Roots and Wisdom

Spring is springing...feed that soil!

2009-03-22T19:55:00.004-04:00

Hello! It's been a while since the last post...but we're still here. And spring is definitely on its way. Just last week Roots and Wisdom had the first harvest of spring greens and arugula - yum!! I'm very excited about the prospect of some salad greens that have been harvested locally (and organically!), over the selection of greens that are available in the grocery store right now. The Roots and Wisdom folks are gearing up for the busy planting in spring, and you may be too. The past two Saturdays Leslie, the Director of Garden Programs at R&W, has been teaching a workshop on organic flower and vegetable gardening to a group of home gardeners. We all left the class filled with knowledge on a variety of topics and lots of great tips from Leslie, eager to get out in our own gardens to test the soil, do some double-digging to prep the soil, start our compost piles, and order some good seeds to plant. So much to do! It does seem a bit overwhelming though I'm trying to keep in mind the most important thing about organic gardening, according to Leslie: "feed the soil, not the plant". It may take some time to figure out what that actually means for the soil in my garden, and for the plants I'm trying to grow, but I'm definitely willing to give it a shot.
The Youth Program is starting again in July, but until then I'd like to use the blog to share stories about getting your garden up and going this spring. Let us know how your garden planning and prepping is going!

Kristin

Vale Cemetery

2008-08-13T13:47:00.002-04:00

Today, everyone at Roots and Wisdom volunteered at Vale Cemetery for the morning. I've done this once before with Girl Scouts, where we cleaned up a lot of Vale. Well, as much as we could do with just garbage bags. I was actually expecting to just be picking up garbage today, but there was a lot of different jobs for everyone to do. Some people did go pick up garbage, and some of us helped turn a compost pile and trimmed and pulled up Hosta plants that were taking over graves. It was a lot of fun, and afterwards we got a history lesson about Vale Cemetery, which was very interesting. I didn't know that there was actually a lot of famous people buried in the cemetery. It felt great to do things for a place that has given us land to grow on for a couple years now.

After our volunteering at Vale, we came back to our garden for a pizza party to celebrate the end of the program. I had a really good time just relaxing with all of the friends I have met over this last weeks and just talking. We also had peppermint iced tea, watermelon and brownies. It was delicious. It's crazy that we only have 2 more days left at work. And tomorrow is our last day actually working in the garden. Even though I will enjoy the break from working before I head to college, I will definitely miss working at the garden.

Last week of the summer program

2008-08-11T10:25:00.002-04:00

Today starts our last week at the summer program. We started the day with a crew feedback session, which was fairly emotional. Everyone went around the circle and said something nice about everyone. One of our crew members took an impressive 20 minutes going around the circle. It just felt great hearing all of those compliments from people we have been working with for two-three years now.

This week there is going to be a lot of fun activities to celebrate the end of the program. On Wednesday we are going to finally take our group picture, which will be fun. Thursday we are going to go to Vale Cemetery to do a community service project as a thank you gift to the people who let us have a garden at Vale. And after our service project we are having a pizza party! Friday is the SJTA awards ceremony and luncheon. So even more food!

This morning we had group discussions about promise and we learned about the four agreements. The four agreements are ways of thinking that can really improve the way we live for the better. These four agreements are:

1. Be Impeccable With Your Word
2. Don't Take Anything Personally
3. Don't Make Assumptions
4. Always Do Your Best

These four agreements were thought of by don Miguel Ruiz and Jose Luis Ruiz. I really do think that if everyone did think this way, that people would be much happier and there might not be as much conflict between people. I love learning about new ways of thinking, and seeing if I agree or disagree with them. Roots and Wiasom really helps with that.

I mentioned last week that we did Veggie Theater at the farmers markets, and the family and friends potluck. A lot of Roots and Wisdom videos can be found here. I hope you enjoy them!

Family and Friends Potluck

2008-08-08T14:05:00.002-04:00

So today was our Family and Friends Potluck, which definitely proves that the program is almost over. It was great seeing every ones family, and I loved showing off all of the things I have learned over the past weeks. Of course, the food was amazing. There was a lot of pasta, and I definitely wasn't complaining.

Before the potluck, we all went over to Vale Cemetery to work on the area we are getting ready to plant garlic in. I was worried that it would be a lot of hard, strenuous work, but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. We hand weeded and scuffle hoed the area and then we fertilized it. That was that. I was glad I didn't get to dirty from that for the potluck.

I'm still really stuffed from all the food I ate today. We also got to perform Veggie Theater for our families which was a lot of fun. They really enjoyed it. We got to see friends that we worked with last year, and one of our friends even joined in for the Veggie Rap (she was one of the writers of it last year). I can't believe there is only one more week to go. It's going to go by very fast...which will be sad.

Open House!

