The Blast Conference

The blast conference was the best. Not only did I get to meet wonderful people I got a chance to see Maine. When Shannon told me about the conference I quickly said yes I would like to go . At first I did not know what to expect. But later in the trip after meeting all the people who had ideas and plans like me gave me the at home feeling. Going to this conference showed me that there are a lot of people who have the same interest as me and are commons together to make sure that this plan will work. I had a blast at the conference. It was full of information from people with experience that they past on the friends family and the community. Maine was beautiful and the stay there was great. Thanks to all the people who allowed me to go to Maine to get that wonderful experience that will help me to father my career options as well as build my skill as a farmer/gardener.

Meeting with the mayor

Meeting with the mayor was fun and exciting. I was glad to have had the opportunity to speak with him. I have a lot of ideas for the Grow program next season and just wanted to share this information with the mayor. He is a nice guy and I hope during the spring we can work more together to make our city beautiful. During this meeting we talked a little about the program and what we do. To me it was a great experience and I hope to be able to talk more with people in politics and even those who want to hear about our program. Public speaking skills are key and I enjoy it.

Tucking Away Tulip Bulbs for Spring

GROW Hartford is participating in a nationwide program called Journey North that tracks the movement of spring as temperatures warm up and water becomes available. With global warming becomming a very real factor influencing the agricultural geography it becomes more important to collect data that records bird migration, temperature, and the emergence if the first green shoots in Spring; the first shoots to emerge of course, flower bulbs. As part of this study we planted 12 Red Emperor Tulip bulbs and we will watch and record their emergence and flowering. Gardens all across the country are participating and in this and recording data on the web site. Winter may just be setting in but, the garden (especially me) already has its sights set on the spring. Shannon

Just in Time For Winter

On Friday 10 volunteers from Youthbuild helped put the finishing touches on the garden before winter set in. With good spirits and in freezing rain, we raised the last of the beds, mulched all the bare beds, rolled up remay and irrigation equipment, planted bulbs and turned the compost. we couldn't have finished any sooner since less then three hours later we had the first snowfall of the season. Thank you youthbuild for your hard work! Shannon Youthbuild volunteers proudly pose over beautifully mulched beds!

Jerica learned how to change a tire and Shannon learned how to manage a large van loaded down with pallets as we swerved off the highway with a blown out tire. Everyone was fine thank goodness after suffering a servere case of boredom (jerica could only take so many logic puzzles) as we waited for Farmer Sam to bring us a new tire and we continued on our way. 

Why do the leaves change color?

It's mid fall in Connecticut and the leaves have reached their peak blindingly vibrant reds, yellows, and purples. I've always felt the need to travel further north for this kind of spectacle, but driving and hiking around Hartford and Massachusetts has provided me with my fill of crisp autumn this year. The garden has been quiet lately with the exception of the red tailed hawk and the little black kitten (both of whom are undoubtedly having their fill of rodents) and the many little birds who have had a feast of our cover crops. We're looking forward to the piles of leaves (soon to be delivered to the garden) that will serve as the base for next year's stock of compost. Knowing that many youth still check this website and in celebration of the season change, I thought I'd post some links on why leaves change color. -Laura You'll find the basics here: From http://photoscience.la.asu.edu/photosyn/education/colorchange.html Science Made Simple For more detailed information try: http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/misc/leaves/leaves.htm

Cheering for Jiff at the Hartford Marathon

We are at the Hartford Marathon cheering for the runners. There were over 5,000 runners and we were looking for one specific person; Jiff Martin. She didn’t come until a lot of citizens passed by but we cheered for them too. Donna, Jazzimine, and Theresa were cheering for the people with purple shirts while everyone else were cheering for everyone. Donna and me went up ahead looking for Jiff but she didn’t show up. We were going to run with her until we met up with everyone else but we got tired of waiting and walked back. Then she showed up and screamed at the top of our lungs until she faded away. The cheer we were saying was "hey, hey what do say, your gonna make it all the way!" I think that the running marathon was related to Grow by seeing everyone looking healthy and what vegetables can do to you. There were even thirteen year olds running the marathon and I can barely run a mile and a half. As you see we were supporting Jiff buy holding the signs. Jonathan had a sign that said "keep your heart pumping" with a picture of a heart. -By: Rodney Fernandez

Pumkin Carving

Pumpkin carving In this photo we are carving pumpkins and my pumpkin was the best because I said it was and we were having so much fun. Also all the pumpkins we carved looked different from each other. If you were going to make seasonal local lasagna in winter, what could you put in it? How can you preserve summer vegetable to make a better lasagne in winter? On Thursday Shannon taught a lesson about seasonality. The lesson we learned about was how plants grow through the year. We talked about all kinds of plants that can last all though the winter. For example onions are one and there are a lot more like winter squash, apples, garlic, mushrooms, pears, potatoes, greenhouse tomatoes and last but not least you can't forget the turnips.- You can put carrots in it [a winter lasagna] and potatoes, parsnips, turnips, winter and winter squash by Theresa Vail

