and cook rice in the rice cooker. But I won’t be making “meals” any more – apparently it is considered cruel and unusual punishment.

If Jim hands you a fork, run.

Richard Riley

Just out of curiosity, what does the rest of the world do? I am assuming there is a lot of processed food and fast food options at play? What is YOUR favorite dish?


The Foodist: Blueberry Galette with Rosemary Crust

The Foodist: Blueberry Galette with Rosemary Crust

Rosemary and Blueberry Galette

At Mezzacello we love to use fresh fruit, vegetables herbs in our cooking. We grow it, so we should use it, yes? This is The Foodist: Blueberry Galette with Rosemary Crust. Super easy, super tasty and definitely a crowd-pleaseer.

This is a recipe that requires we import flour, shortening and sugar, everything else comes from the farm. This sweet-savory tart is a meal or a dessert is a wonderful addition in a cold winter’s night or a summer get together. It belongs wherever there is joy and celebration.

At Mezzacello we grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs. We also raise chickens, ducks, rabbits, fish, crickets and meal worms. We have added ground dehydrated crickets to push up the protein, but that is an extra.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 Pillsbury roll pie crust dough (we do not have the counter space at the farm to make our own dough)
  • 2 Tbsp finely ground rosemary (fresh)
  • 2 pats of butter (melted and sprinkled or chopped)
  • 2 pints fresh washed and dried blueberries
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon (ground from bark is best)
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • 3 Tbsp flour
  • 1 Tbsp sugar reserved
  • 1 egg white, whipped

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 400 F (204C).
  2. Layout pie dough on a silpat sheet or lightly greased baking pan.
  3. Sprinkle 1/2 rosemary powder on the pie crust,
  4. Add a few pats of butter or drizzle melted butter in a spiral.
  5. Combine all the ingredients into a bowl. Mix. Add in the remaining chopped rosemary. Making sure all the blueberries are thoroughly coated.
  6. Lay rosemary dough on the pan flat.
  7. Spoon blueberry, rosemary, lemon, sugar compote onto the dough, leaving a 2 inch border all around.
  8. Fold the border over the compote to create a rustic fold all around.
  9. Brush the crust with beaten egg white and sprinkle it with sugar.
  10. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.
  11. Serve with pride, because she will be gorgeous.