Ginkgo Organic Gardens

10/28/2021

Climate change and human error shrivel Greek agriculture

A wake-up call to use water-conserving practices!

10/28/2021

City Grange Opening Plant And Garden Pop-Up In Edgewater's Historical Granville Pictures Storefront

Need more houseplants to get through a winter without garden time? Excited for a new pop-up shop in this corner space!

City Grange hopes the pop-up will generate enough support to open a permanent shop in the Granville Pictures location in Edgewater, which closed in 2017 after 90 years.

10/26/2021

I tried to prove that small family farms are the future. I couldn’t do it.

Holistic, community based agriculture is more sustainable and effective than individual farmers trying to do things on their own. At Ginkgo, we have already known this- rather than individual plots we all work the entire space together and have a more beautiful and healthy landscape in return!!

Farming is a profession. But the myth of the noble, independent grower keeps this nation from really acknowledging that—to the extreme detriment of small farmers.

10/26/2021

2013 fig tree burial

2013 fig tree burial

10/26/2021

When People Carved Turnips Instead of Pumpkins for Halloween

FRIGHTENING AND CANNOT BE UNSEEN ~~~
The story of Jack-o-lanterns

Revelers in the British Isles transformed the root vegetables into lanterns designed to ward off dark spirits

10/23/2021

Today’s harvest delivered!

Today’s harvest delivered!

10/11/2021

Saturday volunteers. We will be open for another month or so before we close for the season. Come join us! Saturdays 9:30-12:30

Saturday volunteers. We will be open for another month or so before we close for the season. Come join us! Saturdays 9:30-12:30

10/11/2021

Some of our harvest this weekend for Vital Bridges Food Pantry!

10/10/2021

Support this special place in our city- First Nations Garden is about returning the land to Native stewardship and restoring cultural practices that go along with the plants that are grown there #mutualaid #solidarity

10/07/2021

How To Make HOT Compost | Good Life Permaculture

This is an important technique!

Hot composting is a great way to process bulk organic matter and process (get rid of) any pathogens (bad bugs) and unwanted plants (w**ds). You can spend your whole life studying and practicing compost and still not know everything – it’s such a deep and intricate science. This brief article is ...

09/30/2021

Appalachian "Apple Hunter" Finds and Rescues 1200 Lost Varieties

We LOVE stories about heirloom apples!!

80-year-old man searches high and low for nearly extinct heirloom apple trees – many the last of their kind – and reintroduces them to the world The number of commercially available apple varieties in the United States plummeted from 14,000 in 1905 to a measly 100 in less than a […]

09/29/2021

‘There’s a red flag here’: how an ethanol plant is dangerously polluting a US village

Rural Nebraska town is learning the hard way that our country is being flooded with unsafe, pesticide-laden seed corn that is then “recycled” into a toxic, unuseable by-product. The large seed companies took advantage of this unsuspecting town and lots of folks and animals are getting sick!
Be careful where you buy your seeds!

Follow Pesticide Action Network North America for lots of great information!

Situation in Mead, Nebraska, where AltEn has been processing seed coated with fungicides and insecticides, is a warning sign, experts say

09/24/2021

Come volunteer with us! Saturdays 9:30-12:30. Harvest for the pantry starts at 9:45 and we have some w**ding and wood chips to spread afterwards.

Come volunteer with us! Saturdays 9:30-12:30. Harvest for the pantry starts at 9:45 and we have some w**ding and wood chips to spread afterwards.

09/24/2021

As the Climate Emergency Grows, Farmworkers Lack Protection from Deadly Heat

Excessive heat is getting worse with climate change and drought. Farmworkers need workplace protections!

Two new reports draw attention to the scant laws safeguarding farm workers’ health, including from worsening extreme heat.

09/23/2021

‘Revolutionary in a quiet way’: the rise of community gardens in the UK

Community gardens are “revolutionary in a quiet way” because we grow food for our neighbors, steward the land and bring folks together!

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/21/revolutionary-in-a-quiet-way-golden-hills-community-garden-in-bristol?

Royal Horticultural Society sets up first Community Awards as community gardens become more common

09/18/2021

Hey Chicago! We’re only open a few more Wednesday evenings for volunteering. 6pm start, last Wednesday for the season will be the 28th!

09/18/2021

Saturday @ the garden. We harvested veggies for the food pantry and planted lettuce, spinach and radish.

09/14/2021

Sugarcane plantations have caused untold suffering for hundreds of years, and were at the root of the enslavement of millions of Africans

09/13/2021

Growing food sovereignty on the shores of Lake Superior

Creating community gardens for food sovereignty also means restoring connections with thousand-year-old Indigenous traditions that nurture the land!

p.s. "Lamb’s quarters, which most people assume is just a w**d, is packed with vitamins and minerals."- we will help you taste this great plant aka Wild Spinach! It saved lives when folks had no food during the Great Depression.

