“Garden, Grub and Give Back”

Written on June 20, 2011 by in Micheltorena, Shana

This Saturday, June 25th, Micheltorena garden will be participating in a “Gilt City” event.  Attendees will be experiencing a day of giving back to the community, great music, and good eats provided by the Pop-up Chego test-kitchen.

Chego is the latest endeavor from chef Roy Choi, the brilliant man who brought you Kogi BBQ and was named as one of the “Best New Chef’s” of 2010 by Food & Wine magazine.  They will be serving up their signature rice bowls after spending a day planting pumpkins, painting murals, and getting dirty in this local, sustainable school garden.

The atmospheric music of the local band Pollyn will accompany your lunch, and O.N.E. Coconut Water, the all natural and refreshing drink, will be provided.

Tickets to this event can be purchased at the Gilt City website, by clicking HERE.  Tickets to the event MUST be purchased by this Wednesday, June 22nd by 1pm.  Act now!

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One Response to “Garden, Grub and Give Back”
  1. POP! Announcements: Chego Pop Up Truck, Kogi Pop Up Dining Space
    June 21, 2011 | 4:20 pm

    [...] ALSO — even awesomer is the fact that the band Pollyn will be playing.  So it’s a pretty good deal, folks.  For $35 bucks, you get to try something Chego on the East side, have a mini Pollyn concert and all-you-can-eat gardening with the Micheltorena kids this Saturday.  If I wasn’t already working the truck, I’d be going in a heartbeat.  LUB. DUB. [...]

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Other Garden Posts

Bugs Hunts and Plant Parts

Written on May 18, 2012 by in San Pedro

The garden at San Pedro Elementary was bustling with activity!

Volunteer intern Jennifer, starts off the bug team with a buggy question!

Two volunteer interns, Jennifer and Darlynn, from New Village Charter School, came to help with the classes this week! It was great to have extra hands for our busy day, so we divided the classes into two teams:

BUG TEAM

The Bug Team’s mission was to track bugs in the garden. Bugs were identified as beneficial to the plants in the garden, like pollinating bees and earthworms that fertilize and oxygenate the soil, or pests, like aphids and slugs that eat our lovely plants!

The Bug Team also planted marigolds in the tomato beds.

Marigolds are excellent companion plants, since they repel several types of pests that enjoy tasty tomatoes!

Darlynn and marigolds! Happy, happy marigolds!

PLANT TEAM

The Plant Team’s mission was to identify the different parts of plants that we eat.

We listed all the plant parts we eat, such as:

ROOTS: radish, turnips, carrots, onions, jicama, potatoes

STEMS: celery, green onions, rhubarb, leeks

LEAVES: mint, basil, rosemary, lettuce, cabbage, spinach, cilantro

FLOWER: cauliflower, broccoli, marigolds, brussel sprouts, artichoke, rose, squash blossoms

FRUITS: tomatoes, apples, oranges, avocado, peaches, strawberries, pumpkins, cucumbers, watermelon, peppers

SEEDS: sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, peas, coconuts, beans, peanuts, chili seeds

We had so much fun naming the different parts of plants that we eat, that we almost didn’t stop in time!

But the best part of the day was making our snack — A Plant Parts Salad!

A healthy salad, full of fresh ingredients and COLOR!

We used one plant part (6 total) to make our salad. Then we drizzled it with a simple dressing and served it on romaine ‘wraps’.

The students loved the salad and were excited to try their own variations of the Plant Parts salad at home!

Yum!!!

Here’s the recipe so you can try too!

Plant Parts Salad

Salad:

Radishes (roots)

Celery (stems)

Oregano (leaves)

Marigold petals (flowers)

Apple (fruits)

Sunflower Seeds (seeds)

Dressing:

Fresh lemon juice (fruits)

Olive oil

Honey

Cinnamon (stems)

Chop all ingredients. Whisk together dressing and toss with salad. Place one scoop of salad on romaine leaf, wrap and enjoy!

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Turnips, Butterflies and Sunflowers!

Written on May 18, 2012 by in EnrichLA, Main Street
IMG_0014

Garden Steward Angela, and the students at Main Street Elementary recently planted some beautiful tomato and strawberry seedlings, but many of the older plants in the garden long ago passed their prime. We spent the afternoon pulling bolted lettuces and out of control weeds! In the process, we discovered tiny onions struggling for some sunlight in the overgrowth, and a crop of lovely turnips!

In the middle of all our weed pulling, we were visited by several butterflies! The students grabbed a net and caught one, examined it, and then carefully released it. We certainly don’t want to harm our friendly garden pollinators!

We also discovered out sunflowers are going to seed!!! We can’t wait to eat our own fresh sunflower seeds!

 

 

 

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The Perfect Test Relief!

