As the growing season moves toward late summer, Summit Community Gardens & EATS continues its summer schedule with the final month of its Dinners in the Garden series.

A few more events are still on the menu and aim to blend mountain-fresh dining with hands-on learning, all in support of the garden’s Food Farmacy and food access initiatives.

Beginning in June, dinner programming kicked off featuring a variety of local chefs and restaurateurs offering attendees a unique opportunity to interact with the garden and dive into some culinary experimentation of their own. 

“There’s not many places where you can dine outside like this,” said Helen Nadel, executive director of the gardens. “With the vibrant garden space all around you, nestled in the mountains, it’s pretty special.”

Included in this year’s lineup is a mixology class by Alpine Distilling, taking place this Thursday at 5:45 p.m.

Guests are promised the opportunity to elevate their cocktail game with guidance from Master Botanical Distiller Sara Sergent and Special Events Manager Xania V. Woodman of Alpine Distilling. 

“We have space for about 60 people to come out and learn about that botanical distilling process and sample a couple of their spirits,” Nadel said.

Recently inducted into London’s prestigious Gin Guild, Sergent also accepted the Fifty Best Awards’ gold medal for Best American Blended Whisky and Salt Lake Magazine’s designation of Alpine as Utah’s #1 distillery. 

Thursday, guests will be walked through two craft cocktail demonstrations while sharing insight into the botanical distilling process. They will also sample two additional Alpine Distilling offerings. Tickets include two cocktails, two samples and light refreshments.

Dinner in the garden — Family Night will follow on Thursday, Aug. 14, from 6-8 p.m., offering a kid-friendly evening of “arts and crafts, harvesting from the snacking garden, drumming, and other special activities for kids and caretakers plus a pizza dinner,” according to Summit Community Gardens.

A family of three can attend for $40, with additional guests welcome for $15 per person. Children under 2 can attend for free.

The final event of the series is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 28, bringing Hill’s Kitchen to the garden for a chef-driven dinner featuring dishes like melon-stone fruit salad, smoked beef tri-tip, roasted achiote chicken, and vegetarian options. Tickets are $85 for adults and $25 for children under 10.

Registration for all dinner events is available through the Summit Community Gardens website under the Dinners in the Garden tab. Waitlist sign-ups are also encouraged if the event is sold out since cancellations may open up last-minute tickets, Nadel said.

Each dinner offers a chance to enjoy the garden’s pollinator blooms, shaded gathering spaces and views of the surrounding mountains, said Nadel, all while building community around food and sustainability.

For more information about the gardens and the fullness of its offerings see summitcommunitygardens.org.

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As the sun dropped behind the mountains, it set the stage for a colorful evening at Summit Community Gardens and EATS celebrating La Milpa and this year’s harvest — a moment sweetened by the presence of Maria Elena Lowe, a Maya elder from the Chiapas Highlands region of Mexico who would lead the blessing.

The blessing of the harvest is a tradition in many Maya communities, reflecting their connection to the land and its cycles. This ceremony takes place at the end of the growing season, marking the culmination of hard work and dedication to their agricultural practices.

During the blessing, community members express gratitude to the Earth and the gods for the sustenance provided. They offer prayers, light candles and present offerings such as food, flowers and incense. These acts of reverence acknowledge the importance of the natural world in human lives.

On Thursday, Maria Elena prepared for the blessing in the heart of the gardens, laying colorful tapestries on the ground as a base for the harvested fruits, vegetables and flowers.

Fanny Guadalupe Blauer, executive director of ARTES de MEXICO en UTAH, prepared the group for the harvest by first asking if anyone wanted to share their stories or personal histories of growing up in regions with these practices. 

With tears in her eyes, Mariana Venegas, a Park City community member, shared her feelings of the La Milpa program and the personal richness she has found in it. 

“I grew up in a part of Guerrero (a state on Mexico’s pacific coast) called Quechultenango,” said Venegas, “and this brings back memories of my dad. It’s something I want to pass on to my daughters so they can feel happy and see how we lived before. But the one thing I want my daughters to learn is how everything we acquire — every fruit, every vegetable — comes from the land, and why we need to take care of the Earth so we can continue harvesting and feeding ourselves. I want them to know the roots of their grandfather, their great-grandfather, and our ancestors. My grandmother on my mom’s side taught me to eat all kinds of green plants.”

“I don’t know if they were edible or not,” Venegas added with a laugh. “But she would cut them, cook them, and make us very tasty tacos. That’s how I grew up when I was the age of my daughters.”

Guadalupe shifted the attention to the kids who were surrounding the crops laid before them in the center of the gardens.

She grabbed a small and perfectly ripe tomato and asked, “How long did it take for this tomato to grow” to get to what it is now?

The kids responded with a few guesses and fanny counted up the months out loud for them to follow.

“It took five months for this little tomato to grow and be ready for harvest,” she said. “So then parents go to the store, buy vegetables, buy food, and the tomato sits sad and forgotten in the back of the fridge, abandoned for a week. Then Mom or someone in the house comes and says, ‘Oh, it’s ugly,’ and throws it in the trash. Poor little tomato that took five months to grow just to end up in the garbage, right? So kids, I’m going to give you the task of speaking up when you see food going bad. Go and say, ‘Mom! We need to use that tomato! Mom! We need to use that squash! We can’t waste food!’”

All of the kids nodded in agreement, each with a multitude of corn and vegetables in their arms as they learned about them. 

Guadalupe urged the kids to be conscious of the time and resources needed for their food to grow. She implored them to be conscious stewards of the Earth. 

The time came for the blessing of the harvest, which Maria Elena would perform in her native tongue of Tzeltal, a Mayan dialect. Everyone sprang into action, bringing in the crops ready to be blessed, with Guadalupe and Maria Elena leading the way and teaching the children about the crops and their significance.

Before beginning the blessing, Maria Elena emphasized the importance of taking responsibility for the care of the Earth. She spoke about climate change and how her home region has experienced record high temperatures in recent times. She noted that these heat waves have caused difficulties for everyone’s crops and that similar challenges are occurring worldwide.

“There is a global change in temperature,” said Maria Elena, “and where I live, it has never risen above 80 degrees. This year, I was very worried because my daughter was very sad and concerned. She said, ‘Mom, I don’t know what we’re going to do, what we’re going to put in the offering because there’s no harvest.’ I told her not to worry and to ask those who are coming to bring their crops, and that’s what we would put on the altar. So today, I told them, ‘Well, today we’re going to make an important reverence. We’re going to give our heart and our soul to the creators and ask for forgiveness. Please forgive us, because we do many things, and we say, ‘I’m not cutting down a tree,’ but we throw away garbage, and that contaminates, pollutes and creates many problems. So it’s time to plead starting now. Right now, God, we don’t lack food, but a time will come when there will be nothing. That’s why we’re going to do this starting today, pleading in my prayer, I plead that Mother Earth, nature, does not get angry, that it has patience with us, and that from the Earth all the little herbs grow and that it gives us corn.”

As Maria Elena prayed, only her words and the nature she was blessing broke the quiet.

As the blessing of the harvest came to a close, it was time for guests to enjoy each other’s company, share stories about life and the harvest, and indulge in the tamales and champurrado prepared for the event.

Summit Community Gardens and EATS offers programs and events throughout the year. For more information, visit summitcommunitygardens.org.

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The Park City Hospital hosted a Pea Party for women and their children to attend Monday afternoon, June 19, 2017. Kids painted rocks, planted vegetables and enjoyed a healthy snack. (Tanzi Propst/Park Record)

Link to full gallery here: https://parkrecordphoto.smugmug.com/PHOTOS-Pea-Party/

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