e-News: October ’05

Hello Friends of Urban Sprouts!

Sorry for the delay with this month’s e-news—I’ve already been asked, where’s the latest update?! You’ll be happy to know that there is a LOT going on in the school gardens, keeping me busy!

Garden Update. Over 300 students at Burbank, Jordan and Wells have been busy cultivating garden beds and planting seeds to get our gardens full of crops for the winter. Students have planted many favorite Brassica family members: broccoli, collards, bok choi, tatsoi, cabbages, Brussels sprouts, mizuna, and cauliflower. Also lettuces, carrots, beets, and chard. This week, we’ll be focusing on planting nitrogen fixers, fava beans and sweet peas. After planting these great winter crops, we’ll be able to harvest and eat salads and stir-frys all winter. Students are noticing that our soil has really improved since last year: it’s richer and more full of worms! Trivia Game: Win poppy or arugula seeds for your garden if you can name the family that beets and chard belong to! Double points if you can get carrots and lettuce, too! Winners announced next issue.

Volunteers Wanted! Thanks to the expertise of Britt Bravo, our Urban Sprouts volunteer program is up and running, bringing more people into the garden with us. We’re especially seeking help during the day in science classes, every Tuesday and some Thursdays and Fridays. If you have time during the day or know someone else who’d be interested, visit our Urban Sprouts website and click on the button, “Volunteer!” If you’d like to help at other times, contact me.

This Saturday: Garden Party Work Day. On Saturday, between 11am and 3pm, stop by the garden at Luther Burbank M.S. and help us to work, harvest, cook, eat and play in the school garden. You can experience a typical day in the garden and meet students, teachers, and other garden supporters. Hope to see you there! Burbank is located at 325 La Grande, between Persia and Brazil Streets.

A Great Way You can Help Right Now: We want to let even more people know about the important work of building school garden programs in under-served schools and helping all youth gain access to healthy, fresh organic food. I will soon begin sending out informative newsletters and personalized letters to get all of you even more involved with our work. To do this, we must build our mailing list. Please send me your mailing address, and addresses for any of your friends or contacts who would like to learn more about Urban Sprouts. You can help us spread the word about the importance of urban gardens for youth!

Please note that we have completed the transition to Urban Sprouts in cyberspace: check out our website at www.urbansprouts.org and e-mail me at abby@urbansprouts.org.

Take care, everyone! Eat your veggies and smile in the rain!

–Abby