Making a vertical garden

You can make a vertical garden out if pallets or a burlap sack.

Either will do fine, but the process is different.

Look for a pallet that was not treated with chemicals. Look for a pallet that has an "HT" printed on it somewhere. The "HT" means it was hear treated so it's safe to use for growing food.

Next, staple burlap or a geotextile to the bottom of the pallet.

Once all the corners are stapled,  lay it flat and fill it with soil.

Polaroids

Here is a sneak peek into my Halloween costume! My friend Mackenzie is letting me borrow it! I've never been happier :)

Big thanks to Alex Arnold Fotografie for the sweet Polaroids from last night!

Time?

This is someone's take on the reality of the international waste trade, or something like that.

Steelcase

This company provides a lot of the furniture and recycling bins on campus.

The Zero Waste Movement

We had David from SERC come talk to our class about the goal of zero waste from a staff perspective. Below are the notes:

Planting garlic

 I'm going to plant garlic and a potatoes at the Dover community garden today.

I'm also planting chard.

These are the seeds I saved from the spring crop at Dover.

Week 6 of the zero waste movement decal

Planning for Zero Waste: A Timeline

20 min Tasty kelp noodle dinner

I buy my kelp noodles at Berkeley Bowl, but I'm sure you can find them elsewhere.

They have an awesome firm texture, and are a light alternative to pasta.

I made a simple sauce in a food processor with ingredients I grew with my friends at the UC Berkeley SOGA student organic garden for our ESPM 117 urban garden ecosystems class.

The sauce is:

Spinach

Basil

Arugula

One tomatoe

Fresh garlic

Pink salt

Tamari

Nutritional yeast

Olive oil

I topped a bed of greens with noodles, then sauce, followed by fresh tomatoes from the Berkeley Farmers market.

I sprinkled a little pabrika and pepper on top as a final touch. :)

Yum!

Hella Harvested Broccoli

If you harvest your broccoli, more will keep growing!! Be patient!

It's ready to be harvested just before the flowers open and when they turn slightly lighter green.

Juan harvested hella broccoli...

And so did Chelsea...

And so did I, it was an awesome day at school!!!

Fresh new look for Chelsea

I cut my friend Chelsea's hair the other day :) she looks great with short hair!

How to save tomato seeds

If you're cooking a tomatoe and have extra seeds on the cutting board you can totally save them and plant them in the next available planting season!

First, put your tomatoe seeds in a tiny cup (I used a shot glass) full of water.

Sometimes giving it a carefully calculated rinse can help get out some of the tomatoe chunks.

Next, leave the seeds alone and set them aside for two days until a white film forms on the surface of the water.

This ferments the seeds enough to dissolve the "gooey" layer that encases the seed.

Carefully rinse the seeds several times and then pour out the seeds so they can dry. I poured mine into a tiny soy sauce dish. Anything will do, just make sure they can be scraped off easily once they are dry.

Set aside for a few days and then double check that they are fully dry before storing the seeds in an air right container.

I'm temporarily reusing a small sauce container until I find a sufficient glass jar.

The seeds will be ready for sewing in the next season!