On a small Wisconsin island, members of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and volunteers provide fresh food and restore ancestral connection through gardening.

09/13/2021

Maine's Somali Bantus Are Reenvisioning American Farming

Somali refugees in Maine are bringing back the idea of land trusts and community oriented agricultural space!!

The farmers of the Little Jubba agrarian commons are replanting what was once uprooted.

09/10/2021

Our scheduled group cancelled on us and we really need some extra hands!!

09/10/2021

09/10/2021

In the 1800s, This British Isle Was Covered in Groves of 12-Foot-Tall Kale

We would LOVE to grow this at Ginkgo!!

Until relatively recently, it was a common sight.

09/07/2021

Neonicotinoids Harm Bees at Far Below the Label Recommended Dose, Study Finds

These bee-killing pesticides are more dangerous than was thought, and can be found on plants purchased at large garden stores- watch where you buy!

Scientists conducted an experiment to see how the use of a common neonicotinoid on ornamental plants would impact the solitary alfalfa leafcutter bee (Megachile rotundata). The answer? Quite a lot. When the pesticide was applied at just 30 percent of the recommended dose, it still reduced the bee's....

09/01/2021

As the Climate Emergency Grows, Farmworkers Lack Protection from Deadly Heat

Industrial agriculture cannot continue on this warming planet. We must return to multi-crop agriculture that incorporates shade and trees to safeguard workers from the dangerous heat!!

Two new reports draw attention to the scant laws safeguarding farm workers’ health, including from worsening extreme heat.

08/31/2021

10 Backyard Flowers You Didn’t Know You Could Eat (And How You Can)

Classy and delicious!!

As the winter weather wanes and we patiently wait for our backyard blossoms to appear, we can look forward to more than just the aesthetic appeal of spring flowers – but also their unexpected uses in the kitchen.Throughout history, flowers have been both appreciated for their beauty and used for c...

08/28/2021

Hard work and low pay! This worker is highlighted as receiving pennies a pound for harvesting these lovely onions!! 😡

Marce shared this pic of the onion harvest in Avenal CA. It takes 4 buckets to fill the sack for which she's paid $2. Marce is a proud farm worker who shares “There does not exist a shameful job, shameful is not wanting to work”. #WeFeedYou

Marce compartió esta foto de la cosecha de cebollas en Avenal CA. Se necesitan 4 cubetas para llenar el s**o por el que ella pagó $ 2. Marce es una campesina orgullosa que comparte “No existe un trabajo vergonzoso, vergonzoso es no querer trabajar”. #SoyEsencial

08/28/2021

Our volunteers today killed it!! And killed lots of w**ds. THANK YOU for working so tirelessly in this heat. We really couldn’t have asked for more.

08/28/2021

So good to see this guy again!! Our favorite master gardener, the best story teller and a steering committee member. Thanks for all your help today, John Cahill

So good to see this guy again!! Our favorite master gardener, the best story teller and a steering committee member. Thanks for all your help today, John Cahill

08/28/2021

Chemical that makes chilli peppers spicy boosts solar panel cells

Ginkgo should start selling this “solar panel booster”

Solar cells treated with capsaicin, the compound that makes chilli peppers taste spicy, are more efficient at converting solar energy

08/24/2021

Wednesday night we’ll be at Veggie Bingo instead of the garden. Join us there! Check out our Events for tickets and more details

08/24/2021

Growing organic food and taking care of our land and water, are radical acts! For us at Ginkgo, these are the ways we contribute to healthy communities and safeguarding life on Earth!

Growing food is reconnection, caring for the land is part of balance. Being in community with our Mother is power.

Prayers into action ✊🏽❤️

08/20/2021

This Portage Park Block Has Become A Sanctuary For Rare Butterflies — Thanks To One Gardener’s Influence

Butterflies are precious!

Ruta Lietuvninkas has been hard at work creating the Berteau Butterfly Garden, which has received acclaim from her neighbors and passersby.

08/18/2021

‘Ten years ago this was science fiction’: the rise of w**dkilling robots

We seriously need one of these machines
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/14/w**dkilling-robots-farming-pesticide-use-sustainable?

The makers of robot w**ders say the machines can reduce pesticide use and be part of a more sustainable food system

08/17/2021

Pesticides Threaten the 'Foundations of the Web of Life,' New Soil Study Warns

How pesticides cause harm to the Earth!

By Jessica CorbettA study published Tuesday in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science bolsters alarm about the role that agricultural pesticides play in what scientists have dubbed the "bugpocalypse" and led authors to call for stricter regulations across the U.S.Researchers at the Universit...