Update on our progress!

I realized I never put up the pictures of our garden that I took! Here's a glimpse at our progress:

We measured pathways and places to put our boxes so they would all be even and beautiful! Three-foot pathways and six-foot spaces for boxes.

We dug out the weeds and turned over the soil in the spaces we'd designated for boxes. So many weeds!

We built three boxes! Two are amended with cocoa shells and one is amended with sand. A few weeks later we built three more boxes, but I didn't bring my camera.

Check out how sweet the garden looks, now! So much green!

As the semester comes to a close, hopefully our garden will continue to flourish.

Seasonality?

Hey, everyone! I'm just posting a little helping chart that I found online earlier today, which shows when the growing seasons are for various different fruits and vegetables. It is very interesting to see just when we should be eating many of these foods, compared with how often we really do eat them (which is all year long). I know that I, for one, have never really been very savvy when it comes to when certain foods are really in season, so a tool like this is rather helpful:

http://www.fooddowntheroad.ca/online/seasonalfoodchart.php

I hope that some of you find this chart useful!

-Ray

Our first field trip!

Last Wednesday we went on a walking field trip to three different gardens, to see what they were all about and what we could apply to our garden that we had learned from them. We started at University Village in their community garden. Here are some pictures!

These are the tops of carrots:

This is their setup -- raised beds with hoses at every other for easy watering.

These are structures that Dick built for his peas to climb.

From Dick, we learned about what it is possible for us to plant. In the winter, he grows carrots, onions, radishes, and beans. He taught us that we should plant beans (or any legumes) in the winter, because they put nitrogen into the soil. If we then plant tomatoes for the summer in the same place the beans were growing, they will thrive on the naturally enriched soil.

After University Village, we went to Pastor Melissa Maxwell-Doherty's garden. She has mini citrus trees in big pots, and is growing lemons, limes, and grapefruits right now. In her vegetable garden, made of raised beds like UV's, Melissa is growing carrots, green onions, lettuce, brussel sprouts, red cabbage, broccoli, arugula, and peas. She also has an herb garden where she grows sage, rosemary, basil, and thyme. Melissa told us that in order to keep creatures out of her garden, she sprays the plants with fish oil -- it smells awful, but the rabbits think so, too, and stay out! [I didn't take any pictures at Melissa's. Add them if you did!]

After Melissa's, we walked over to the vacant lot next to Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. The area used to be used as a community garden a few years ago, but has been neglected recently and is now overrun by weeds. However, it seems like a great, big space that we could use, and they are willing to let us use it! It's up to us to decide if this is a good place for the CLU garden or not.

It was a great afternoon of discovery and learning from some experienced gardeners, and really got us thinking about planting and the future of CLU's garden. Can't wait to see what happens next!

Peace, Love, and Food,

Casey

The Sun: Here today...gone tomorrow

The sunshine this weekend was a welcoming break to the winter rains here in Thousand Oaks; I must say I am truly appreciating the beauty of our campus and surrounding "mountains" as they suddenly blossom with green buds and brighten with every day. *sigh* I love nature.
Anyone else notice how majestic the mountains in the north look all topped off with a layer of whipped cream snow? I don't think I ever really saw them before this weekend. I think I might need to pick up my eyes to the horizon more often.
Speaking of horizons, I'm looking forward to talking about our great, green earth in class with everyone on wed--and I couldn't help but search through some good food quotes while writing my reflection paper. I stumbled across the one that I made into the subtitle because I thought it was a humorous interpretation of the severity/importance, as well as the lighthearted enjoyment which food and pure ingredients can reveal.
I hope you all don't mind that I changed the look of the blog a little bit--feel free to change it back or to something different if you don't like it.

For now, I shall continue with my reflection paper and remember to water my ever-entwining sprouts (with the full intention of ingesting them).

Happy, healthy and hearty eating and living everyone--
Emily

Have you rinsed your sprouts today?

Today was our first day of class! We discussed our food choices and our food backgrounds -- we're vegans, vegetarians, and meat-eaters alike! -- as well as our convictions about how food should be produced and consumed. We have some amazing ideas about food and are looking forward to digging further into the world of gardening and sustainability.

Today was also our first growing assigment! We are very thrilled to be in charge of our very own bean sprouts! Here's mine:

Can't wait to see what our sprouts look like next week, and how we grow this semester!

Peace, Love, and Food,

Casey