There are multiple studies showing the positive impact of gardening on well-being, mental health and quality of life.
That sounds like the perfect study break for busy students in the health professions! The NEOMED Garden Club would agree.
Club vice president and second-year medical student Henyah Dardir noted: “One of the reasons we wanted to revive the gardening club was to have an outlet for students to come in and get some time outside and sort of play in the dirt, if you will.”
Dardir has been purposeful in her activities, balancing classes with co-curricular resume builders and “exploring parts of myself that I lost in undergrad.”
“Something I really love about NEOMED: People will say that medical school is really good at making some of the most extraordinary people feel like they’re normal or below average. But I never feel like that here. I feel like here, if you have a plan, if you want something, NEOMED will give you all the tools it can to make you achieve those things,” Dardir enthused.
Sharing Community
The Garden Club has outdoor space on NEOMED’s University Circle just north of the Book Depository. Anyone passing the spot on a spring, summer or fall evening will likely see at least a few students working in the garden.
Those passers-by are encouraged to stop in and help themselves to a fresh tomato or some basil for their dinner.
“We really encourage people to go and grab stuff,” said club president and second-year medical student Kennedy Watson. “We tell [people] all the time, if you see a really red tomato while you’re walking, go and pick it, because we don’t want them to go to waste.”
Garden Club members (from left) medical students Margaret Kilbane, Kennedy Watson, Natalie Thornton, Rachel Fair, Bailey Taylor and Henyah Dardir, and Ph.D. student Andrea Arias-Alvarado.
On a fall day as harvest season was nearing its end, there was still a wide range of produce flourishing in the garden. Tomatoes, peppers, okra, kale, cucumbers, pumpkins and more were ripe and ready for picking. Some of those vegetables would be pickled or canned.
“Part of the inspiration for the canning comes from pickled okra. I really wanted to grow okra here. It’s a cultural dish that I grew up with [in Egypt],” Dardir noted. “Pickled okra is one of those things that you can find everywhere as well. So that was part of the reason why I wanted to have pickling be part of us sharing the produce with everyone all around campus. Things only stay fresh for so long. Pickling them is a great way to extend the longevity of them and to be able to share.”
Henyah Dardir explains the benefits of being part of the NEOMED Garden Club.
Other members of the Garden Club are encouraged to add plants that had meaning for them as well.
“We leave it open for anyone to come take whatever they want and for anyone to plant whatever they want,” Dardir said. “In doing that, we got a lot of really cool things. We got purple basil; we got okra; we have a student who is growing yams. We have cucamelons or Mexican gherkins. So those are just some examples. We have lots of other things, but we really wanted people to be able to bring parts of themselves that they can’t find anywhere else in Rootstown, like some of those fruits and vegetables.”
Medical student Natalie Thornton shows off some produce from the garden.
Henyah Dardir shared this recipe for fridge pickles. “We utilized this recipe for a lot of our veggies. The base recipe is the same for any produce!” she said.
Pickled Green Fridge Tomatoes
This is a pickling recipe (not a canning recipe) and requires refrigeration. This recipe may be used for other vegetables as well (okra, cucumbers, peppers and more).
Instructions
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