Balcony Container Garden; Envases de la huerta

Here's a sneak peak of what I'm going to be eating come January and February. In other words, here's a look at the beautiful container garden at my house. Hay un vistazo de voy a comer en enero y febrero-- o una mirada a mi envases de la huerta a mi casa!

Seedlings; plantitas

Berry plant; planta de fresa

Kidney beans; Porotos

Tierra

Menta

Kidney beans; Porotos

Ari disfrutando el ambiente

Front Balcony; Balcon en la frente

Coffee grounds for the earth.

A couple of weeks ago, I received seeds from Pro-Huerta, a project run by INTA (Instituto national de tecnologia agropecuaria). These seed packages were created in 1997 as a result of the Argentine economic crisis. Many people under the poverty line were unable to afford fresh fruits and vegetables. In response, INTA created paquetes de semillas which provided an Argentine household with 10 different edible plant varieties, such as lettuce, tomatoes, corn and basil.

Today, INTA continues to dispense the paquetes to members of their urban community gardens-- including me! Members start the plants at their home when they require the most tender, love and care. After a month or so, the plants are transplanted to the community garden where they have room to grow.

This project is incredibly relevant to today's economic climate in the US. Although access to fresh fruits and vegetables might seem universal in North America, it's not. Grocery stores and farmers' markets are in abundance in suburbs and gentrified urban neighborhoods, but low-income neighborhoods rarely

stock up on local and organic produce. Seed packages could be a great way to cheaply dispense organic food alternatives. Below I've outlined what a community organization can do with seed packages and information sessions, similar to what I've experienced with INTA.

Meeting #1: Seed distribution
- Take note of who is taking the seeds: what type of home environment does the person live in? How many people are in the family or household? Will they be planted directly into the ground or will containers be used?
- Make sure to outline HOW to organically grow the vegetables. What to use and what to avoid.
- Explain how to plant the seeds and if there are any differences between seed varieties.

Meeting #2: Seed update and photo sharing
- How are those plants doing?? Do some look like they need more water than others? Are they getting enough sunlight? Does your soil need to be added to with egg-shells, coffee grounds or organic fertilizer?

Meeting #3: Transplant time!
- Bring the plants in and transplant them into the garden where they will have space, soil and sunlight to grow!


...Traduccion va pronto!

Why a blog?

It's that time of year again: applying to graduate school!


Which means reassessing my life this past year (or the last 23 years, however you want to look at it) to see what I'm really made of and fit my life into 1-2 concise paragraphs. 


What I came up with looks like the hurricane remants of an undergraduate studies calendar: political science, urban planning, food, sustainability, communitarian theory, women's studies, international development. If my wit was more self-depricating then a "that's what you get with an Arts degree" joke would be inserted here. 


But its not.


In order to organize my thoughts and interests, I began to not-so-mindlessly search the World Wide Web for various sources of inspiration. What did I find? A lot of people with the same damn interests as me, which instead of being disconcerting, made me feel more energized to fight the good fight. There are people all over this here Internet writing about the food they love to eat and how it got to their plate in the first place. And its awesome. THUS, I decided to throw my hat into the ring and give it a go, but with my own spin on things. 


Food is more than just what's on our plates. It's in our photo albums, on our balconies and in our backyards (if we're lucky), in our parks, in our stores, in the daily paper, and usually in the forefront of our minds. It's impossible to ignore the role food plays in our lives.


Brainwashed in political theory, I believe our food choices are a reflection of our values, abilities, motivations, and common goods. Our communities, specifically urban communities, support and influence our ideas of food. For instance, community gardens are created in times of economic crisis and university farmers' markets are organized to satisfy student demand for local, organic food. 


What I hope to learn from this experience is how food, in the urban landscape, can be used to further cultivate positive community values, whether they be democratic, socialist, "green" or "Red." I want to look at how space influences the development of urban agriculture projects, as well as the transformation of home cooking. 


En español...


Es el tiempo de año otro vez: aplicando a programas de maestria! Es significa que yo revaloro mi vida esta año pasado (o los 23 años pasados, sin embargo lo quiere mirar) ver lo que estoy hecho de y adjusto mi vida en 1 a 2 párrafos conciso. 


Mi respuesta es como los restos de una huracán de estudios de