Posts by Tahereh Sheerazie
Fruit tree care in winter
With so many fruit trees in our garden, one of the most waited for harvests are its fruit. A legitimate anxiousness to taste and eat from a tree that seems lifeless in the dead of winter, makes for important lessons in patience and tree care. We learned that orchards get pruned for fruit yield in…
Read MoreThe Soil Food Web
Jan gives us a chance to ponder over soil. How does animal and human activity above ground effect soil health. Who lives and does what under ground, and what builds healthy robust soil that yields abundant harvests. All questions that we will continue finding answers to for the rest of the school year. Meanwhile our…
Read MoreDecember fun
The fall garden with remnants of summer tomatoes, mission fig, pomegranate and plenty of kale, chard, parsley, basil, chives, beans and arugula lend themselves to harvest, create recipes, divide chores and share a tasty salad together.
Read MoreThe Giant Pumpkins
Our two giant pumpkins, the subject of weight and seed guessing games, also became the curious vegetable that had to be lifted, rolled around, and ultimately cracked for being too large too heavy and too unwieldy to move around even in a wheel barrow. This curiosity resulting in both over 250 lb pumpkins being smashed…
Read MoreLocked in a Seed
From collecting all seeds our garden has yielded this summer, to packing and labeling them, to seeing what giant specimens the smallest of seeds can become, to recognizing their shapes, sizes and function, we moved on to more metaphoric seeds, of thought and action. This we did by listening to the Seed song by…
Read MoreOctober Pumpkin Studies
Where is it from? How did it get here? How did ours grow so large ? Is it the Soil? Is it the Seed? Is it the Weather? What now? What do we do with such a large pumpkin? Pressing questions weve been tackling all month long.
Read MoreUnderstanding place and history – El Sereno Middle School
Our year at El Sereno middle school has begun spending September familiarizing ourselves with place (the garden) and people (all of us who use it) and the connections between all things living, plants, animals and ourselves. Each class has walked through making sensory and written observations of the entire space, sharing their insights in class.…
Read MoreApril’s bounty
Lots goes down week after week, particularly in our special needs classes. Sometimes everyone can be highly productive and other times no ones in the mood for anything! But what tells me that im getting through and that its both relevant and important, is when I meet some of these children in other areas of…
Read MoreSigns for the orchard
Our fruit orchard is getting a face lift with signs being drawn by 8th graders as part of their community service project. Since both Mandarin and Spanish are taught in school and many children speak both the languages, we added them to the signs along with the common and Latin names. The last part of…
Read MoreVernal Equinox/No-rooz
March brings with it the first day of spring. The vernal equinox. A time for rebirth, and a fresh start, not just in our gardens but in our lives. We got to learn the physical and symbolic importance of the moment when night and day are equal and the sun shines directly on the equator.…
Read MoreThe Fungal Kingdom
In preparation for our Fungi lesson with Professor Naveen Hyder of Cal Poly Pomona the students finish up their Fungi Kingdom Poster. Theyve covered alot of ground on knowing the parts of this essential componant of a healthy ecosystem. Professor Naveen shows them different types of fungus/mushrooms (fruiting part of the mycelium) and is surprised…
Read MorePrepping fruit trees and pathways for Spring.
With so much winter rain we expect copious amounts of weeds to come to life, so all February, between rain breaks we’ve worked feverishly to sheet mulch our pathways, and build healthy weed free pathways. While I’ve been slowly pruning each fruit tree since late January, for a robust harvest and aesthetic functional shape, the…
Read MoreCauliflower is King
Its been our signature winter vegetable. Cauliflower! Planted in the fall with starts from Sylmar High school’s farm, in beds that were mulched and well fed during the winter, each head grew to be bigger, juicer and more beautiful and tasty than the next. We’ve shared it with staff, and Enrichla admin and volunteers…
Read MoreRecognizing Fungi
January brought us much needed rain and the emergence of a wet habitat that we havent seen in a long while. Between being sporadically thrust indoors and some days of bright sunshine, each class has been discovering the workings of a wet habitat. The emergence of mushrooms being the most obvious. They have been looking…
Read MoreRain brings out the Haiku…..’were all connected as one’
What do you see ? Mostly puddles of water to jump over, wet leaves and soil, and the fresh smell of rain. But we’d come out to look for bugs both foes and friends on this drizzly winter day. Shelter from the rain isnt just a human need, even the ever present bugs were hard…
Read MoreUnmasked!
