Announcing poetry winners and another successful Mulberry Madness
The Baltimore Orchard Project (BOP) celebrated Mulberry Madness with an array of products and poems Saturday June 20 at the Waverly Market.
Young poets, in the first annual mulberry poetry contest, read aloud their poems which focused on the mulberry, the star of the show. While the mulberry is shunned in places due to its splatting and stains, it offers a cornucopia of values—nutrition, history, and a wonderful flavor. Due to its fragility, it is only available for a few days in season, usually in June. BOP members, helped by Atwaters volunteers, harvested gallons of the fruit this month to supply vendors.
Lavinia Edmunds, BOP contest chair; Bernadette Cate, middle school winner; Celia Sanchez, high school winner; and Blake Coleman-Donelson, high school second place
Celia Sanchez, an upcoming senior at Friends School, won first prize for the high school contest and $100 for her poem, “Ripening.” Blake Coleman-Donelson, a student at City College, came in second, winning $50 in the high school competition, in his lyrical description, “Invasive yet so pure/Irritating but delicious.”
The students showed their idealism along with displaying some wonderful nature imagery in their poems.
Not surprising, they have strong views about the environment. As Bernadette said, we can tackle environmental issues if we “stop putting our resources into wars and bombs and focus more on saving the environment.”
All the contestants said they were honored with the award and “thrilled” to each take home a tree for their home or school.
Celia Sanchez read from her prize-winning poem at the Mulberry Madness festival
Fliers were posted around the city in libraries and schools this spring for the contest. Plant poet Christine Kouwenhoven, a local writer who has published in publications from the NY Times to the Baltimore Fishbowl, was the judge. The poems, with names and places removed, were sent to Christine who selected the winners.
“All of the entries were lovely, unique and moving in their own way. It was hard to choose,” Christine commented.
The poetry contest was a feature of Mulberry Madness, which celebrates the mulberry each June at the Waverly Market. There were an array of mulberry products: mulberry liquor from Baltimore Spirits and jam and mulberry Danish from Atwaters. Over 100 native fruit trees were given away to Baltimore City residents.
In addition, Gertrude’s offered a special mulberry-enhanced menu at its restaurant.
Atwater’s offered jams in many flavors including mulberry. They also sold mulberry Danish at the market.
