Once again, Kassadi and Drew Dunn have organized and hosted another fun and productive work day at our Community Learning Garden. So much work went into this day to make it the special event it was for all who attended.
A BIG THANK YOU to Kassadi and Drew and their family and everyone who came out to participate. Exciting progress!!-LeAnn Brown
PLANTING REPORT (from Kassadi)
🥒12 cucumber bushy pickler 6 yellow slicer 6 🍅14 tomato Russian yellow azoychka 3 Black Cherry 3 Sun gold 3 Illini gold 2 Muscovitch 3 🌶14 peppers 2 picnic pepper 1 red 1 orange 1 bell golden California wonder yellow 1 bell red Wisconsin lake 3 Anaheim 4 Shishito 3 poblano These are the starts purchased from Bowman Organic Farm, & they all got planted.
Rock Painting Project with local artist, Sherry Weston Thayne
https://www.facebook.com/sherbare32
Report and images provided by Lead Gardener, Kassadi Dunn:
(A)=Adult (c)=child (A)= 10 (c)= 11 Repeats from last event (A)= 4 (c)= 3 🌈(A) Harli Denney & (c) Sebastian Bowen & (c) Oliver Denney. Helped plant seeds & starts in victory garden, painted rocks& put their art in the garden, helped plant the raised beds, and helped clean up. Oliver made new friends & played in the sprinklers! 🌈(A) Ann & (A) Dave Boyack Helped plant seeds & starts in victory garden & bought water bottles for everyone. 🌈(A) Kathy Harris Helped plant seeds & starts in victory garden & offered great advice! 🌈(A) Elder Cook & (A) Elder Lindauer Helped plant seeds & starts in victory garden 🌈(A) Karalee & (A) Darren Dunn Donated shade covers for the day, painted rocks & put their art in the garden, helped plant the raised beds & helped clean up. 🌈(c) Violet Boyack, (c) Hazel Devenburg(c) Piper Lish & (c) Kaydence Dunn Came to paint rocks & put their art throughout the garden 🌈(A) Dakota Booth Helped set up, helped plant seeds & starts in victory garden, helped plant raised beds & helped clean up. 🌈(c) Orrin, (c) Isla & (c) Leo Linscomb Helped plant seeds in victory garden, painted rocks& put their art in the garden, & helped plant the raised beds. Made new friends & played in the sprinkler! 🌈(A) Brittney, (c) Frankie & (c) Eric Sorenson Brought watermelon to share with everyone, painted rocks& put their art in the garden & helped plant raised bed. Made new friends & played in the sprinkler!
excerpt from EWG.org, November 2, 2022: Leaked corporate documents have exposed Syngenta’s attempts to cover up paraquat’s, a popular weedkiller, links to Parkinson’s disease.
Ground-breaking investigative reporting from the New Lede and the Guardian has exposed hundreds of pages of Syngenta’s internal documents. These documents prove the chemical giant has known since the 1970s that paraquat could accumulate in the brain. But they hid that information from regulators – they lied repeatedly, claiming it could not cross the blood-brain barrier. Even Syngenta’s own research showed the weedkiller could harm the brain.
Paraquat remains one of the most widely used pesticides in the U.S., even though it’s been banned in China, the EU and the UK.
excerpt from EWG.org, August 1, 2022: Mars, the company that makes Skittles, is facing a lawsuit alleging its use of titanium dioxide makes its product “unfit for human consumption.”
But Skittles is just the tip of the iceberg. An EWG analysis has found titanium dioxide in over 3,000 products, including Sour Patch Kids, Starburst, Hostess Cupcakes and Jell-O.
Multiple alarming studies have found that titanium dioxide can break DNA strands and cause chromosomal damage! Because of these health concerns, the EU decided to BAN titanium dioxide as a food additive earlier this year. Meanwhile, in the U.S., titanium dioxide in food remains completely legal! The FDA hasn’t even reviewed new science on the chemical since 1966. Ridiculous!
The primary mission of our Children’s Learning Garden Project:
Growing clean, healthy food and connecting to nature and each other.
As we build our garden together, please remember there are no pesticides or herbicides or other chemicals allowed. Please be mindful of this if you are donating items yourself or you are helping us obtain sponsors/donations:
🌱Only organic (pesticide and herbicide free) materials may be brought into the garden. This includes any materials brought in for composting or mulching.
🌱All seeds and plants…all trees (including non-edible) must be organically derived and grown. No use of chemicals. No GMO seeds or plants.
🌱All donations of lumber and other materials (plastic liners, etc.) must be checked to ensure they are chemical/toxin free and will not leech into the soil.
🌱In addition, we will not accept sponsorship monies from any chemical company or their affiliates.
🌱Please also help us monitor any foods brought in for the children for events or gatherings: An important part of the garden project is to introduce children to healthy eating – making it fun to eat healthy foodstuffs whether fresh from the garden or “treats” made with clean, unprocessed ingredients (see links to recipes below.) Please help us monitor this –
As the project progresses and we begin to host events and gatherings, please send all proposals for food vendors and the like to LeAnn Brown.