6th graders got to meet their substitute teacher on this rainy first day of garden class, with a bug mask on her face! A scary looking sight at first glance, but full of recognizable wonderful critters whose names and connections to the plant kingdom got rapidly written on the board as each child described what…
Read MoreWinter rains!
At Clifford elementary the year began on a welcome rainy day in January. Every child impatiently wanting to visit the garden to take in the fresh air, and soak up the rain drops, pretty much like the plants themselves! We did exactly that with the kindergarten class. Burning energy first with a rain dance,…
Read MoreDecorating for the holidays!
The fun that comes from pruning back in the winter is making wreathes with garden clippings. We used apricot and olive twigs and branches to make the frames, and then everyone went to town with mostly lavender and pine cones to decorate. Many students took their creations home to share with family. Some left them…
Read MoreDecember to do’s at El Sereno middle school
As rapidly as Fall continued to color the trees, our year end tasks in the garden, also took on a speed of their own! We pulled weeds from as many beds and pathways and covered them with thick layers of mulch. Our mountains of crab grass, became a perfect nitrogen fix in our compost pile.…
Read MoreTastes of Fall
While the younger farmers continued to plant for winter, carrots, cabbage, broccoli, and lettuce, each in their square foot garden, another group prepped a salad made to feed everyone, of garden harvested pumpkin, acorn squash, broccoli, chives, mint, lavender flowers, arugula and a dressing of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. To this mixture…
Read MoreNatives in the ground – and now for more rain!
Our first natives this season, have gone in the ground! We’ve planted white and black sage and a native rose. Last years yucca and toyon berry are both growing well, as is a small native cherry that slowly but surely hangs on!
Read MoreFall at Last!
Fall has shown its face at last in our orchard of plum, apple, apricot, pomegranate, fig, pear and olive trees. and with that follows lessons in pruning for next years fruit and growth. But with our erratic weather that will have to wait till Jan when all the leaves have shed and no chances of…
Read MoreDecorating for the Holidays!
Our dry collection of fennel and corn varieties serve as the back drop to seed packets made by all the students from this years crop of heirloom varieties of carrots, corn, wheat and barley. All strung up in the garden, for a few weeks display before the kids each take a packet home to add…
Read MoreGiving Thanks!
So many reasons to give thanks! An extremely exciting class, planting bean seeds in the newly built raised beds, made for a perfect way to usher in the holiday season and give thanks for all that we can do in spite of our limitations. To help us on we even have rain!
Read MoreSquare foot gardening
Measuring, and dividing space, assessing companion and seasonal vegetables, and reading seed packets accurately made up our unit on square foot gardening. Were not there yet but very close. Most children have managed to plant x # of rows in each square foot assigned per child but connecting the dots between plant spacing is taking…
Read MoreMore November News
The Compost pile excites my special needs students like no other! We visit it every other week, adding, chopping and turning. coffee grounds and cafeteria waste are particularly fun for their smell and textures. But what really excites everyone is pulling the grubs out of the rich moist compost heap! Whats been instructive is having…
Read MoreNovember challenges!
Weve had a few cloudy days, some over 90F and a smattering of rain. Nothing is as Nov should or has been! We’ve planted seedlings and then had them toast before they could go too far. Yet many have survived the erratic weather. All along were learning about ‘resilience’ and ‘rolling with the punches’! Here’s…
Read MoreObserving Fall
The only pomegranate that survived impatient hands, birds, squirrels and who knows who else, made it to the tasting table today! We ate the juicy brilliant red seeds, and drew this wondrous fall fruit. The brilliant sun on a post rain garden, elicited a walk around it all, observing fall. What moves, whats grown, where…
Read MoreMath, Science and Collaborative effort. Planting for winter!
