Santa Monica Good Food Festival Schedule of Events
Santa Monica Farmers Market is celebrating its 30th Anniversary with the very first Southern California Good Food Festival & Conference. This unprecedented multi-day event will focus on regional and national issues integral to building a local and sustainable food system while supporting the needs of California family farmers.
Please see schedule of events below, in particular, the school garden events on Saturday, September 17th.
Grow Your Own! Workshops
Grab your gardening gloves and hat and bring your questions, your curiosity, and your family to Grow (and Preserve) Your Own! A variety of local experts will demonstrate what you need to know about garden basics, seed starting, seed saving, fruit trees, container gardening, food preservation, backyard chickens, beekeeping, worm composting, pest control and more.
Scheduled Events – Saturday, September 17
10:00am – 10:45am — Gardening for Kids — Main Garden
Plant the foundation for healthy eating. Be an elementary school student in the garden, connecting nutrition and nature with classroom curriculum. Presented by Marika Bergsund, GrowingGreat.org
11:00am – 11:45am — What’s Cooking in your Classroom? — Chorus Room
Learn how to incorporate a Culinary Program into your school’s curriculum. Find out how talented chefs and directors are teaching our kids the importance of eating well. Presented by Lisa Fontanesi, “Kidding Around in the Kitchen;” Chef Gino Campagna,“Gino’s Kitchen” (Disney Channel); Julie Cotts, Director 24th Street Garden School; Megan Hanson, Root Down LA, James McGroarty, Network for a Healthy California.
11:00am – 11:45am — Kids Can Compost! — Hay Bale Classroom
Marianne P. Brown presents “Kids Can Compost,” Wen-Chia Tsai Parker’s workshop demonstrating how composting can be fun for the whole family. www.kidscancompost.com
12:00pm – 12:45pm — Better School Lunches: Filling Half Their Plate with Fruits and Vegetables — Cafeteria
Dona Richwine, M.S. RD, Nutrition Specialist, SMMUSD Farmers Market Salad Bar, explains how MyPlate, the new USDA nutrition education tool, can and should influence school lunches. Demo and salad bar sampling included.
12:00pm – 12:45pm — Using Social Media Marketing to Promote Your School Garden — Chorus Room
Santa Monica High School students present their creative plan on how to engage an entire school community to grow a school garden. Includes social marketing and cross curriculum lesson plans.
12:00pm – 12:45pm — Organic Pest Control with Beneficial Insects — Main Garden
Learn about earth-friendly solutions to protect against pests that can damage plants. Organic Control’s beneficial insects—ladybugs, green lacewings, praying mantids, beneficial nematodes and others—defend gardens from “bad bugs” such as aphids, whiteflies, mealy bugs and mites. www.organiccontrol.com
1:00pm – 1:45pm — Mystery Lunch Box Cook-off! — Cafeteria
Vegetables are delicious! Five teams will complete at least three recipes using one vegetable per session guided by a mentoring student chef from Santa Monica College. Five teams means 15 different plant based recipes to share at the end of the cook-off! Yum! Presented by Jennie Cook, JennieCooks.com
1:00pm – 1:45pm — How Worms Make Our Lunch — Hay Bale Classroom
Explore ways to reduce waste and incorporate Vermiculture into your life and garden. Presented by Gina Garcia, Sustainable Works, www.sustainableworks.org
1:00pm – 1:30pm — The Need for Seed — Rose Garden
Save seeds, save the planet! In a world full of GMO plants, learn why it’s important to save your own seeds and how to do it. Presented by David King, Seed Library of Los Angeles, www.slola.org
1:30pm – 2:45pm — School Garden Models — Chorus Room
School garden designers discuss how they have successfully created unique and distinctly different programs that are changing the way schools feed and teach children. Presented by Marika Bergsund, Growing Great; Laurie Dill, Herb Project – 24th Street Garden; David King, The Learning Garden at Venice High School; Roger Lowenstein, Los Angeles Leadership Academy; Johann Hampton-Walker, Larchmont Charter School (Edible School Yard Program). Moderated by Yvonne Savio, University of California Cooperative Extension, Los Angeles County Common Ground Garden Program Manager.
