Stewarding Sorghum From Seed @ The Riley-Levin Children’s Garden
Group Photo #1 with the baby sorghum plants. Above photo by Maggie @ NYRP. Other photos in this post are by Maya Marie S., Corey Blant, and Maggie Paradis.
This year we’ve expanded our Sweetness of Sorghum offering into a 3-part series in partnership with NYRP. This past Saturday we began the series with our Stewarding Sorghum from Seed session up at the Riley-Levin Children’s Garden where we planted two beds of sorghum (Coral, Sugar Drip, White African [Salt & Pepper] and Korjaj).
We had such an amazing and inquisitive group of participants join in to learn about sorghum’s journey from the African Savannahs of Chad, Sudan, and Ethiopia all the way to us here in so-called New York City. We started off the day with some mullein and stinging nettle tea alongside some freshly baked sorghum streusel muffins (recipe in our For the Love of Grains book), as well as snacks from the NYRP crew. Then got into the plant’s histories before talking about it’s botany and ecological benefits as a grain, grass, and soil builder. Following that we got into some things to consider when transplanting it as a seedling versus planting seeds directly into the garden bed. Primarily around our region’s anticipated (but constantly changing) growing season length and the time particular varieties need to fully develop for syrup or grain production.
Everyone did an amazing job stewarding these seeds and seedlings into the ground. And we’re looking forward to returning the garden beds on October 10th + 11th when we’ll begin harvesting them for a variety of culinary transformations (e.g. grain, flour, and syrup).
Big shout out to everyone who came out to participate and the NYRP crew for supporting this kind of work.
Deep Routes’ 2025 Sorghum harvest nestled in a mason jar and a pot made by April Chong (from right to left, Coral, sugar drip, White African/Salt & Pepper, and Sugar Drip) along with our For the Love of Grains booklet, and a sampling of our 2025 sorghum syrup. Photo by Maya Marie S
Starting off with some community agreements before jumping into sorghum goodness. Photo by Corey Blant.
Photo by Corey Blant.
Korjaj and Coral sorghum seedlings. Photo by Maya Marie S
Photo by Maya Marie S
Sorghum bed signage Lateshia Peters made in 2025 :) Photo by Maya Marie S
Lateshia and other participants getting the sorghum seedlings and seeds in the ground (above and below). Photo by Maya Marie S
Photo by Maya Marie S