After three weeks of place and soil study, today was all about collaborative planting work. Mr Muro’s sixth graders started out by understanding cardinal directions viz a viz their garden, measuring the gardens area and perimeter, deciding which group was planting where, then testing that garden space for soil composition, and converting silt, sand and…
Read MoreBuilding compost, and planting for winter
Our eager composters dig dig dig for soil friends and foes as they add cafeteria waste. Every moving compost creature is trapped in a jar to look at closely and draw a close enough look alike in their journals. Salvaged lunch carrots and a weeks worth of food waste also goes in the compost pile.…
Read Moresoil and square foot gardening
Getting soil classified from areas where each group will be planting. and sharing soil readings with everyone. deciding what winter vegetables will go in one square foot for each child in the class! while some do the square foot calculations on paper another group preps a chalk board to divide into 27 squares another…
Read MoreEating, drawing, compost and beds
Last week we drew pictures of the greens we ate, and threw the waste into the compost pile! Everyones getting the hang of composting. The self watering south facing Hugel has a solitary pumpkin vine growing across the mound. Cant wait to harvest its only pumpkin soon. Not too far out purple asparagus grows…
Read Morebrowns, greens, water, air, heat and FBI
After delving further into various types of seeds, seed pods and seat coats, we went on to exploring what makes healthy growth and the significance of compost to soil. They kids all helped break down both nitrogenous and some carbon materiel into smaller pieces to make life easier for the FBI that will do…
Read Moresalvaged banana salad
Our morning started with collecting cafeteria waste for the compost pile. We salvaged all the edible portions of ripe bananas and amid talk of trash, dumps, methane gas, compost and food waste, we created a yummy Banana Salvage Salad! slice slightly ripe bananas add mint, parsley, curly kale, fuji apples from the garden, meager asparagus…
Read Moremeanwhile outside
As Fall approaches, albeit ever so slowly, we harvest and taste whats left on the fruit trees. Meanwhile our two diligent Cal State LA interns continue to prepare planting beds with a fresh layer of soil and mulch, making sure not to bury the perennial herbs, the growing artichokes and odd squash or two where…
Read Moremapping place and saving seeds
Weve been spending our days refining our mapping skills and collecting seeds. The children are learning how much there is to record on one simple map of their garden and how many sizes and shapes there are in seeds. Not to mention the variety of ways in which to harvest them. Its a big mess…
Read MoreFirst observations – mapping spaces/saving seeds
Back to school with new batches of middle school children, began with getting a sense of place – what is where, and why. Walking and mapping the garden have been our first exercises in becoming familiar with the gardens function and systems. We have also begun to talk about seeds and gather them as we…
Read MoreBack to School!
Summers bounty or at least what the critters left for us, awaits the children and their curious minds. We have black corn to taste, a tree full of olives to cure, both are a first in our garden, plus a ton of seeds to save!
Read MoreLemonade stand on back to school night – Luther Burbank Middle school & Fig House
Our newest collaboration at Luther Burbank, is with Fig House, a bespoke event venue across the street from the school. Talmadge their beverage expert and manager helped organize a lemonade stand for back to school night, using herbs harvested by the sixth graders from the garden and infused in a simple syrup. They were walked…
Read MoreBreaking Bread
We grew Spelt, Sonora wheat and Buckwheat for our winter cover crops. Reaping our harvest and tasting the fruits of our labor. Buckwheat spelt and Sonora wheat bread, butter and buckwheat honey!
Read MoreBread Feast , thank yous and good byes!
‘…you watered and sunned it, until i saw a stem leaf and flower’…
Tasting Pleasure!
A long process but so worth the wait. We planted Sonora wheat, Tibetan purple barley and Rye seeds in Oct – we’re eating bread and soup in May! Eight months of postponing gratification, learning patience, respecting hard work, knowing soil, recognizing differences, understanding symbiotic relationships, working as a community, and tasting pure pleasure:-) ready for…
Read MoreApril at El Sereno Middle school
From planting native black corn on earth day, to harvesting yellow and purple potatoes and sharing a spring harvest with teachers and students and enjoying the slow but sure growth of our native cherry, and toyon berry bush, with ca poppies everywhere Hurray to spring!
Read MoreMisty Spring day
Weeds everywhere greeted us on this drizzly Friday after spring break, as did tons of roses, juicy lettuce, and over five feet tall fava beans! Even our month old two foot tall Jujube tree has blosooms. The purple Tibetan barely nearly mature, while the Sonora wheat lush green. We observed how our cover cropped beds…
Read More