2008-08-06T14:31:00.003-04:00

Today was our Open House, and I have to say that it was a huge success! There were a lot of children there, which was good because we did have many activities for the kids. Even the amount of money we got from the market was pretty good. It was a pretty tiring day though, with setting up, Veggie Theater and taking everything down again. The kids seemed to love our Veggie Theater skits, and so did the adults who watched. And it was wonderful because every workshop was attended during the day. At this moment I really don't have much to say, since today went by so fast. It's kind of hard to remember everything went on.

Actually, one workshop I want to talk about his the herbal medicine worshop that my crew leader did. I definitly learned a lot of new information from that. One thing that I learned is that dandelions and plantain, which are both weeds, can both be used as medicine. Dandelions can actually be used as a mild laxative, and plantain can be used to help cure bruises.

Veggie Theater

2008-08-05T13:54:00.002-04:00

So today was our first day performing Veggie Theater. Even though it was a little rough, it still went very well. We even brought back "What's Your Veggie?" which is a rap that came about last year at Roots and Wisdom. That was a lot of fun. Today we also did more work to get ready for the Open House tomorrow. I'm working at the market stand, so a fellow Roots and Wisdom worker and I will be selling soaps, salves, dried herbs and iced tea (it's delicious). A whole bunch of other groups have also been getting ready for the workshops I mentioned in my last post. I hope a lot of people come because it should be a great time.

And now. a blast from the past. Here's a video of some of the Roots and Wisdom workers performing "What's Your Veggie?" last year.

Welcome to Week Five...

2008-08-04T09:11:00.002-04:00

Also known as Be Vocal, Eat Local week. A lot of things are going to be going on this week. Everyone at Roots and Wisdom is starting to prepare workshops and Veggie Theater for our Open House on Wednesday, August 6th, from 10:30-1:30 PM. Actually, we will first showcase our skits about local food at the St. Lukes Farmer's Market on Tuesday. Hopefully they'll all be ready by then!

Wednesday is our Open House, where people can get a look at the garden and see what Roots and Wisdom is about and learn about a lot of new things. Some of these things are composting, making a backyard garden, herbs and why it's important to eat local food. There will also be a food demonstration by some of the Roots and Wisdom youth. A group called YO! Youth Organics is also coming to do a workshop about eating healthy. It should be a great time, and everyone should come!

Thursday will be another busy day for us at Roots and Wisdom. We will all be going down to the Thursday farmers market to perform our Veggie Theater skits again. It's really cool that the executive chef of the governor's mansion will be across from our stand to do some food preparation with local food. Then Thursday night is the premier of the documentary Roots and Wisdom: From the Ground Up at Proctors Theater at 7:00. This is very exciting for all of us, and it's another event that everyone should go to!

Finally, Friday is our Family and Friends Potluck. This is really my favorite time of the whole summer because I love bringing people I know to the garden to show what I have been doing for the last couple of weeks. Of course, all of the delicious food is a great bonus. It's crazy that there is only two more weeks left of Roots and Wisdom, it really has gone by way to fast.

Roots & Wisdom Open House

2008-07-30T11:21:00.003-04:00

Yesterday we were at the farmers market as usual and many people were inquiring about the Open House on August 6th. It's from 10:30-1:30 and it's at the Fehr Avenue Garden. See you there!

What's Cooking, HarestShare?

2008-07-26T19:58:00.002-04:00

In the last post there was mention of HarvestShare, Roots and Wisdom's version of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). It's a great part of Roots and Wisdom - not just because you get a chance to purchase and eat all of the locally grown yummy food, but also because every week you get a chance to go to the garden, to see the lovely flowers and plants growing in an array of colors, to see the efforts of the summer youth workers, and to chat with one of the enthusiastic coordinators or youth workers of this unique program. It's definitely a pick-me-up after a day spent inside and in front of a computer!

When I arrive for my weekly HarvestShare pickup I always anticipate what "surprise" foods will be there - produce that weren't on the list at the beginning of the week when the signup went out, but there was enough ready in the garden later in the week to be harvested and sold. By that time in the day I'm usually hungry, too, so my eyes are always a little bigger than my refrigerator at home is. So more often than not I come home with lots of wonderful....though I don't always know how I'm going to prepare it. So I'm curious. What does everyone else at HarvestShare cook with their produce? How did you prepare the tatsoi (I'd never heard of that vegetable before HarvestShare!)? Do you turn the cucumbers into pickles? All those zucchini - what's your secret for getting the kids to eat them? Tell us! We'd love to hear from you and how the cooking is going this summer.

You can leave a comment by following the link on the blog entry - it's possible to leave an anonymous comment if you'd like, too. If you are willing to divulge your secret for turning eggplant into a masterpiece side dish, we'd love to get your recipes too to share with other HarvestSharers. Just email your recipe to webmaster@rootswisdom.org.

