Gardening

Get Growing this Earth Day!

Apr 15 2016 - 1:13pm

Kathleen Bolin

AOLC Blog Home Page

Earth Day 2016 is officially recognized on April 22, but we're celebrating with one solid month of growing workshops for all ages! Angelic Organics Learning Center is located on Angelic Organics farm – one of the largest and oldest biodynamic, community supported agriculture (CSA) farms in the country! We sit on 186 acres of majestic land, roughly 90 miles from Chicago, 75 miles from Milwaukee, 60 miles from Madison, 35 miles from Lake Geneva, 20 miles from Rockford and 10 miles from Beloit. All workshops occur at 1547 Rockton Rd., Caledonia, IL 61011. ...

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“Everything Good Grows in Englewood…..”

Aug 1 2014 - 1:22pm

….is the motto of the Eat to Live project, and certainly that is happening this summer!

We are grateful to the many neighbors, volunteers, and friends who have contributed hours spreading compost, planting, weeding and harvesting in the Eat to Live garden space at 70^th and Princeton.

We have shared hundreds of pounds of bounteous greens and roots with neighbors and volunteers, with families from nearby Harvard School, with seniors from the Vincennes Senior Center, and with guests of the Maria Shelter.

Regular summer volunteer hours take place on Tuesday mornings and Thursday afternoons. Come and join us! ...

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Community harvest dinner recap

Oct 14 2013 - 8:45am

By L. Anton Seals Jr., Project Coordinator, Chicago Urban Initiative

Project Coordinator, Urban Initiative

As the summer season came to a close, Eat2Live celebrated the new fall season with food, music and great dialogue at the 1st annual Community Harvest Dinner. With over 50 participants, and help from the University of Chicago’s community service center, the dinner was a great success. We pitched a tent and set the tables in the...

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Finding inspiration at Troy Gardens

Oct 11 2013 - 11:36am

This year in Rockford we expanded the farm operation at Blackhawk Courts Farm and Garden significantly, increasing both productivity and community activity. As the season winds down, we will soon enter a planning and visioning process with Blackhawk leadership to collectively envision the future of the farm.

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Prairie Independence Day

Jul 9 2013 - 8:26am

By Katie Townsend, Urban Farm Educator

7-4-13

Bound to celebrate the Fourth of July. The Patriotic Prayer Breakfast begins in thirty minutes. I dress with firecracker speed not to miss out on the doings. After the musical rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, speeches delivered and of course petition to the Maker there is the rest of the holiday. If snappy with my day off chores there will be time for viewing shimmering colors over the river. So why do I suddenly find myself pouring the last of my coffee into a travel mug, grabbing my backpack tossing in journal,...

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Growing community in the urban gardens

Jun 27 2013 - 1:03pm

By Spencer Ellsworth, Urban Farm Manager, Roots & Wings

One fine June Thursday in Rockford, a group of people met early in the morning to talk about squash.

“If we put them in the Northeast quadrant, they’ll be able to vine up the fence.”

“Plus, they’ll be farthest away from that fat groundhog.” The groundhog had already come around, looking for a feast, despite the fence’s bottom edge having been sunk a foot into the earth.

“Gotta dig the beds first, though.”

“Good thing we have help today!” This convention of strategic minds was the twice-weekly Blackhawk Courts Farm &...

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Enrichment with Yale Elementary Teachers and Students

Jun 24 2013 - 11:17am

By Martha Boyd, Program Director, Urban Initiative (Chicago)

This spring at Yale Elementary, Eat to Live provided enrichment activities in the classroom, after school program, and the Garden. Students related the Growth Cycle of plants with the parts we harvest and eat. They held red wrigglers from the food composting wormbin, and learned that worms have 5 hearts (don’t cut them in half)! They tasted self-sown lettuce and lambsquarters (wild spinach), and learned to prepare healthy recipes. By mid-June, students and Garden volunteers planted half the Garden with tomatillos, garlic, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, corn, summer squash, and cucumbers. Deborah...

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AOLC Intern Awarded Prestigious Social Justice Fellowship

Jun 3 2013 - 11:15am

Brian Shobe, a Duffy Intern from Beloit College who worked with us in our Rockford Roots & Wings youth gardens, was recently awarded a fellowship with the Emerson National Hunger Fellows Program. The Emerson Program supports a diversity of local and national approaches to eliminate hunger, poverty and social inequality, particularly racism. The fellowship is only offered to 20 people each year, making this quite a notable accomplishment! We had the pleasure of talking to Brian recently and hearing about the ways his experience with AOLC helped him to learn, grow, and connect.

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Earth Day in Englewood

May 7 2013 - 1:32pm

By Martha Boyd, Program Director, Urban Initiative (Chicago)

On Saturday April 27, Comcast Cares and Links Unlimited celebrated Earth Day with the Eat to Live crew in E2L's Community and Learning Garden in southeast Englewood. They cheerfully weeded out grass from garden beds, hauled many loads of compost, and collected the winter's trash and debris. Comcast employee Roberto singlehandedly moved about a ton of compost, while his co-worker Vernice posed next to her newly-fluffed beds. She plans to help the E2L Garden grow all season. The work day ended with a visit by the Fresh Moves Mobile Market, returning monthly for E2L's...