🌞🌻 THANK YOU so much for helping us monitor these most important aspects of growing healthy, organic food and teaching the children that healthy eating can be delicious and fun, too! 😊 LeAnn Brown, Project Initiator/Committee Chair
If you are interested in more yummy recipes for kids (and adults!) – please use the [contact form] to let me know. I have many recipes, recommendations and research I’ve been compiling for the last several years that I am happy to share. 🙂 LeAnn
Recent News and Resources
April 2023: Tests found alarmingly high levels of chlormequat in 12 oat based products including Quaker Oats and Cheerios. See full list and article: EWG Investigation
excerpt from EWG.org, August 1, 2022: Mars, the company that makes Skittles, is facing a lawsuit alleging its use of titanium dioxide makes its product “unfit for human consumption.”
But Skittles is just the tip of the iceberg. An EWG analysis has found titanium dioxide in over 3,000 products, including Sour Patch Kids, Starburst, Hostess Cupcakes and Jell-O.
Multiple alarming studies have found that titanium dioxide can break DNA strands and cause chromosomal damage! Because of these health concerns, the EU decided to BAN titanium dioxide as a food additive earlier this year. Meanwhile, in the U.S., titanium dioxide in food remains completely legal! The FDA hasn’t even reviewed new science on the chemical since 1966. Ridiculous!
Our thanks to all the brave souls who ventured out on a very wet and chilly EARTH DAY to make a start in our Community/Children’s Learning Garden. Despite the weather, we accomplished a lot and we are so grateful to every person for their contribution.
We’ll be sharing a full report soon (scroll down for update)…we just wanted to express our thanks to everyone for your enthusiasm, your donations, and your hard work today!
We did it!
EARTH DAY 2022 – OUR FIRST WORK DAY AT OUR NEW COMMUNITY/CHILDREN’S LEARNING GARDEN!
I want to make mention of our lead gardeners, Kassadi Dunn and Drew Dunn, who led the charge and made this first work day happen, prepping and bringing materials to the site days before. They worked tirelessly on-site all day long and on top of all the physical labor, were taking time to engage and encourage all the children who came out. Despite being wet and cold, the kids were motivated and interested in learning – – I can’t wait to see how well we all do in a little warmer weather!
I also want to mention and thank Dakota Booth and Darren Dunn who were on-site first thing and worked all day building the raised bed boxes and helping throughout the day in other areas, as well.
Scott Hoskins was on-site first thing and when he noticed the guys building the boxes in the rain, came back with his pop-up canopy for them, then worked all day doing the hardest jobs: digging holes and planting trees, among other things.
Sherri and Bill Bordeaux were on-site first thing and Sherri came back soon after with food for everyone.
Many came throughout the day and we were able to get the names of most of you which I will share here soon. (update: scroll down for report by Kassadi Dunn.)
If you participated and are reading this post, please make a comment below and give the names of all those in your group so we can make sure to record everyone in our Memories Book we are creating for our garden. We also want to make sure we can keep in touch with all who are interested in participating in the future, so we’d love to have your contact info so we can send you messages and updates.
Thank you again to everyone who came out and for all who have shown your support in so many other ways! – Visit our “GRATITUDE GARDEN” where we showcase all sponsors and donations given.
I’m so grateful to all of you for making this garden a reality! LeAnn B. (project initiator and committee chair)
Earth Day @ McCammon
(April 23, 2022 – Report by Lead Gardener, Kassadi Dunn):
(A) = Adult – 16 adults attended
(c) = child – 11 children attended
Lead Gardeners/Event Organizers: Kassadi Dunn and Drew Dunn
Project Initiator/Committee Chair: LeAnn Brown
Dakota Booth (A)
Helped set everything up. Brought tools & built the raised beds. Helped plant trees & fill the raised beds & helped clean up.
Darren Dunn (A)
Helped set everything up. Brought tools & built the raised beds. Helped fill the raised beds& clean up.
Scott Hoskins (A)
Stayed the entire time, brought tools, set up his easy-up so we had a dry spot to work, dug half of the tree rings himself, helped plant all of the trees, helped fill garden beds & was great company.
Savanah (c) and Dave (A) Boyack
Showed up first thing to pick up trash & rocks & sticks, left for other things & came back to fill the raised beds& chat.
Sherry (A)& Bill (A)Bordeaux
Picked up rocks and garbage. Were very thoughtful & generous, supplied the whole crew with lunch & drinks
Jiraiya (c)
Strong young boy who picked up rocks, sticks & garbage, was eager to help, had a very encouraging attitude that kept us motivated.
Tori Bowen (A) & Sebastian Bowen (c). Dug tree rings, helped plant the goose berry & blackberry. Donated $100, wildflowers seeds, and a beautiful blackberry bush, entertained us with fun conversation
Began the rock garden mandala bed and the kids made a very smart design decision to incorporate another path to accommodate the irrigation
Paula Rowe (A)
Came and entertained us with fun conversation and donated money on behalf of her mother MarLeen Keller $100
Hazel (c) & Mitzi (A) Carter
Continued work on the rock garden mandala, planted a black currant& two raspberries, dug tree rings & helped plant trees. Hazel was very motivated and kept wanting to help despite being very cold. She motivated us all to keep going.
Braxton (c) & Brynlee (c) Anderson
Continued work on the rock garden mandala, helped fill the raised beds & entertained us with nice conversation
Karlene Hall (A)
Helped fill the raised beds & entertained us with nice conversation
Frankie (c), Britney(A), Eric (c)& Ben (A)Sorenson
Very much wanted to help but had car troubles, they still made it in time to help us clean up at the end of the day
Dakota Booth (A)