Badger Rock Neighborhood Center

10/15/2026

We had a beautiful fall getting all eleven 1st-3rd grade classes at Lori Mann Carey Elementary School out to the Badger Rock Urban Farm for Rooted's "I Grew That" program, a program partnership with the USDA's NIFA program to introduce youth to the food system!

We took tasting tours of the garden, met the Badger Rock hens, and harvested basil and pesto that we used to make pesto in a hand-crank blender and a bicycle blender to explore human-powered energy!

We are looking forward to two additional classroom visits with each class before the end of the year!

10/14/2026

We are continuing our school-wide project this fall, a collaboration between Rooted and Badger Rock Middle School where students explore how they can support community access to healthy food through building custom container gardens based on community input. Through this process, they’ll study soil science, plant care, and cultural foodways to ultimately create container gardens with guides to help our community successfully grow, harvest, cook and celebrate their own food!

We started with learning about the non-living parts of the soil, and now are learning about the living parts of the soil and how to make compost!

We explored how to make compost on the farm including:

🪏How to build and maintain a compost pile including what the components are and the decomposers involved

🪱How to make a worm bin to do worm composting, or vermicomposting, in their science class

Next time we will dive into plant nutrition including what nutrients plants need to grow, how to test for them, and ways to provide nutrients sustainably!

10/13/2026

A shout out and so much appreciation for Joe José Miguel Maldonado who is working with all of Rooted's Gardening & Culinary Arts classes this week with Badger Rock Middle School students to cook some dishes from his Puerto Rican roots including Arroz con Gandules (Rice and Pigeon Peas) with Puerto Rican Sofrito and a holiday drink called Coquito (without the alcohol of course!)

Not only are we making delicious food, but exploring the cultural significance of the ingredients including the movement of people, culture and food that tell some of the story of Puerto Rico.

Joe is a dad who loves growing food, cooking, foraging, biking, hiking, music, reading, and exploring cultures. He is originally from Milwaukee and lives in Fitchburg, and his family is from Puerto Rico. Joe is a father of a 20 year old son and 10 year old daughter. In his day job, he is a youth worker and local elected official. He works for UW-Madison, Division of Extension as a Bilingual Youth and Family State Specialist and the City of Fitchburg as an Alder.

If you missed the virtual cooking demo with Joe earlier this month you can still catch it here:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1CYdWHPTkP/

Thank you so much Joe for sharing your food, culture and time with our students this week!

10/11/2026

Tune in for the next in our Hispanic Heritage Month virtual workshop for an interview with almuni of the Rooted in Urban Agriculture Youth Employment Program, Diego Miranda-Naxi, and his role as Fitchburg Neighborhood Navigator!

Diego started his time with Rooted and Badger Rock in a summer gardening and culinary arts program for rising 6th graders and has been part of this place ever since! He started working for Rooted when he turned 14, and completed his junior and senior years as part of the Madison College STEM Program. He and his peers have written and received 5 grants through the By Youth for Youth Grant program and have created multimedia projects to share about their work...they have designed and built a chicken coop, an aquaponics system, a food forest, community garden beds, and season extension structures on the farm to help us grow food beyond the growing season. He is now in his freshman year at UW Madison studying Public Policy and Legal Studies and works as City of Fitchburg Neighborhood Navigator. Diego is a hard worker, believes strongly in supporting his community, and is a natural and gifted leader.

10/10/2026

Thank you Dane Arts for sponsoring the Angela Puerta Kids Show for our Hispanic Heritage Month CommUNITY Dinner! It was a wonderful evening of food, music and celebration!

The dinner was lovingly prepared by Chef Tomas Martinez and our very own Chef Kipp Thomas. Myra Guevara taught us how to make Guatemalan Pupusa's and Paola Mayorga shared her Huichol Art from Oaxaca workshop. The Badger Rock Middle School GSA and Welcoming Schools Table was popping and we had Double the Magic and Sweets by Nicole, selling tasty treats.

Our Rooted youth employees shared fresh produce from the Badger Rock Urban Farm.

It was a joyous evening and we thank our sponsors Madison Gas and Electric, UnityPoint Health - Meriter, Quartz and City of Fitchburg, WI - Government for supporting our monthly dinners and ensuring they are free for our community.

10/10/2026

10/10/2026

A reminder that the Badger Rock Food Pantry is open today Sat Oct 10th from 10am-noon!

Come to the back service parking lot off E Badger at 517 E Badger Rd, and walk around the building past the farm and chickens to Door 4! Rooted staff and youth employees will be on hand to assist!

We have assorted canned goods and dry goods as well as:

Cereal
Rice, Brown, Long Grain
Milk 2%
Tuna, Chunk Light in Water
Bacon, Thick Cut
Beans, Black
Carrots
Cucumbers
Potatoes
Assorted Produce - from Badger Rock and Second Harvest
Sweet Corn
Collard Greens

10/09/2026

Our Hispanic Heritage Month Community Dinner is tonight!! Come on out, we are here 'til 7pm!

This is what's on the menu tonight...

🍲 Chicken Posole & Carnitas by Tomas Martinez

🎶 Live Music by Angela Puerta

🫔 Guatemalan Pupusa-making workshop with Myra Guevara

🧶 Huichol Art from Oaxaca workshop with Paola Mayorga

🌈 Badger Rock Middle School GSA & Welcoming Schools Table

🧁 Baked Goods and Crafts with Double the Magic

Don't miss it!!!