Written on May 18, 2012 by in West Vernon

Students all over Los Angeles are in the midst of heavy California Standard Testing. So it was no surprise that weeding the garden, on a beautiful day at West Vernon, was greeted with such enthusiasm and diligence!

While the students were simply enjoying the change of pace from their rigorous testing, their minds and bodies were enjoying the fresh air, exercise and vitamin D!

Vitamin D deficiency has been linked with obesity, according to research from the Medical College of Georgia. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found that 9% of children across the US, was vitamin D deficient, and 61% - or 50.8 million - was vitamin D insufficient! Get out there and weed!!!!

West Vernon Elementary School takes great pride in this beautiful garden, and it was recently dedicated to a beloved teacher. Her spirit is certainly alive in this garden!

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It’s Strawberry Thyme!

Written on May 18, 2012 by in Main Street

Bad puns aside, we had a great time planting strawberries and thyme at our garden at Main Street Elementary School. We divided up the work so that some students weeded, some dug holes, some put the plants in the soil, and finally some covered the plants back up with dirt.

Ulices and team ready to plant the thyme

Everyone was quite eager to partake in the planting activity! Afterward, we rewarded ourselves with a cucumber snack – we topped off chard from the garden with slices of cucumber, lemon, salt and pepper – yum!

Lastly, walking around the garden, we spotted some strawberries that had been planted previously and were starting to bear fruit. How exciting!!

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Mulch, weeding competition rematch

Written on May 18, 2012 by in West Vernon

Last week at West Vernon Elementary, the boys and girls of Dr. Hugo’s class participated in a competition to see who could weed more in a given time period. This week the two teams demanded a rematch, and both teams came to the garden determined to be the winners – and off they went!

Boys win this week!

Mulch was also delivered to the school garden, and the students went straight to work putting it in the garden. We reviewed how mulch (wood chips) would hinder the growth of weeds and enable the garden to flourish!

All mulch'd up!

Our snack consisted of a crunchy cucumber paired with red bell pepper – both were sprinkled with lemon, salt, and pepper, making it a light, refreshing snack after all the weeding and putting down the mulch!

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EnrichLA at Fox Philanthropy Fair

Written on May 17, 2012 by in EnrichLA

The friendly folks at Fox invited EnrichLA to participate in one of their regular events again this past Tuesday. As always it was lovely to spend some time out in the gardens at the studios. We handed out lots of seedlings to passersby, chatted about EnrichLA and had an all-round great time. Thank you everyone at Fox for always making us feel so welcome!

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EnrichLA in FrontiersLA.com!

Written on May 17, 2012 by in EnrichLA, Press, Shana

FrontiersLA.com has included this Sunday’s EnrichLA event in their “Harvey Milk Day Celebrations” article!  If you would like to be part of this great event, join us at RFK Community Schools located at

701 S. Catalina St.,
Los Angeles, CA 90005

“On Sunday May 20, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Stuart Milk, founder of the Harvey Milk Foundation and nephew of Harvey Milk, will host the 3rd Annual Harvey Milk Day of Service at Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools.

At the first commemoration in 2010, Villaraigosa pledged to honor Harvey Milk through a day of service every year to acknowledge Milk’s legacy of community engagement. This year’s We Serve LA” project—held in conjunction with Gay for Good, Enrich L.A., FAIR, Latino Equality Alliance, UCLA Family Commons, Wilshire Center Business Improvement District, principals, teachers and students from the Los Angeles Unified School District, among others—will paint commemorative canvas murals, build two sets of edible produce gardens to be used in educating parents and students alike about nutrition and sustainability, and complete a campus wide clean up at Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools.”

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MOLLIE THOMAS TO JOIN ENRICH LA THIS SUNDAY

Written on May 16, 2012 by in EnrichLA, Home Page Middle Small Slider, Home Page Sliders, RFK Community Schools

Mollie Thomas

Mollie Thomas will join Tomas O’Grady and Enrich LA and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa over 100 gay for good volunteers

Tomas O'Grady

this Sunday to build new edible gardens at Robert Kennedy Community Schools in Los Angeles 

“Aside from being beautiful, she is an inspiration and has incredible grace.”  Tomas O’Grady

Mollie Thomas has redefined the image of a pageant girl. As one of the first openly lesbian women to compete for the crown in the 2012 Miss California USA pageant, she has become an advocate for equality and acceptance. Since spending time overseas involved in various service projects, Mollie has developed a deep appreciation for helping others. A passion which she is now focusing on issues very close to her own heart which affect the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning) community. After her campaign for the 2012 pageant received an overwhelming amount of positive media attention from CNN, NBC, and even Fox news, Mollie has decided to run again for the 2013 Miss California USA pageant. She is taking the opportunity to start a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating positive visibility and promoting acceptance of LGBTQ people.

