As with beauty, they say that weeds are in the eye of the beholder. What exactly is a weed? Botanically speaking, a weed is “a valueless plant growing wild, especially one that grows on cultivated ground to the exclusion or injury of the desired crop.” Basically, a weed is any plant that grows where it is undesired. Weeds take up space while competing with crops and other valuable plants for nutrients, water and light. While invasive and unwanted, these wild whims of nature can be tamed and made useful. 

By smothering weeds with cardboard and mulch, a process called sheet mulching, we have cleared large areas of earth to plant new crops at the school garden. Common types of weeds found in southern California are: Bermuda grass, Dandelions, Crabgrass, California Burclover, Mallow, Wild barley and Whitestem Filaree, to name a few among the many.

With many different types of weeds, come many methods of removal. A variety of weeding tools are available, such as the asparagus stick, also known as the weed knife; the garden fork, garden hoe, the cultivator. Simply pulling out weeds by hand can also do the trick. Whatever method of madness, these basic weeding tips will help get the job done: pull out weeds before they go to seed; pull out the root; wet the earth to loosen up the soil or weed after rain; start early and weed regularly. 

If it is true that everything in nature serves a purpose, are weeds all bad? While weeds can disturb the natural and native ecosystem of an environment, they do cool, aerate and stabilize vacant lots and roadsides, serving as “spontaneous urban vegetation,” according to Harvard horticulturist Peter Del Tredici.  Also, did you know that many weeds are edible? Most weeds are European migrants, which settlers brought over, and were commonly eaten back in Europe. Dandelions are typically grown and eaten in France as lettuce is grown and eaten in the United States. Dandelions, as with other edible “weeds” such as sorrel, wild mustard leaves, and vetch, may be eaten as a salad or sautéed with olive oil and salt (Eat Your Lawn). Dandelions are also used to make wine. In addition, some weeds can serve as soil health indicators. Vetch, for example, a particular bean, indicates that the soil needs more nitrogen (Eat Your Lawn).

Despite being an annoyance, it is difficult to deny the resiliency of weeds, and perhaps that lesson is their gift to the gardener. Perhaps the very act of weeding cultivates diligence and patience within the gardener, characteristics valuable in and beyond the garden.

Whitefly, it's your time to skeedaddle.

Whiteflies are what some may call a "pest". And they are! They love to nest in all the nooks and crannies of our beloved Kale. They're actually starting to nest in all of our brassicas! The cauliflower leaves have a silvery powder on them, the brocolli heads are spotted. It's not looking pretty. 

Whiteflies have this way of sucking the life out of your plant and they tend to gross the kids out when we're cooking. Bugs are definitely not in our recipes! In small doses, the whitefly isn't that detrimental to the plant but when they take over, they take over. 

The technical name for these pesky pests is Cabbage Whitefly, Aleyrodes Brassier. Pretty, no? These small white-winged insects live on the underside of leaves, and fly up in clouds when disturbed. Adult whiteflies are structurally similar in appearance to aphids, but are covered in mealy grey hairs and have white wings.

The young whitefly, known as 'scales', stay on the leaves. The flies themselves don't cause severe damage, but the sticky honeydew or sugary excretions they produce can disfigure the plants. This is not so much to do with the honeydew itself but the sooty or black molds which grow on the honeydew. The sooty molds will spoil flower buds, e.g. on Brussels sprouts, and will prevent leaves from photosynthesizing. We certainly don't want that, do we?

Don't fret, we're fighting this battle and doing it au natural (aka: the natural way!) Say goodbye to the fly! 

We've come up with a little solution and a riddle!

What do vampires and whiteflies have in common?

garlic.jpg

Yeah, you got it. Garlic!! They despise garlic. It's like the relationship Superman has with Kryptonite. When they get together, it's not a pretty sight. But sometimes, that's how it has to be. Do we want whiteflies to be enjoying our kale or do we want the kids at 24th Street Elementary enjoying it? Enough said, right? 

We've been testing our simple recipe out and are looking forward to the results. Beautiful, whitefly free kale! 

Try it yourself and see how it goes.  

Garlic Foliar Spray:

Ingredients

 1 head of garlic

1 bunch of green onions

Hot water 

Directions

Chop up garlic and green onions.

Steep in hot water.

Strain into a spray bottle.

Spritz your plants, don't forget the underside of the leaves!

Prepare to smell for the rest of the day.  

KALE! What is it good for? Absolutely everything!

In cooking class, the kids have been gathering around a blender to make their now famous Superfood Smoothie. Earlier this month, Chef Chris taught the 3rd graders how to write a recipe; a corollary to their science class curriculum on mixtures. Chef Chris had the students write down each ingredient and its amount and draw a picture of what should be done to it before entering the blender.

Superfood Smoothie
2 leaves kale
1 banana
1 tbsp ground flax seed
1 cup berries (in this case, blueberries)
1 cup rice or almond milk

Kale, we learned, is one of the best foods for you, with more nutrients per calorie than most other foods. Once we added all the ingredients, the kids took turns blending using our exciting environmentally friendly bike blender. This interactive blender is a favorite among the kids, who love using their own energy to blend their smoothies. Each student took a turn as the others cheered them on: “Go Jamie, go Jamie, GO JAMIE!”

After the blending was done, the kids were full of smoothie and questions! “Where can I get kale?” was a common one, so we talked about the leafy greens section of farmers markets and supermarkets. When another student pointed out that they didn’t sell kale where he shopped, we talked about how other kinds of leafy green vegetables like spinach or chard could be a healthy substitute. “I’m going to tell my mom to make this for me at home!” exclaimed one student, while another wrote “I <3 Kale” in her notebook. Even one student, who didn’t like the smoothie, was convinced after trying a piece of raw kale…and then another, and another. Suddenly a huge group of children gathered, asking to try the raw kale, and they loved it! Whether it’s in a smoothie, a salad, or baked into chips with our solar oven, the kids are loving the kale from our wintry garden, and it loves them.