2:00pm – 2:45pm –Garden Harvest Party! — Main Garden
Make your own salad directly from the garden, picking fresh fruits, vegetables and edible flowers. Enjoy a holistic approach to edible education with a dynamic lesson which integrates social and academic skills. Presented by Samantha Barnes of Kitchen Kid, www.kitchenkid.com
2:00pm – 2:45pm — Introduction to Permaculture — Hay Bale Classroom
Larry Santoyo, founder of EarthFlow Design Works, will demonstrate the basics of permaculture (permanent agriculture using design principles that mimic nature) to help you beautify your garden and save the planet at the same time. www.earthflow.com
3:00pm – 3:45pm — Doctor, Doctor, Give me the News — Chorus Room
What does “healthy” look like? A distinguished panel of experts discuss childrens health and nutrition and what parents can do to improve their child’s diet. Dr. Rebecca Crane, M.D., Pediatrician, Kaiser Permanente; Emily Ventura Ph.D., California Obesity Research Center; Dr. Ernie Katz, Director of Behavioral Sciences Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Psychology, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles; Dr. Lauren Feder, M.D., The Medical Group of Lauren Feder and author of Natural Baby and Child Care; and Jennie Cook, www.jenniecooks.com give us the scoop.
3:00pm – 3:45pm — Plant the Foundation for Healthy Eating — Main Garden
Be an elementary school student in the garden connecting nutrition and nature with classroom curriculum. Presented by Marika Bergsund, Growing Great, www.growinggreat.org
3:00pm – 3:45pm — Keeping Backyard Chickens — Hay Bale Classroom
Learn all the basics of backyard chicken keeping from Dare 2 Dream Farms, who raise chickens and build coops for purchase, and will teach you how easy it is to do it yourself! Presented by Megan Coulter, Dare2Dream Farms. www.dare2dreamfarms.com
10:00 am–5:00 pm All-Day Activities – Saturday, September 17
Learn all about companion gardening from LA County Master Gardeners Debbie Harding and Lucia Burke, who will demonstrate how to grow a Butterfly Garden, Pizza Garden, Salsa Garden, and 3 Sisters Garden. celosangeles.ucdavis.edu
Visit the Fruit Mobile! — Rose Garden
Food Forward reconnects the community with the abundance of food present in our everyday lives by harvesting fruit from backyard trees with a volunteer crew and then donates the bounty to food banks across Los Angeles. Find out how you can get involved. Presented by Meg Glasser, Food Forward. www.foodforward.org
Vertical Gardening with Woolly Pockets — Rose Garden
Get hands-on experience and learn to garden vertically instead of horizontally with woolly pocket wizards! Presented by Shauna Nep, Woolly Pockets. www.woollyschoolgarden.org
SAMOHI Team Marine Teaching/Information Booth — Rose Garden
Learn how what you eat affects the planet! A group of audacious juniors and seniors at Santa Monica High School have been rallying their neighbors around the global on issues of climate change, plastic pollution, and ocean acidification. Presented by Team Marine students. www.teammarine.org
Scheduled Events – Sunday, September 18
10:00am – 10:45am — Biodynamic Gardening — Hay Bale Classroom
Denise DeGarmo-Ritchie of Malibu Compost demonstrates an ecological and sustainable system that respects Nature and is designed to support a self-perpetuating ecosystem. www.Malibucompost.com
11:00 am – 11:45am – Organic Culinary Gardens — Main Garden
Learn how to succeed in the garden! Learn the fundamentals of culinary gardening including germinating and transplanting seedlings, soil and gardening materials and the importance of organic plant nutrition. Presented by Kathleen Hiraga, culinary garden designer and President of Organics Rx, a retail line of organic gardening products. www.organicsrx.com
11:00am – 11:45am — Backyard Beekeeping — Hay Bale Classroom
Learn about bees and their care; beehives, equipment and harvesting honey; and the organic care of the bee colony. Presented by John Lyons. www.thewovengarden.com
12:00pm – 12:45pm — Garden Party with the Dragon Pizza Oven — Cafeteria
Gaze out at the Pacific while enjoying a market fresh brunch. Quiche will be cooked in Ray Cirino’s magical dragon oven. Sample goodies from the UCCE/LA County Master Food Preserver class.
12:00pm – 12:45pm — Backyard Chickens — Hay Bale Classroom
Learn the basics in this introduction, including chicken varieties, housing, feeding, disease control and correct coop design. Presented by John Lyons, The Woven Garden. www.thewovengarden.com
12:00pm – 4:00pm — Gardening Basics (Empezando el Jardin) — Main Garden
Workshops throughout the afternoon presented by University of California Cooperative Extension/LA County Master Gardeners, with sessions on soil preparation, seed starting, transplanting, container gardening, composting, fruit trees for homes and schools, including a bilingual workshop on seed starting and transplanting. Presented by Nancy Cipes, Herb Machleder, Julie Strnad, Araceli Perez-Ocejo, Bruce Woodside and others. celosangeles.ucdavis.edu
1:00pm – 1:45pm — How Worms Make Our Lunch — Hay Bale Classroom
Explore ways to reduce waste and incorporate Vermiculture into your life and garden, Presented by Gina Garcia, Sustainable Works. www.sustainableworks.org
2:00pm – 2:45pm — Food Speak 101 — Chorus Room
Cage Free, Free Range, Grass Fed, Organic? What do they all mean? A panel of experts will clear up any confusion to help you make informed choices. Bruce Palma, General Manager, Santa Monica Co-Opportunity, Bonnie Modugno, Registered Dietitian, Nate Peitso, Maggie’s Farm
2:00pm – 2:45pm — Watering Edibles — Hay Bale Classroom
Learn how to efficiently irrigate edible plants, including those in containers. Discover water saving design strategies including living mulch, plant guilds, and soil remediation. Presented by Russell Ackerman, Water Resources Specialist, City of Santa Monica
3:00pm – 3:45pm — Conserve Today/Preserve Tomorrow: Organic Pest Control — Hay Bale Classroom
Learn how to manage common garden pests without harmful pesticides. Presented by Karl Bruskotter, Environmental Programs Analyst, City of Santa Monica.