As quoted in the LA Times, “I’m running for equality and will use this in order to promote visibility on current issues, to become a youth advocate and a role model.”

 

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The new edible gardens at Robert Kennedy Community Schools

Written on May 16, 2012 by in Home Page Left Small Slider, Home Page Middle Small Slider, Home Page Sliders, RFK Community Schools, Tomas
Design for RFK edible garden

Tomas O Grady and Enrich LA’s elite team of professionals will lead a team of almost 250 volunteers to build two edible gardens at Robert Kennedy Community Schools, on Sunday May 20th in honor of Harvey Milk day! Partners include the office of Mayor Antonio Villaraigrosa and Gay for Good.

“This was the site of the old Ambassador Hotel and is now home to an architecturally stunning high school. We have created edible garden designs that we believe will fit right in and add to this important historic Los Angeles location.” Tomas O’Grady

O’Grady And Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa

The new edible gardens will feature redwood raised beds, an outdoor gray water sink, a composting system and eight fruit trees. The garden will be planted with organic seedlings from Sylmar High School including basil, tomatoes, rosemary, strawberries and 5 varieties of peppers

“I have never been so intimated by a project as I have been with this one. My hero Robert Kennedy was tragically shot here. We have to do this right. We have to do something amazing. Mediocre won’t cut it.”       Tomas O’Grady

Partners like Enrich LA are the key to increasing the achievement of public school children” Antonio R Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles.

Joining Enrich LA will be Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and  Mollie Thomas the first openly gay woman who ran for Miss California USA.

You are welcome to come by and see a garden build in action. 9am to 3pm.

Strawberries at South Gate Middle School

Where?   RFK COMMUNITY SCHOOLS at 701 S. Catalina,Los Angeles,California, 90005

When?  Sunday 20-May-2012 9 AM to 3 PM

YOU ARE ALSO WELCOME TO VOLUNTEER HERE! 

We are also looking for about 20 folks, who are willing to come at 7.30 am on Sunday Morning to assume leadership positions! If you want

Tomas O’Grady

to challenge yourself and give something back, then this could be for you!  Email Tomas O’Grady Tomasogradyenrichla@gmail.com or call 323 387 3866

 

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Seed Bombs!

Written on May 15, 2012 by in Gratts Learning Academy

Students at Gratts Elementary helped making seed bombs today for a giveaway at the Kaiser Permanente Downey Wellness Fair this coming Thursday. Everybody was very excited to contribute their efforts in making these to say thank you to Kaiser Permanente Downey Center for the great contributions they’ve made to EnrichLA. Of course, every student also got to take one home to go plant in their own gardens and get their own food growing!

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Bombs Away!

Written on May 15, 2012 by in San Pedro

Last week’s classes at San Pedro were filled with making seed bombs!

We blended recycled newspaper into a pulp and then mixed in tomato seeds. We then pressed the pulp into muffin tins and left them on our garden counter to dry in the sun. It was a very popular activity!

We celebrated with a tasty snack made from sliced radishes, drizzled with lemon juice, salt and pepper!

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Reclaiming the Weeds at Markham

Written on May 15, 2012 by in Markham Middle School

This week at Markham students got to take a break from CST testing and relax in the garden.  Classes made bouquets for their mothers or another close relative.  Many of the bouquets items we used were weeds, but nonetheless very beautiful.  It was a fun way to get the students excited about weeding.

Students also helped remove some of the crabgrass in the drought tolerant garden.  To combat the grass, landscape fabric will be added next week.

We also got a nice delivery of cardboard boxes from the school cafeteria.  Students flattened out them out and placed them in particular garden plot.  We will be experimenting with the concept of sheet mulching and will continue the work next week.

 

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SAN PEDRO ELEMENTARY BUILD

Written on May 14, 2012 by in San Pedro, Tomas

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EnrichLA at the Silverlake Jubilee

Written on May 14, 2012 by in EnrichLA, Home Page Left Small Slider, Shana

EnrichLA is excited to announce its involvement in the Silverlake Jubilee this coming Memorial Day weekend! Come visit our booth at the Jubilee and find some inexpensive edible seedings, herb bouquets from our school gardens, and have the kids join in making some seed bombs! We will also be featuring some fresh produce grown from our very own school gardens!
The Silverlake Jubilee implements a Zero Waste Initiative with the goal of 90% landfill diversion, water conservation, and use of renewable power resources, as well as being a single-use water bottle-free event.
Join us on May 26th and 27th, enjoy the music, good company, and help us celebrate and promote LA school gardens!

Some FAQ’s from the Jubilee website:

FAQS

Q. Is the Jubilee going to be a life changing experience?
A. Yes. The Jubilee is full of changes to your life. This is the third year of the event.