Seed Saving basics

On Wednesday October 6, 2004 Sister Janet came to Grow Hartford to tell us about seed saving. Seed saving is good because you save a lot of money instead of buying them. To save seeds you take a tomato slice it open with a knife then all the insides out and put it in a jar or cup then cover it with some kind of plastic wrap. -By: Jonathan Perez Seed saving workshop with Sister Janet. On Thursday we met a new person named Sister Janet we was learning about how to save seed over the winter. In the pictures I open a yellow tomato and squeeze the seed into a cup, then you take a glad wrap and put it over the cup. Take the tape and wrap it around the cup and write your name on it. You put them in a hot room and let them get all moldy. Then you wash them and you put then in an envelope they should be good for a year. What saving seeds means is that you can save seed from where you grow them - not from the store. We save seed because when the new year comes again we have to buy seed to grow them, but if you save them you don’t have to. I learned that you don’t have to buy seed if you just save them over the winter. The history of the seed is that seeds came on the scene 350 million years ago. Seeds as a food source, especially for mammals, gave the energy needed to maintain body temperature. If not for seeds, mammals would never have developed from small creatures into wolves, polar bear, elephant and humans. Here is the quiz Donna gave to the group after Shannon's seasonality lesson 1) List 5 thing that can keep in storage till March: (Potato, Carrots, Beets, Garlic, and Pumpkins.) 2) Who remembers where Potatoes were really from: (Peru) 3) What is the thing that everyone at GROW eats. Onion, Eggplant, or Collards: (Collards). 4) What did Shannon say about what you can do with pumpkin seeds? (How you can dry them and eat them). 5) Why do you have to take the seed out of the pumpkins before you carve it?: (So it can crave easily). 6) What did we do when sister Janet came? (Learned how to save seeds).

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Javi needed this after football practice! 

Jerica loves the pancakes and the potatoes. What purple homefries?? 

Shannon, is that a smiley face (fresh from the garden) raspberry pancake? 

Our Garden Breakfast

On Saturday morning we had a big breakfast before we started work. Including eggs, potatoes, Raspberry pancakes and orange juice. I helped cook the pancakes and the potatoes. Everything was so good!!!! Our three favorite girls didn’t come (Theresa, Donna, and Precious) and neither did Jonathan. They missed out on some good FREE food!!! Some foods we used from our garden for our breakfast were chard, raspberries, rosemary, and onions. Jerica, Javier, sis Michelle, Shannon, Laura and me (Jazzmine) all helped make breakfast. We cooked and ate our breakfast in front of our garden, and we cooked all our food on a portable, 2 burner, had to be lit with a match stove. It was all fun though. Jazzmine Breakfast

Sister Michele is a great cook! 

Our last harvest! 

Making breakfast at the garden 

what we did with all the basil

Some of the things we did with the basil is put it in the lasagna. The reason why we made the lasagna was for the community lunch . Another thing we did with the basil is put it in the pizza at our pizza party we had at Laura’s house. When we had to pick the basil it smelled strong. Rodney didn’t like to harvest the basil because of all the bees that were there at the time. Right now we got the basil hanging to dry for tea we are going to make. What I felt about the basil is that it smelled too strong . Basil basil basil. What did we do with the basil that we harvested?

Our luscious Salad

The ingredients we put in the salad are cucumbers, tomatoes, herbs, and lettuce. We grew each ingredient in the garden. They were all planted in the ground and we planted all of them with our very own hands. Actually I didn’t eat the salad because I didn’t want any. First we dried out the lettuce and put it in a bowl. Then we cut up tomatoes and cucumbers and put it in the bowl. Finally we put the herbs in and we finished it. Then we got to eat it. We also cleaned everything too to make sure it wasn’t dirty. No we will not be able to grow any more salad because its about to be winter so we are not able to grow anything anymore. By Rodney Fernandez

This is a picture of a cover crop. The name of this particular kind of cover crop is Buckwheat. We plant this cover crop to help our soil to be more nutritious and organic. Once it gets to a certain length we chop it down and lay it in the bed. Once it breaks down our soil will be rich and full of matter that will allow other crops to grow healthier long lives after. Cover crops are important because they help to keep our soil together and from eroding. Buckwheat can also be used as a weed control. It takes the space of weeds that you don’t want. It is very easy to manage very effected and is good for our soil. (The flowers are there for decorations.) Jerica Sandiford

Hey- GROW Staff eat salad too! 

What are you doing? 

List these herbs in order.