rebeccmeister | Radix Center Open House [gardening, hippie update]

I've wanted to visit the Radix Center here in Albany for quite a while now. I eventually figured out that one of the more timely ways to learn about what they have going on is to keep tabs on their social media updates, rather than relying on their website or newsletters. Through social media I learned they were holding an Open House this past Saturday from 10-2. I convinced S to join me there at 11 am, which is when there was a tour scheduled.

Rushing over there from Yet Another Boathouse Work Party, at first I didn't really see any other people. Just a whole lot of intriguing vegetation, including fruit trees loaded up with fruit.

I did appreciate seeing their Community Compost Drop-Off Station.

And the Free Food table and fridge.

While I was standing around, waiting for S and/or some more official-seeming people to show up, a woman drove up and said, "Hi there, can you help me?"

"I don't - I'm not a part of the programs here," I stuttered.

That turned out to not matter; she had come from a food pantry event where they wound up with a lot of leftover plums, frozen asparagus, and frozen fish. She knew about the fridge and table at the Radix Center, so people had helped load up her vehicle, but she wasn't strong enough to actually hoist all the boxes out of her car.

Well, THAT is certainly something I could help with! We filled the table with 6 boxes of plums, the freezer with tons of fish and some of the asparagus, and the fridge with even more asparagus and plums.

She seemed to know more about how the Radix Center worked, so she led me through to a spot near the classrooms where S and the folks from the Center had congregated. It turned out I'd found the rear entrance, not the main entrance. Whoops.

There was a small group of 4 of us for the tour, led by two of the Center's employees.

If I tried to do a full recap of the tour, this would turn into a really long post. Instead I've tried to write reasonably thorough captions under the photos, which can be seen over on my Flickr photostream for anyone who really wants to know.

Highlights, though. Behold, this glorious hoop house, full of tomatoes, potatoes, and squashes!

Awesome electric trikes for compost pick-up:

Beautiful and productive passion fruit vine inside the glorious main greenhouse:

Chickens responsible for the primary composting step:

Full facility map:

Community gathering space:

By the time the tour had wrapped up, almost all the food was gone from the free food table and fridge. The Radix Center was very intentionally located in this neighborhood in Albany, because it's a neighborhood of great need. Meanwhile, the woman who had brought over the food, B, turned out to be the sort of person more than happy to tell us about her life story, which included a period working on the Half Moon, a replica of the ship that Henry Hudson sailed up the Hudson River in 16-whatever.

I felt like I'd heard of the Half Moon before, but I'm not entirely sure. It was interesting to learn that it was built at the behest of a millionaire, and that after a number of years, it eventually made its way to the Netherlands and is now rotting away because of a lack of interest in and money for maintaining it.

I mean, I'm not so sure I'd have much interest in trying to keep it going, compared to any number of other wooden vessels these days. There are several other wooden ships that still ply the Hudson, so I guess that niche is still filled.

But it still feels important to know about, as another element that has been present on the Hudson River for some years, bringing people down to the water.