Q. Where is the event?
A. At the Sunset Junction on Santa Monica Blvd in Silver Lake, at the intersection of Sunset Blvd and Santa Monica Blvd (4000-4400 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, 90029 ENTER at either end). Programming will also be located at El Cid, front entrance located at 4212 Sunset Blvd. 90029.

Q. How do I get tickets?
A. Online or In Store or Day of at the Sunset, Commonwealth and El Cid entrances
A. Residents, pick up tickets at the Jubilee office hours at 1523 Griffith Park Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90026

 

 

 

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EnrichLA Seedling Giveaway!

Written on May 14, 2012 by in EnrichLA

We want you to start you own edible garden! EnrichLA is excited to announce a seedling giveaway initiative happening at our schools over the next few weeks. Sherrell and myself have been making regular visits to Sylmar High bringing back carloads of seedlings and our garden stewards have been getting the word out to our schools. Click on over to our special events page over here http://enrichla.org/about-2/special-events-calendar/ to see the closest location to you.

Come and get some edible seedlings and start growing your own food, complements of EnrichLA and Sylmar High School!

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New Edible gardens to be built at the Robert Kennedy Community Schools with GAY FOR GOOD

Written on May 14, 2012 by in EnrichLA, Home Page Middle Small Slider, RFK Community Schools, Tomas

Design for RFK edible garden

Tomas O Grady and Enrich LA’s elite team of professionals will lead a team of almost 250 volunteers to build two edible gardens at Robert Kennedy Community Schools, on Sunday May 20th in honor of Harvey Milk day! Partners include the office of Mayor Antonio Villaraigrosa and Gay for Good.

“This was the site of the old Ambassador Hotel and is now home to an architecturally stunning high school. We have created edible garden designs that we believe will fit right in and add to this important historic Los Angeles location.” Tomas O’Grady

O'Grady And Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa

The new edible gardens will feature redwood raised beds, an outdoor gray water sink, a composting system and eight fruit trees. The garden will be planted with organic seedlings from Sylmar High School including basil, tomatoes, rosemary, strawberries and 5 varieties of peppers

“I have never been so intimated by a project as I have been with this one. My hero Robert Kennedy was tragically shot here. We have to do this right. We have to do something amazing. Mediocre won’t cut it.”       Tomas O’Grady

Partners like Enrich LA are the key to increasing the achievement of public school children” Antonio R Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles.

Joining Enrich LA will be Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and  Mollie Thomas the first openly gay woman who ran for Miss California USA.

You are welcome to come by and see a garden build in action. 9am to 3pm.

Strawberries at South Gate Middle School

Where?   RFK COMMUNITY SCHOOLS at 701 S. Catalina,Los Angeles,California, 90005

When?  Sunday 20-May-2012 9 AM to 3 PM

YOU ARE ALSO WELCOME TO VOLUNTEER HERE! 

We are also looking for about 20 folks, who are willing to come at 7.30 am on Sunday Morning to assume leadership positions! If you want

Tomas O'Grady

to challenge yourself and give something back, then this could be for you!  Email Tomas O’Grady Tomasogradyenrichla@gmail.com or call 323 387 3866

 

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Posts from Eco Enthusiast!

Written on May 13, 2012 by in Carrie
  • Green Mother’s Day Gift Ideas
    What are some ways to be Green on Mother’s Day? Start by giving handmade, local, organic, Fair Trade, and eco-friendly gifts. Choose organic local flowers. Most flowers are mainly grown in other countries that use harmful chemicals and pesticides. Who wants to bring that into their home? Green Mother’s Day Gift Ideas: • Make your [...]

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LOS FELIZ ECO FAIR

Written on May 12, 2012 by in Franklin Elementary, Tomas

Tomas O' Grady at WORK on planters

Elizabeth + Eireann + Erin ask eco questions

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Spring Beautification Day at Trinity Elementary

Written on May 12, 2012 by in Trinity

Community volunteers arrived to plant a hundred gallon-plants around the border of Trinity Elementary School this morning. A dozen of the plants were generously donated to the garden’s Scented Forest. It will be really exciting when they grow in and the “forest” becomes the dense wild flora area that we envision. A few student volunteers harvested hundreds of radish and sunflower seeds and took a them home to add to their home gardens.

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Spring Beautification Day at Trinity Elementary

Written on May 12, 2012 by in Trinity

Community volunteers arrived to plant a hundred gallon-plants around the border of Trinity Elementary School this morning. A dozen of the plants were generously donated to the garden’s Scented Forest. It will be really exciting when they grow in and the “forest” becomes the dense wild flora area that we envision. A few student volunteers harvested hundreds of radish and sunflower seeds and took a them home to add to their home gardens.

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