13. April 2012 by admin.

Dear Homegrown Friends,

I started writing a blog for Writeindependent.org in September, 2011.  Here is the story of the beginning…

One day, I went to a dry cleaner to drop off a pair of pants. It was an ecologically friendly dry cleaner, supposedly. Turns out, it was anything but friendly.

The owner of the shop asked what I was reading because I was holding a book.

“The Organic Manifesto,” I told him. “It’s written by Maria Rodale, who believes that carbon emissions can be cleaned up if we just switch our farming practices to organic.”

The next thing the owner of the dry cleaning shop said stopped me dead in my tracks.

“It’s too late,” he said.

He wanted to continue, but I didn’t have the time to stay and find out what made him say such a horrible thing. In fact, if he had already given up, it didn’t matter what he had to say next.

Part of me wanted to cry, and the other part of me wanted to go home and eat worms. If it was already too late, why do anything about anything? Why even try?

It was then that I decided I had to do something. If I just sat at home and let the world play out its unintended but usual course of events, then I deserved what I got. But if I stood up for what I believed in and used my voice, which is all any of us really have anyway, why then, I could maybe make a difference.

And what, exactly, do I believe?

I believe that even though people are a mixture of good decisions and bad impulses, of logic and reason and feelings, that deep down at our core, if each of us were asked “Would you save the world if the choice were yours to make?” that each of us would answer “yes.” Because if you say no, you’re as good as dead.

I also believe that the United States is full of basically good and decent people, who are creative, spirited, and love their country.

I have traveled all over the world, and I have always been happy to come home. Though I enjoy traveling, learning about other cultures, and I appreciate people with other insights and styles, I still love coming home to the great United States. I have been proud to be an American, and want to regenerate that feeling by improving our lot.

Every generation generally wants the same thing for their kids: they want to leave the world a better place than how they found it. For the first time in history, we can be very afraid that it will definitely NOT be better or we can strive to MAKE it better. And I believe that we still want our children to inherit a better planet.

So how do we do this thing? For more information, keep coming back here.

Posted in Writeindependent.org | No Comments »

1. February 2012 by admin.

You know how life began in a garden, according to popular sources? So too does democracy begin in a garden.

Judy’s Homegrown is now Writeindependent.org. Why would a Master Gardener focus on politics? Because without a way to legislate protection of our water, air, and soil, we are lost to the interests of the few who think this planet is their resource to use and abuse as they see fit.

Is democracy in this country dead? Has it gone the way of Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny? Have Americans become so jaded that they don’t want to vote because “it won’t make a difference anyway, the system is too convoluted”?

I’m here to say: it’s not too late, guys! Use your voice, use your vote, to protest the government’s policies by voting in people who have our best interests at heart, not special interests in their pockets.

Visit my new website: writeindependent.org and see how powerful our country is when ordinary people take a stand.

We can make a difference, one congressional member at a time. Stop the complicity and start acting like you own the government, and that they work for you. GET OUT AND VOTE!

P.S. Writeindependent.org is a non-profit nonpartisan website that

1. Offers regular people a simple way to run for federal office

2. Gives constituents like you a forum to post solutions or make complaints to the people who run our country.

3. It is a gift of democracy on the internet. If you want to learn who’s running in your district that isn’t supported by special interests, visit now and then refer writeindependent.org to everyone you know.

4. This needs to go viral, people! Let’s work together to save our economy and our ecology.

Posted in Everyday life | No Comments »

29. July 2011 by admin.

Finally! I get to explain “organic” so that it can be understood! Visit these links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG-hs5LnfIg

and others (see my Videos links, below, on your right).

Posted in Gardening classes and opportunities to learn | No Comments »

13. May 2011 by admin.

Mark your calendar! Saturday, May 21 at 2:00 pm, I am hosting another tomato workshop. Please inquire at judyfrankel@gmail.com to reserve a space.

Posted in Gardening classes and opportunities to learn, Vegetables and Fruit, Uncategorized | No Comments »

12. May 2011 by admin.

Peggy Curry, my friend and founder of Growing Great, is hosting a Healthy Living Festival this Sunday, May 15th at 12pm-4pm at the Metlox and 13th Street Plaza in Manhattan Beach, CA 90266

This is their 5^th year hosting the Festival, and I will be there along with Deep Roots’ owner Jon Bell to “edutain” children and adults about gardening the organic way, how to grow your own fruits and vegetables.

We have fun activities for the kids so they can get down and dirty. Come join us! See this link for more information: http://growinggreat.org/about-us/healthy-living-festival/

Posted in Gardening classes and opportunities to learn, Everyday life, Vegetables and Fruit | 1 Comment »

24. April 2011 by admin.

Sometimes, we just go for it, and sometimes good things happen. If the ideas in the letter I wrote to the Annenberg Foundation resonate with people here in Palos Verdes, it was meant to be. I’ve included the text here, so that people who find my blog through reading my Letter to the Editor in Palos Verdes Peninsula News can find out more.