Happy Cooking!

Roots and Wisdom 2008 pictures

2008-07-25T14:42:00.002-04:00

We just put up pictures from the Edible Playground and the Summer Youth Program 2008 on Picasa! Everyone should go check them out here. We hope you like them!

This week has been interesting...

2008-07-25T14:26:00.002-04:00

This week we had a lot of rain. A lot. But even though we did have a lot of rain, we got a lot done. On Wednesday it was pouring out, and a group of us went to one of the sites to plant chives and parsley in the hoop house. That was fun and we stayed dry for the most part. We were also allowed to leave early since it was still raining and they were running out of things for us to do because we were getting it all done quickly. On the Thursday the senior workers had to go to the community college for a day of learning how to manage money and how to get a job. This was my second time doing it, and even though I thought it was a little boring, it still was valuable information. It did help that the pizza was good.

On Thursday I also had to go to Harvest Share to make up the two hours I missed on Wednesday. That was fun because we got to pick a lot of raspberries and it was nice to meet all of the people that came to get food. Harvest Share is a program were people give money to Roots and Wisdom in the winter and around the end of May those people can come on Thursdays and pick up the food the order at the beginning of the week. Then money is deducted from what they originally payed each time they come and get food at Harvest Share. More people should get involved with Harvest Share next year!

Today my crew went on a field trip to a farm run by the regional food bank to help out for a couple of hours. We got a tour of the farm and all of the equipment they use to farm a big plot of land (much bigger than the garden I work in!). Then we went to work harvesting zucchini and cucumbers. The only unfortunate thing about harvesting the zucchini and cucumbers was that it was very muddy and all of our shoes were covered with mud by the end. After we finished working we went to Thatcher Park for lunch. It was BEAUTIFUL there. I couldn't have thought of a more perfect place to have lunch.

It's hard to believe that we are already half way through the program. We just finished with our third week and on Monday we'll be going into our fourth. Crazy. I'm really enjoying working with Roots and Wisdom, and it is going by way to fast.

What Roots and Wisdom kids do in their free time...

2008-07-17T14:10:00.003-04:00

Like I said in my last post, yesterday was really hot so it was really hard to focus. So everyone decided that instead of working for a couple of minutes, we'd play a game in the shade. I missed the beginning of the game because I was working in the basil, but I did get to view a good amount of it, and it was very interesting. One of my co-workers got a video of the whole game and put it on youtube, so here it is! This is also one example of one of the ways we build as a community.

Today was our second to last day working with the kids. Today we got to do one of my favorite things, which is harvesting. Each kid got to cut two flowers and they all put them in vases which I think we are going to sell. Each group also got to harvest a bunch of onions. I think the kids really enjoyed harvesting. Especially getting to choose which flowers they wanted. The kids also drew pictures of flowers and made vegetable prints using different vegetables and paint. It was a lot of fun.

After lunch we did a workshop about how we are the same and how we are different. It was really neat to see how there were a lot of similarities between all of us. It really does help us to be a lot closer.

So hot.

2008-07-16T14:34:00.003-04:00

It's 95 degrees outside today. You would think I would be used to working in this kind of weather by now, but I'm not. I was amazed that the kids still wanted to run around and play in the heat, I definitely didn't want to. It is nice though to see them have so much energy and enthusiasm in what they're doing. And it probably helped that we had the sprinkler running the whole time. Who isn't excited about getting wet?

Today we taught the kids about how to classify foods. We had some different types of food on the picnic tables: corn, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, carrots and sunflowers. We then went over which are roots (like carrots and potatoes), which are shoots (like corn), which are flowers (the sunflowers) and which were fruits (the tomatoes). We also talked about how we can eat all of these things in different ways. Today the kids also planted sunflowers in seed flats and planted radishes in one of the garden beds.

Now I'm off to work in the basil (to avoid playing tag).

2nd day working with the kids.

2008-07-15T14:06:00.004-04:00

Today was another fun day working with all of the little kids. Today I had my two kids weeding and watering plants. They insisted on going into the corn again, which I didn't mind since it's really nice to get out of the hot sun. We also went on a scavenger hunt, looking for tomatoes, green beans, corn and earth worms. I think it was a nice learning experience for them since they had to look at the food and describe it on a piece of paper. Later on, I kicked a soccer ball around with my sister and two of the kids. I swear that they both would make awesome soccer players when they get older.

In the morning, I helped harvest for the farmers market. This is one of my favorite things to do at Roots and Wisdom. I love finally being able to pick the food after getting to help it grow. And then getting to show our success to other people at the market. Today I harvested 20 heads of lettuce which was pretty fun. I have to admit that helping with the harvest is a bonus when we get to leave work early.

