Garden Fashion: Say yes to the t-shirt

Posted on January 20, 2016 by kidsingardens

I know what you’re thinking…cool season vegetables and microscope work and educational outcomes are all very well and good, but what are garden educators wearing this season?

It’s a slow news week in the garden, so let’s take a peek into my garden-forward wardrobe:

This tee represents the genre of conference souvenir. You’ll remember I loved my time at the Edible Schoolyard, so I love remembering it with this rooster.

Related to the conference shirt is the “organizations I support” look.

Ripped from Friday Night Lights, this tee makes people think I am a football fan. Which I am not. But I loved that show, and I love this sentiment.

Found on an internet search for gardening shirts. I couldn’t resist adding one more take on the “keep calm” craze.

Is there a day when we don’t need to remember this? A gift from a friend purchased at Sherry Horton’s gorgeous Julian shop, E. Barrett General Store.

My husband went to Peru and brought back a t-shirt with a drawing of a stuffed pepper, a local delicacy apparently. True love.

Purchased on the clearance table at the Monticello gift shop. I guess I’m one of the few that couldn’t resist a drawing of an eggplant— the most beautiful plant, according to Jefferson.

Another trip tee—this one from the Washington Mall during cherry blossom season.

Local food t-shirts work well in the garden.

Let’s not forget the event t-shirt—my go-to baseball-style shirt for our annual Food Day celebrations.

Naturally, I have a couple school spirit numbers:

And I’ve saved my favorite for last: a Tracey Allen original. This is “Choose Kindness.” See her lovely designs here!

In closing, I should mention that any of the above shirts can be paired with jeans and tennis shoes. Or a funky skirt and sandals. Hats optional, minimal accessories. The options are endless in the world of garden fashion!

Destination farm stand

Posted on October 23, 2012 by kidsingardens

Last week Kids with Cameras took a field trip to a farm stand run by a Julian family dedicated to sourcing food as locally as possible. First our guest instructor, Bill Bevill, worked with the students on sharp focus and filling the frame, and then we drove five minutes down the road to Wynola Flats Produce. Stacey Peyakov was a wonderful host, allowing kids to roam through the store as well as the orchard, snapping away. The indoor/outdoor space allowed for experimenting with lighting, and the produce gave us a chance to capture colors, textures, and patterns. One of the goals of both the KWC program and the garden is to develop in kids a “sense of place”—what makes living in Julian unique and wonderful? To do that you have to get out and look around, and what better way to do that than with a camera in hand?

Photo courtesy of Jeff Holt

Scary statistics/hopeful trends

Posted on May 19, 2012 by kidsingardens

At our backcountry collaborative meeting this week, a guest speaker from the San Diego County Office of Education talked about the growing national obesity epidemic. Consider these frightening statistics she mentioned:

-A child born today in the U.S. is likely to have a shorter lifespan than his/her parents.

-40% of children in San Diego County are considered overweight or clincally obese.

-The Department of Defense has called the obesity epidemic an issue of national security because 75% of young people otherwise eligible for service in the armed forces cannot pass the fitness test.

The good news is that we are starting to see an increased emphasis on physical education, outdoor exposure, and healthy eating habits in school programs, community initiatives and funding opportunities. Similarly, increasing attention is also being placed on connecting school children to local, fresh food, often through school garden programs. One thing I hope to do more with kids at our school is to help them understand where and how food is grown in our community, starting with our neighborhood farms and reaching out into the county.

Yesterday I led an after school field trip for the GATE students to Volcan View Farms where we were given a tour by local farmer and early-friend-to-our-school-garden, Ryan Wannamaker.

Ryan showing how he “grows” soil—the rye grass and bell beens grown in this field as a cover crop and plowed under six weeks ago now make for rich and rejuvenated soil for this year’s plantings (Photo courtesy of Marisa McFedries)