4:00pm – 4:45pm — Backyard Composting — Hay Bale Classroom
A demonstration of everything you need to know to turn kitchen scraps into valuable compost. Presented by Wes Thompson, City of Santa Monica.
10:00 am–5:00 pm All-Day Activities – Sunday, September 18
Backyard Gardening — Rose Garden
Learn all about Companion Gardening from LA County Master Gardeners Debbie Harding and Lucia Burke, who will demonstrate how to grow a Butterfly Garden, Pizza Garden, Salsa Garden, and 3 Sisters Garden. celosangeles.ucdavis.edu
How to Create a Vertical Garden — Rose Garden
Woolly Pockets demonstrates how to garden vertically with woolly pocket wizards! Presented by Shauna Nep, Woolly Pockets. www.woollyschoolgarden.org
Eat Cheap – Save Your Seeds — Rose Garden
Seed savers from SLOLA: Seed Library of Los Angeles will be on hand to demonstrate and answer questions about seeding saving. www.slola.org
Take home some seeds for your own backyard. UCCE/LA County Master Gardeners will have seeds and seedlings to give away.
What are you growing in your school garden this year?
In mild winter climates likes ours in Southern California now is the perfect time to be planting our winter garden, and how advantageous that it should also coincide with the start of the school year.
What to grow in a school garden is a question we hear alot. The short answer right now is cool weather crops. Cool weather crops differ from the warm weather crops we grow in the spring and summer mainly in that they do not fruit. Peruse the list below and you will notice that when consuming cool weather crops we are eating mostly leaves, stems, and roots.
For northern climates cool weather crops can be grown very successfully in a greenhouse.
The following is a list of cool weather crops arranged by family:
Alliaceae (Allium or Onion Family) – chives, onions, scallions, shallots, garlic, leeks
Amaranthaceae (Amaranth or Beet Family) – amaranth, beet, chard, spinach, quinoa
Apiaceae or Umbelliferae (Carrot or Dill Family) – anise, caraway, carrot, celery, chervil, cilantro, cumin, dill, fennel, lovage, parsley, parsnip
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family) – artichokes, cardoons, chicory, endive, escarole, lettuce, raddichio, jerusalem artichokes
Brassicaceae (Brassica or Mustard Family) – arugula, bok choy, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, mustard, radish, rapini, rutabaga, tat soi, turnip
Fabaceae (Legume Family) peas, fava beans, soybeans, lentils
Lamiaceae (Mint Family) – mint, rosemary, sage, marjoram, oregano, thyme
Solanaceae (Nightshade Family) – potatoes
Whatever you decide to plant I suggest starting some of the plants from seed like lettuce, cilantro and radishes. Then choose one of each and allow it to bolt and go to seed. This a very valuable lesson about the cycle of a plant from seed-to-seed which can be easily accomplished within the school year.
How to Make a Keyhole Garden – African Style
Set in Lesotho, this video shows a group of schoolchildren making a keyhole garden. The charity Send a Cow showed them how to make it and the children can now make their own at home and have more food.
Twitter + School Gardens = #SchoolGardenChat
Twitter may not be as popular as Facebook, but for school gardens Twitter is an indispensable tool. With over 175 million users generating over 65 million tweets a day one cannot ignore the networking benefits that Twitter offers.
For the uninitiated, Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service enabling users to send and receive messages called tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters that are displayed on the user’s profile page.
Recently, real-time chat among twitter users has become a popular way for followers of a particular topic to meet, exchange ideas, and make new friends.
On Thursday Feb 10th, at 6:00PM PST
and every Thursday thereafter
School Garden Weekly (@SGWeekly) and
School Garden Guru Mud Baron (@Cocoxochitl)
will be hosting a 1-hour school garden chat on Twitter.
We invite each and every one of you to attend.
To access you will need to do the following:
1) Become a member of Twitter if you are not already. Membership is free. For support help, see Twitter basics.
