Welcome to our monthly E-Newsletter supporting a network of school garden advocates. We will keep you updated on the latest news and work being done across school gardens programs here in Newark, New Jersey and the best resources from across the country.   

Looking for a specific resource? Interested in having your own resources published? Reach out to us to discuss more at pevans@citybloom.org and we would be more than happy to help.

Families gathered at our Outdoor Learning Center to learn all about building a fire

safely as we battled the cold temperature. Once we learned about fire safety and

gathered materials around the garden, we made a fire and roasted

Banana S'mores for everyone to enjoy!

Register for our upcoming Second Saturday on February 11th here!

Second Saturday Family Adventures

In-Person

Saturday, February 11th @ 11:00am

Explore the science of Balance and Gravity through hands-on activities and children’s books. Have fun while learning to think like scientists!

RSVP HERE

Family Fun in the Kitchen

In-Person

Saturday, February 18th @ 11:00am

Join us for Chef Afi's Family Fun in the Kitchen! This month, we will be making yummy Sweet Potato Pancakes! Register below to reserve your spot to learn personally from Chef Afi. All ingredients are supplied and included in the registration price..

RVSP HERE

SoilCon

Virtual

Tuesday, February 14th - Wednesday, February 15th @ 8:00am

Washington State University's Soil Health Initiative with sponsorship from Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education will bring together soil experts from around the world to discuss soil health. 

RSVP Here

School Garden Fundraising Workshop

Virtual 

Wednesday, February 22nd @ 4:00 PM

We continue our series on creating and sustaining a school garden with this workshop that will focus on securing funding for your school garden programs. We will discuss helpful tips for writing grants and provide valuable resources for you to utilize in your grant writing.

Zoom info will be sent after registering

RSVP Here

Honoring Native American, Hawaiian, and Alaska Native Culture in Youth Gardens

Virtual

Wednesday, February 22nd  @ 7:00pm                            

By their nature, gardens embody diversity. Garden education is increasingly recognized as an interdisciplinary approach that integrates academic goals, health and wellness, place-based education, and community connections and relationships. However, discussion of culture is often missing in garden-based education. To validate and celebrate the interests and experiences of our students, we will delve deep into the significance of culture as it relates to food and gardens and also as it relates to the diverse populations with whom we work. Join KidsGardening as we explore ways to celebrate and center culture through garden-based learning.

RSVP Here

Shortly after the new year, we will be having a Seed Share for community members to pick up FREE packets of seeds for your gardens! Stay tuned for more details. 

Check out what the Seeds of Change Grantees have been up to the past year in 2022. Looking forward to another successful year for these Newark schools! 

FoodCorps lessons are for service members to use with their ongoing classes to meet the hands-on lessons requirement.

Sprout Scouts is a kids club for elementary students aimed at helping them learn what healthy food is through hand-on activities. This resource was developed in partnership with Life Lab.

The Heirloom Collard Project is working for the recognition and respect of collards as a key component of American food culture so their seeds and stories will never be forgotten. The Heirloom Collard Project is an expansive network of collard loving folks who are working to grow, eat, save and share collards. Our dream is for the diverse collection of collard varieties to inspire an infinite number of projects. We want to see these collards being grown for all sorts of research, culinary, creative and every other kind of thing you can imagine. Read more here! 

A genius in botany and agricultural experimentation, Dr. George Washington Carver discovered more than 100 uses for the sweet potato and other plants. His research on sweet potatoes and peanuts (and their ability to reintroduce nitrogen back into the ground) would prove life-changing for poor farmers whose cotton crop drained the soil of its nutrients. Learn more here as we honor him during Black History Month!

Every year, Jersey Fresh celebrates the Garden State's fruits and vegetables through the Jersey Tastes Harvest of the Month! For the month of February, we celebrate sweet potatoes! Click this link to check out the activity sheet for the month. This sheet includes videos, fun facts, recipes, and activities for all ages from Pre-K all the way through High School! 

What did the farmer say when he lost all his vegetables?

“Oh, they’ll turnip somewhere!”

Register your school garden to be a part of our Newark School Garden Support Network and see where other school gardens are located near you!

Interested in bringing your students to the Outdoor Learning Center at Greater Newark Conservancy to experience the joy of nature-based education? Fill out this Field Trip Interest Form! We offer a variety of field trip programs that will spark the interest of any youth. Whether they are learning about urban habitats, diving into the world of bugs and insects, or seeing how worms can break down our food into a valuable soil amendment, your students will leave our site with a host of knowledge! For more information reach out to soleary@citybloom.org.

Daryl and Patty, the founders of Sow Right Seeds, are long-time gardeners. They are passionate about making it easy to grow heirloom varieties in your garden. Healthy fresh vegetables, delicious herbs, and beautiful flowers picked straight from the garden are a joy that endures! Sow Right Seeds grew out of their desire to share that joy and help others grow better nutrition and a happier life.

We really appreciate and thank you for the wonderful seed donation for our Newark school gardens! The variety of cool and warm season crops will go straight to the hands of students to plant and eat soon! Check out Sow Right Seeds for your heirloom varieties!

Hudson Valley Seed Company is another great company to source your heirloom and open-pollinated garden seeds. They are committed to growing organically, sourcing locally and sustainably, and preserving crop diversity by selecting unique, rare, and hard-to-find varieties

They believe that a seed is more than meets the eye: it is a time capsule telling tales of the plants, crops, and people that came before us, and we work with a range of artists as diverse as our seeds to pass those stories down to present and future gardeners.

Thank you so much for your seed donations for our school gardens! Unique seeds like Yakteen (Palestinian Bottle Gourd), Mandurang Moon Tomato, and Cocozelle Zucchini will flourish in our schools very soon. Check out Hudson Valley Seed Company for more!

The work that we do would not be possible without the generosity of our donors. While we had to put some of our on-site programs temporarily on hold during the COVID-19 crisis, we are back to normal operations and ramping up a number of programs and activities at our Outdoor Learning Center, the Hawthorne Avenue Urban Farm, school partner gardens, as well as various virtual workshops.