Community Spotlight: Gardening with Elsa Cordero

 

Written by Oliver Elkins

Sarah Lawrence College, American History ‘27

Elsa Cordero, mother of four and a twenty year resident of Yonkers from the Dominican Republic, learned about CURB when it was first created in 2013. In 2022, almost a decade later, Elsa would take on an active role with the center, receiving a plot within the CURB community garden. The garden has quickly become a vital part of Elsa’s daily life.

Though Elsa had volunteered in other community gardens before, she had never gardened herself before coming to CURB. Elsa started to feel comfortable gardening at CURB during her very first visit, “It was awesome because it's always rewarding to learn,” Elsa told me, describing the enthusiastic energy of the CURB classroom as she first learned how to plant and make compost, “I felt like I was, you know, amazed. It was amazing to me to go there and see how the flowers are growing, and the vegetables, and the fruits.”

In the spring and summer, Elsa visits the community garden once a week. Though summertime is her favorite time of year to be in the garden, Elsa visits about once a month in the winter to check on the garden. “It’s the breeze that’s there… it’s therapeutic to go there and see the flowers grow in the summer, the sunflowers.” Elsa finds the therapeutic nature of visiting CURB more important in her retirement, as she searches for activities to take her beyond her home and into the community.

Some of the produce grown in the garden is brought home by Elsa to be eaten by her and her family. Elsa makes many salads using cucumbers and other vegetables in the garden. Though Elsa mostly gardens at CURB, she has a twenty-year-old oregano plant at home that she uses to make tea. Any produce not taken home by Elsa is donated back to the community, “This year was really good because it was beets, and the beets were gigantic,” demonstrating the size of them against her face. “The size of your face huge?” I ask, and Elsa starts laughing. “No, no, not so huge.”

In addition to beets, other produce like honeydew melon, tomatoes, and flowers have been donated to the community.

Besides enjoying the community garden, Elsa attends lectures and other events at CURB. Elsa enjoys going to these events because of the impact she sees they have on the local community, “The people are interested in coming. They’re interested in going to learn.”