"Vegetables are our main meal at home," said Esther Voltaire, 10, in words that would be music to the ears of nutritionists everywhere.
They attended a Farm to Table workshop at Fairgate Farm on Wednesday at the 3-year-old urban farm on Stillwater Avenue. It was the second of six workshops being held on Wednesday evenings.
Donna Gaudioso-Zeale is director of Stamford Hospital's population health and prevention, and she said the workshop aims to encourage both young and old to eat a healthy diet.
"The message is about healthy eating and to have them touch, feel and taste," she said about the program's participants.
The farm grew from the cooperation among the community, corporate sponsors, Stamford Hospital and the landowner, Charter Oak Communities (Stamford's public housing authority). The farm is part of the Vita Health & Wellness District on the city's West Side in the area surrounding Stamford Hospital. Its aim is to improve community health.
As part of the workshop, Gavin Pritchard, a registered dietitian, and nutritionist Alejandra Garces were busy preparing yellow and green beans to make three different types of salads for the workshop's participants.
The modest beans are a valuable source of nutrients and protein while at the same time being low in calories, Pritchard told his audience during the cooking demonstration. The beans are also easy to cook, can stay refrigerated a long time and have not risen in price like many other food products, he said.
Farm Manager Bill Callion, former director of public safety for Stamford, oversees the 2-acre Fairgate Farm property and is proud of how far it has come since being saved from development.
"We had three options: a meadow, a pocket park or a community garden or farm," he said. "There are the sweetest sweet peas in the world in that row right there."
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