A Full Day: Collective Roots, The Carey School & Second Harvest Nutrition Class

Every once in a while the stars align: all the things you wish you could do in a day actually fit into the day's schedule. Yesterday was one of those days.

The morning was spent in East Palo Alto - helping with a new garden installation with Collective Roots, part of the Fresh Approach organization. Najiha (pictured in the blue & white plaid shirt) leads volunteer teams to install raised bed gardens for Fresh Approach clients. Today's install was for Karla (pictured in a green sweatshirt) who is originally from Peru. Karla will be attending one of the Fresh Approach Veggie RX classes to learn more about nutrition and healthy cooking - and there she'll receive seed packets that she can then plant in her new raised bed garden.

Our 5 person volunteer team made quick work of the garden install. Then it was off to The Carey School to talk with the 5th grade class.

From left to right: Mr. Bill, Ms. La Trice, Ms. Jessica and Mr. Daniel

The 5th Graders at The Carey School are very interested to help our We GROW for the Pharmacy program and were super enthusiastic and attentive. Ms. La Trice and I will be invited back in the near future to learn the results of the brainstorm session.

From left to right: Eiko & Anni - Health Ambassadors for the Second Harvest Food Bank

The day's last activity was a Nutrition & Wellness class for Diabetes Management, put on by the Second Harvest Food Bank at the Samaritan House clinic on 39th Ave. The topic for the class was "healthy snacking" and Eiko made up two recipes for everyone to sample: 1) Sweet yogurt fruit dip; and 2) Avocado tuna salad. My favorite quote from the evening: "Just call it (pico de gallo) Mexican Salsa - the salsa is red, white and green and so is the Mexican flag". So grateful for these types of classes to help folks make quick & easy recipes that are good for them.

Hope everyone has a great second half of the week.

GROW San Mateo!

Comments

Peaches and more

Yesterday we handed out the sweetest of peaches thanks to a generous donation from Circle Foot Permaculture . Along with the quarts of peaches, we also provided Samaritan House Food Pharmacy clients a handout with nutritional information on peaches - how they impact your blood sugar - and a recipe for a Roasted Peach Parfait. Here are links to the handout: Nutritional Spotlight: Peaches (English) Nutritional Spotlight: Peaches (Spanish) It all seems somewhat routine at this point: gather donations of locally grown produce quickly pull together helpful nutritional information based on the week's donations In retrospect, this is the culmination of 3 years of effort to create a network of local gardeners, foragers and volunteers - with a goal of becoming a reliable source of fresh produce for lower income families struggling with diabetes and other health disorders. While it has been known for some time that eating fruits & vegetables can positively impact a person's he

The December Garden

Snap Peas (& a garden gnome!) Beresford Park Community Garden December 15, 2021 It's hard to describe just how good the winter gardening is in San Mateo. While most gardens across the country have long gone into a frosty hibernation - we're, at long last, getting the rain we've been without for the last 9 months or more. It's finally time to turn off the irrigation systems and let Mother Nature do her thing. The new moisture is creating a full-on nutrient soup that flows through our soil, fueling an explosion of activity within the soil food web. Fungal activity is pushing mushrooms to the surface. Our favorite spring flowers of nasturtium, poppies, sweat peas, borage and yarrow are in a race to establish their growing territory. And, thankfully, the newly moist soil makes pulling up oxalis, mallow and bindweed sprouts a bit easier. As you would expect, plants thriving now in the garden were initially planted out in the fall. Those crowns of cauliflower and

Getting Started: Wine Barrel Planters

Gardening in a small, urban space requires a bit of creativity. Our challenges are many: buildings & trees frequently block sunlight; various critters like to snack on new seedlings and just ripe fruits & vegetables; and here in San Mateo, irrigation is a must. To increase your probability of gardening success, consider adding recycled wine barrels into your urban garden. Having tried many types of growing containers over the years, the wine barrel has made it to the top of my list. My galvanized tubs always seemed to need more water than wooden barrels - perhaps due to the different heating/cool properties of the metal vs. wood? Aesthetically, a recycled barrel looks like it's been there for years - which I love. And the smell! There is no comparison. Cost is definitely a consideration. A wine barrel at Home Depot is $40 whereas a 35 gallon galvanized tub is $55. You might say that growing in the ground is $0.00 - but in some locations, the extra 18 inches off

GROW San Mateo

Search This Blog