2) At the specified time, enter #schoolgardenchat (with hashtag #) in the search window and voila, the conversation will unfold before you. If you’re not familiar with the use of hashtags see Twitter Support: What are Hashtags?
3) When posting remember to include #schoolgardenchat at the end of your post to insure it appears in the chat queue, otherwise we won’t see it.
What to Bring to the Party:
1) Tell us about your school garden.
2) What are your top 3 challenges?
3) Share your resources and knowledge.
Join the conversation. Join us for #schoolgardenchat
School Garden Lessons, Activities and Curricula
Jerusalem Artichoke
When I first started working in school gardens my initial focus was on getting kids to eat healthy. To that end I would plant as many varieties as possible knowing that young gardeners love anything they plant and nurture themselves.
As school gardens got more popular however, more and more teachers were asking how to incorporate school gardens into their everyday lesson plans. Learning to eat healthy was just one of many topics that needed to be covered. Peruse the websites below and you will find activities and lesson plans that also relate to art, science, math, and social studies. Also please note many are broken down by grade.
1) School garden lesson plans for grades K-4
2) School Garden Curricula Grades K-12 from National Environmental Education Foundation
3) 15 Lessons for 1, 2 and 3 graders (72 page pdf)
4) 15 Lessons for 4 and 5 graders (61 page pdf)
5) Curriculum ideas from California School Garden Network
6) Agriculture in the Classroom – Lesson Plans from USDA
7) School Garden Lesson Plans from Virginia Tech Horticulture Department
9) School garden activities arranged by season
10) Lesson Plans and Curricula – Garden ABCs
Ten School Garden Activities for September
Welcome back teachers and students.
September in a school garden is one of our busiest times. We need to get started quickly to insure a harvest before the long winter break.
For those without a school garden the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has written an extensive online manual, Setting up and Running a School Garden.
For those returning to an existing garden there is much to do. Preparing the beds for another season of seed sowing and transplanting is probably the hardest job physically we will have all year. Organizing a garden day with other parents, teachers, students and volunteers is something you may want to consider.
The following ten activities should be done (more or less) in order:
1) Discuss garden rules and tool safety. For those unfamiliar with garden rules these are the basics: a) No running in the garden; b) No walking in the beds; c) No running with tools; d) Do not carry or swing tools on your back; e) Do not bring hands tools over your shoulder; f) Walk with the tool by your side, blade down; g) Return all tools to their proper place immediately after use; h) Do not leave tools in the garden; i) Anyone not following these rules does not get to work in the garden.
2) Search for dried flower heads and seed pods in which to save seed (i.e. sunflowers, marigolds, lettuce, fennel, cilantro, beans, etc).
3) Clear beds of everything other than perennials (i.e. herbs and strawberries).
4) Collect all organic refuse and compost it. For more information on composting see The School Garden Resource page at the California Waste Management Board and the 8-page pdf, Guide to Home Composting from the Los Angeles Department of Public Works.
5) Add amendments (i.e. organic compost, aged manure) to existing soil, mix well and turn soil top to bottom and bottom to top. See video, How to Amend a Raised Bed.
6) Review the pdf, Vegetable Family Chart. At this time of year we will be planting cool-weather crops. There’s actually more to choose from now than there is in the spring.
7) Read seed packets for specific information regarding height and row spacing. (Taller plants go in the rear so as not to cast shadows on smaller plants.) See How to Read a Seed Packet.
8) Plan and design garden space.
9) Lay out rows. (Ideally, rows should be perpendicular to the arc of the sun.)
10) Sow seeds and/or transplant seedlings. Set up irrigation schedule.
How to Grow a School Garden: A Complete Guide for Parents and Teachers
Creating a school garden requires various skills of which gardening is merely one. Authors Arden Bucklin-Sporer and Rachel Kathleen Pringle of the recently published, How to Grow a School Garden: A Complete Guide for Parents and Teachers, understand this well.
These are the ten chapters covering such diverse topics as: design, budgeting, organizing, fundraising and curriculum:
1. Why School Gardens
2. Laying the Groundwork
3. Getting the Most From Your Site
4. Groundbreaking, Budgeting, and Fundraising
5. Developing your School Garden Program
6. A Healthy Outdoor Classroom
7. Tricks of the Trade
8. Planting, Harvesting and Cooking in the Garden
9. Year-Round Garden Lessons and Activities
10. A Decade in a School Garden: Alice Fong Yu Alternative School, San Francisco, CA
Extras include school garden kid-friendly recipes, example of state content standards and a comprehensive resource guide.
Bottom line – How to Grow a School Garden is one of the best how-to books about school gardening ever published. Add it to your summer reading and get growing in the fall.
Click here to purchase your copy today.