I'm really looking forward to Friday night, because I'm helping Roots and Wisdom out at a festival downtown that is going to be big. Last year 10,000 people showed up for the festival. I think it'll be a lot of fun. Not to mention, there's going to be fireworks at the end of the night at 10:00!

It's official! Kids are adorable. (Usually.)

2008-07-14T14:09:00.002-04:00

Today was my first day working at the site I mentioned in my previous post. Honestly, I was kind of dreading it because I wasn't sure what type of personalities the kids I would be assigned had. I knew that if I didn't get a long with them, it wasn't going to be that easy of a week. Luckily, the kids I was assigned are the sweetest girls. It seems like they really enjoyed weeding with me in the flower beds and in the corn. Actually, I think all of the kids loved weeding in the corn because they said it felt like a jungle. Then all of the kids had a snack and drew pictures of roots and bugs. Then we all went with the kids into the field and played different games, and just got a lot of physical activity. I'm still tired from pushing a lot of the girls on the swings. I'm lucky that they were nice enough to give me a break when they noticed I was getting exhausted. I also hula hooped with some of the girls (and even got some lessons on how to hula hoop even better!). We kicked around a soccer ball a little bit and then we all went back to the tent for a story before they all had to leave.

After lunch, we were all put to work again (of course doing more weeding). At least this time it was my choice, I'd rather weed then dig any day. Surprisingly, weeding went by very fast and before anyone knew it we were cleaning up and the senior workers were getting ready to head over to a different site for the afternoon work.

I really am surprised at how fast this day has gone by so far. I really can't wait to hang out with all the little kids again tomorrow, and I have a feeling I'll be sad when the week there will be over with. They're are just too cute.

It's Friday!

2008-07-11T09:30:00.003-04:00

And that means that the first week of Roots and Wisdom is almost over with. This week has gone by very fast and already everyone seems to be getting to know each other a lot. I'm really glad that today is another cool day, it definitely makes working easier.

Yesterday it was my turn to go to the Downtown Farmer's Market, and I enjoyed it a lot. We sold many things, like herbs, garlic scapes, mint iced tea, soap and salves. It's really cool that the iced tea, soap and salves were made by other teenagers who also work at Roots and Wisdom. I think that the Farmer's Market went pretty well and it was nice to see a lot of people I knew who also enjoy buying local food at the farmer's market.

In the afternoon yesterday, the senior workers went to another one of our sites. We weeded more (we do a lot of that) and played on the swings. It's amazing to see how different this site was from the last time I saw it, which was last year. Last year, the site was basically just a lot of dirt and some broken swings. But now there are a lot of crops growing (even corn!) and the swings are fixed and looking great. I know the kids most love going there to play since I know I would.

And now to what is going on today. First thing in the morning we learned about how to read to children since when we work at the summer lunch programs we are going to have to keep the children entertained while they wait for their lunches. I always liked working at the summer lunch sites last year because I really felt like I was doing good for the community. Later on today our workshop is going to consist of learning about the history of our city, which I'm excited about. I love learning about the place I'm living in and about how it was before.

I'm also excited because there is going to be a documentary made about Roots and Wisdom! Three students and a teacher came today to start filming and the documentary will be shown at one of our cities theaters in August, I believe. This is all through the film festival that happens through the high school. I can't wait to see it when it's finished!

Hello!

2008-07-09T14:18:00.003-04:00

Well, welcome to the Roots and Wisdom blog! My name is Stephanie, and I'll be one of two summer youth workers at Roots and Wisdom that will be talking about what we do at Roots and Wisdom over the next month. Just so you know, this is my second year working with this program. I really hope you enjoy reading what we have to say about our time at Roots and Wisdom, and I hope it will make you want to get involved with this program or any similar programs in your area.

I should probably start with what Roots and Wisdom is. Roots and Wisdom is a program in our county that promotes local agriculture and county youth working and growing (plants and minds) together. I really do love this program. Because of this program, I have met many new friends, learned about vegetables that actually tastes good and got over my fear of bugs. As an extra bonus, I even get paid to do it!

Today was our third day at Roots and Wisdom. My crew went to one of our sites to work on the potato patch. Usually I hate going to that site, since there is no shade and it's usually hot out. Luckily for us, it was cloudy and breezy in the morning (which compared to the last two sweltering hot days was amazing) which made it alot easier for me to enjoy my time weeding the potatoes. We then came back to the main garden site for lunch and a workshop on sustainable agriculture. I think it's great to let more people know about how great sustainable agriculture is. That's one thing that Roots and Wisdom wants to do, is let people know about all of these great things that growing your own food (or buying local food) has to offer.

Welcome to the Roots and Wisdom Blog!

2008-07-06T20:44:00.000-04:00

Stay tuned as we share our stories, learnings, and experiences on a variety of topics including daily events in the garden, eating locally, and sustainable agriculture in our community and world.

Enjoy!