(light music) - For me, it's been a statement of power, of ownership, to be able to grow your own food, to have control of what you're gonna put into your body.

You are what you eat.

I live in a low income neighborhood surrounded by processed food, fast food, and junk food, and so to be able to grow food in a community garden, we have over 20 families, families from different ethnicity.

You exchange recipes, you exchange culture, you exchange different types of vegetables, and fruits, and herbs that people grow here.

My name is Karen Washington, I'm a farmer.

I grow food, I feed people, body and mind.

We're here in the Garden of Happiness, which is located in the Boogie Down Bronx in New York City.

I tell people, what people think about materialistic things.

I say, well, you know there's gonna be a crisis one time, and what's more valuable?

You can't eat gold, you can't eat money, you can't eat your cars, but I got fruit and vegetables.

Those are the things that are gonna be of value, because I'll be able to take care of my family and my community.

So, I wanted to grow collard greens.

The collard green is part of the African-American culture.

And so I wanted to pay tribute to that.

And then I found this thing called Swiss chard, and so I decided to try it, and now I'm hooked now.

I grow Swiss chard, it's very hardy.

If you don't have a green thumb, you can grow Swiss chard.

It's the plant that keeps giving, and giving, and giving.

You'll have Swiss chard the whole, whole season long.

And then I said to myself, well, what am I gonna do with Swiss chard?

So I tasted it first raw.

Tasted horrible, and then I said, let me see what sort of recipe I could come up with.

Hi Angel.

- [Angel] Hi.

(cheerful music) - There you go.

The one thing you gotta do with Swiss chard, you have to make sure that you rinse it really good, because sometimes it can get gritty.

It looks like it's a lot, but, oh, smell it, can you smell it?

Little tamari sauce.

Your Swiss chard should be looking like this, however to bring it up to the maximum level of taste, add a can of white beans.

It will infuse and just melt in your mouth.

Just stir that, look at that, look at that color.

Oh baby!

It's nice and fresh.

Ladle it.

It's a great meal, you don't need anything else, but maybe a slice of bread, French bread, and a glass of wine, and you're good to go.

This is Bronx style, the hood style.

Perfect.

- Mm, oh my goodness.

- Everyone should have a right to good food.

Then we would be much better off, and we can put the hospitals, and the pharmaceuticals companies out of business because people would be more healthy.

Use food as a celebration, use food as a tool of resiliency and resistance, to make sure that everyone eats healthy, and everyone has that right.