Hello Spring! — Garden Kitchen Lab at Sunset, McCarren, Red Hook & St. John’s Media Labs

Special thanks to NYC Parks Five Borough and the Sustainability Division for assembling and delivering all our compost bins in record time!!! Beautiful work! 🙂 A huge thank you to all the beautiful people who are making this program possible!!! My total gratitude to all the NYC Parks Media Education Coordinators Beatrice Toscano at Sunset…

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April & May: Time to Plant & Reflect

During the last five weeks, the kids have been planting and seeing their seeds grow. We are growing carrots, beets, two different kinds of lettuces, cucumbers, Habanero peppers —these are part a seed exchange program with the Global Partner Junior group in Mexico City, Bok choy, onions, eggplants, chives, strawberries, chocolate mint, parsley, lemon thyme,…

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Growing Season Begins!

This week the students began planting using small seed trays and covering the cells with potting mix making sure to fill them to the top. Then made 1/4 inch deep dimple in each cell and placed two to three seeds into each cell. By using this method if all seeds in one cell start to…

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Spring 2015: Our New Garden at St. John’s!

We started our growing season this April First with the help of the New York Restoration Project. The NYRP focuses on building and restoring vacant lots, public parks, schools, sidewalks, and waterfronts in communities of need. The St. John’s Recreation Center had NYRP designing and building our new garden: Planters, trellises, and a compost bin.…

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Late Fall at St. John’s

Collard green, broccoli, beets, and tomatoes were some of the vegetables that the children have been using to prepare salads throughout this fall. As part of the Garden Kitchen Lab program, the kids also covered plant beds with oats and lentil seeds to protect the soil from extreme temperatures. Earth is the foundation of a…

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Garden Kitchen Lab Visits East New York Farm

Students visited the East New York Farm to learn more about planting, watering, weeding techniques, how to compost and beekeeping. The purpose of the visit was for the children to imagine what their garden could become one day. #StJohns #St.John’s

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Cucumber Mint Lemon Ice Cubes

The children had so much fun preparing this recipe! And it was so simple to make. We used 3/4 liter of water, 20 lemons, 1 1/4 large cucumber, a few mint leaves, 8 spoons of agave, and 9 ice trays. First, the children took the lemon seeds off and squeezed the juice in a plate;…

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Katie’s Krops Grant

Serenity was awarded the Katie’s Krops grant, and the Garden Kitchen Lab will be able to start building the garden! The goal of this program is to teach children how to farm, appreciate, and eat what they grow, and give part of the harvest to people in need. It is this experience that little by…

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Vegan Capresse Salad at St. John’s

Children use heirloom tomatoes, tofu, and St. John’s Recreation Center’s garden organic basil to prepare this healthy snack. They were introduced to some new concepts: Local food and food in season, as opposed to food that is processed Kitchen gardens in Brooklyn (and how soon we will start our own community-garden) Organic vegetables versus produced…

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