Dear Ms. Annenberg:

I live in Rancho Palos Verdes and I am delighted that you want to bring a project to our beautiful coastline. I understand that some of our citizens are not completely on board with the construction, and I want to address that problem here.

Over a year ago, a few concerned parents began a Sustainability Task Force for the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District (PVPUSD). One of their missions was to begin some ambitious school gardens. They contacted me, a Master Gardener with a small organic farm of my own, asking me to spearhead two small orchards and a garden program at Cornerstone Elementary. Their ultimate goal was to grow enough food at 19 school sites to supply the lunch program with locally grown produce.

As you know, there is a strong movement in this country toward supporting locally produced food that is grown in a sustainable way. But I quickly pointed out that the most efficient way to grow food of the quantity desired was through farming one large contiguous plot.

This is where the Annenberg Foundation could help build bridges with the community of Rancho Palos Verdes. A portion of the Pointe Vicente area (8 ½ acres) used to be farmland, enough to eventually provide PVPUSD with fresh food for school lunches. In addition, it would be a natural location for educating the students where their vegetables come from, how it can be grown in an ecologically friendly way, and how they can become better stewards of the planet.

If you added not just a “garden” but a permaculture-based edible landscape to your plan, you would win the favor of many households in Rancho Palos Verdes while achieving your goals of sustainability and innovation. The farm at Lower Point Vicente could become an exemplary destination for people studying agriculture, much like the Findhorn Garden in Scotland, or Esalen’s garden in Big Sur. With the zeitgeist of the culture looking strongly at our food sources today, and with people concerned about our food security for the future, there is no better time to create an Eden than now.

I would be honored to help you create a project that dovetails into your original plans, so that the community can easily see how your dreams aid the welfare of their children and improve the health of everyone concerned. Teresa Mee, Director of Food Services and the woman in charge of procuring food for PVPUSD’s lunches has asked me to supply as much produce as I can. If I had a larger farm, a small staff of helpers, and a nursery, I could grow enough for the school district. With your vision, it would be the Annenberg Foundation giving children the education necessary to carry on a tradition of making a significant, lasting, tangible contribution to their community by growing their own food.

Please contact me at your convenience. I will be a wealth of information and could put together a business plan for the first five years of operation, or just brainstorm ideas on how to make Lower Point Vicente a truly unique, evolving educational center. For more information about me, you can visit my website and my blog at judyshomegrown.com.

Sincerely,

Judy Frankel

cc: Leonard Aube

Posted in Everyday life, Vegetables and Fruit | 1 Comment »

24. April 2011 by admin.

To Mark and Kozue: Thank you for finding me on the internet, and for helping me in the garden! You are people who understand the interconnectedness of everything, and who want to make the world a better place.

Congratulations on your new job in Japan, Mark. I hope that it is everything you wanted. I only wish you could have found a job here that you liked as well, so that you could stay local and do good works around here. Of course, Japan might need you more, only time will tell.

Posted in Everyday life | 1 Comment »

20. March 2011 by admin.

Mark your calendar: Saturday, April 30 at 2 pm at my “farmette”. Please RSVP to: 310-750-6686 and receive address/directions. $5.00 per person admission.

Learn about:

indeterminate vs determinate
How to plant a “start”
How to remove suckers
How to tie/stake/cage tomatoes
How to store tomatoes after harvesting
How to combat snails, green worms
How to stretch out the tomato season

I will be selling the following tomato plant varieties at the workshop for $5 each: (to learn more about each variety, click here: http://www.judyshomegrown.com/2.html)

Black Plum
Chocolate Stripes
Berkeley Tie Dye Heart
Marianna’s Peace
Tri -L-Crop
Peacevine Cherry
Super Snow White
Black Zebra
Chocolate Cherry
Eva Purple Ball
Paul Robeson
Arkansas Traveler
Brandywine OTV
Clint Eastwood Rowdy Red
Sungold Cherry
Brandywine Yellow
Beam’s Yellow Pear
Isis Candy Cherry
Japanese Black Trifele
Box Car Willie
Amy’s Sugar Gem
Sunset Red Horizon

Persimmon

Sugar Sweetie Cherry

Mexico Midget

Carmello

San Marzano 2 Plum

Purple Cherokee

Jelly Bean Grape

Milano Plum

Posted in Gardening classes and opportunities to learn, Vegetables and Fruit | 1 Comment »

17. March 2011 by admin.

Posted in Everyday life, Vegetables and Fruit, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

14. January 2011 by admin.

Winter is the time to prune, revamp the beds, plant trees, strawberries, and berry brambles. Here I am helping out in Carola’s School Garden at Lincoln Elementary in Long Beach, California. Carola is a Master Gardener and a wonderful friend.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »