• About Me
  • Contact Me

Growing Up in the Garden

Growing Up in the Garden

Tag Archives: sustainable food

What Happens In January

06 Tuesday Jan 2015

Posted by Jessica Y in Garden

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

garden, gardening, heirloom seeds, heirlooms, summer garden, sustainable food, sustainable living, tomatoes

I used to start my tomatoes in late January or early February. Then I met someone who told me they started their tomatoes the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Ever since, I have been starting my tomatoes the first week of January for nice, good sized plants to transplant come March. IMG_5768

IMG_5771
Continue reading →

My New Favorite Squash

28 Friday Nov 2014

Posted by Jessica Y in Garden

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Altadena Community Garden, Cinderella Pumpkin, garden, gardening, RIPE Altadena, sustainable food, sustainable living, winter squash

IMG_5455

Last spring I picked up two Cinderella Pumpkin seedlings at one of RIPE’s monthly garden swaps we hold in our local park. I didn’t know anything about the squash except that the pumpkins resembled the pumpkin used to make Cinderella’s magical carriage. I thought they were of the decorative sort.

I planted them in a corner of my community garden plot, made sure they had water, and largely ignored them for a few months. Continue reading →

Image

7:00 a.m.

16 Wednesday Jul 2014

Tags

Altadena Community Garden, Cinderella Squash, garden, gardening, photography, sustainable food, sustainable living, Wordless Wednesday

IMG_5021

Posted by Jessica Y | Filed under Altadena, Garden, Why I Garden

≈ 5 Comments

Bitter Cukes and Bandits

14 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by Jessica Y in Garden

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

bitter cucumbers, critters, cucumbers, garden, gardening, summer garden, sustainable food, sustainable living

IMG_4835

If you have ever grown cucumbers I can bet you have been unlucky enough to bite into the awfulness of one gone bitter. I have planted my cucumbers in succession this year. The first bunch is thriving – vigorous, green vines setting lots of fruit. I harvested the first two cucumbers earlier in the week and sliced one up as soon as I got it in the kitchen only to immediately spit it right out. There is something especially horrible about a bitter cucumber. For me I think it has to do with the stark contrast between that and a good cucumber’s mild flavor. Continue reading →

A Few Last Moments

06 Friday Jun 2014

Posted by Jessica Y in Garden, Teaching

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

chersonskaya, garden, gardening, sustainable food, teaching, winter fare beans

IMG_4555

My daughter has four days left of school. Four short days. Due to a twist of circumstance, my son has been in preschool five mornings a week instead of three for the last month. These mornings, this time to myself has been a gift, the quiet before the storm. I see the end of this school year as an end of an era, a short era, but one none the less. In the blink of an eye I will be swimming in lesson plans and first day of school jitters. The quiet mornings to myself will be fewer and farther between. Continue reading →

Image

A Basket Full

04 Wednesday Jun 2014

Tags

garden, gardening, onions, photography, sustainable food, sustainable living, Wordless Wednesday

Onions 2014

Posted by Jessica Y | Filed under Altadena, Garden, Wordless Wednesday

≈ Leave a comment

Bursting Forth

24 Saturday May 2014

Posted by Jessica Y in Altadena, Garden, Teaching

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

garden, gardening, gardening with children, gardening with kids, school gardens, summer garden, sustainable food, sustainable living

IMG_2636

It is amazing what can happen in the garden in just a few short weeks. There must be fairies visiting my beds every night sprinkling their magic dust over the plants. Continue reading →

Image

Isolation

21 Wednesday May 2014

Tags

garden, gardening, photography, seed saving, sustainable food, sustainable living, winter fare beans, Wordless Wednesday

Isolation Winter Fare Bean

Posted by Jessica Y | Filed under Altadena, Garden, Wordless Wednesday

≈ Leave a comment

The Importance of Itty Bitty Carrots

18 Saturday Jan 2014

Posted by Jessica Y in Altadena, Garden, Why I Garden

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Altadena Community Garden, garden, gardening, gardening with children, gardening with kids, sustainable food, sustainable living, winter garden

IMG_3560

In my backyard garden I put up small fences around many of the garden boxes to keep out the feral cats and the raccoons. Inadvertently, they are  now (more or less) keeping out a third destroyer of vegetable garden delights – my almost three-year-old. His motivations are heartwarming. He is not digging for grubs, tearing out anything in his way. He is not looking for a good bathroom. He is actually looking for a tasty snack.

Continue reading →

Earth Day and Action

22 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by Jessica Y in Altadena, Food Politics, Garden

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Earth Day, food justice, garden, gardening, Next Course Pasadena, sustainable food, sustainable living

IMG_1519

Today is Earth Day and this past weekend was filled with all kinds of festivals, lectures, classes, etc. to commemorate the day. I am glad that we have a day to celebrate the earth, to raise awareness, to bring people together around common interests and to educate. This is good. However, I think most of us agree that it takes an everyday commitment to honor our planet, and by doing so, we make changes within our own lives and hopefully are getting creative and working hard to create change on a larger scale.

I walked through a beautiful Earth Day festival to attend the first of a series of meetings where the attendees will try to do just that. Continue reading →

← Older posts

Growing Up in the Garden

Growing Up in the Garden

RSS Feed

Enter your email address here to follow my blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Categories

  • Altadena
  • Food Politics
  • Garden
  • Label GMOs
  • Odyssey Orchards
  • Off Topic
  • Recipe
  • school gardens
  • Teaching
  • Weekly Photo Challenge
  • Why I Garden
  • Wordless Wednesday

Recent Posts

  • Dusting Off
  • Morning Cabbage
  • Winter in Southern California
  • What Happens In January
  • My New Favorite Squash

Archives

Blogs I Read

  • A Thinking Stomach
  • Food in Jars
  • From Scratch Club
  • Grow and Resist
  • North Story
  • Promenade Plantings
  • Putney Farms
  • Sarah the Gardener
  • Slow Food Mama
  • The Soulicious Life
  • Wuppenif

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Growing Up in the Garden
    • Join 258 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Growing Up in the Garden
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...