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Zera'im: Jewish Community ZERA’IM: JEWISH COMMUNITY GARDENING RESOURCE MANUAL Retreat • Farm • Learn • Celebrate! Made Possible By We dedicate this manual to Jonah Adels, 1984-2013 An inspirational fellow traveler on planet Earth, beautiful person, amazing Jewish garden educator, staff and community member at Eden Village Camp. We miss you brother and carry on your work together. CONTENTS WELCOME TO THE GARDEN ACKNOWLEDGMENTS OUR INVTATION FOR HOW TO USE THIS MANUAL GARDEN BLESSING PART V: GARDEN SPOTLIGHTS PART I: INTRO TO JEWISH COMMUNITY GARDENING Early Childhood Gardens Learning Ladder What is Jewish Community Gardening? Beth El Owings Mills JCC PART II: ENVISIONING YOUR GARDEN Synagogue Gardens Netivot Shalom Setting Goals and Planning Harford Jewish Center Themes for Jewish gardening Fundraising and Budgeting Senior Centers Weinberg Village PART III: PRE-GARDEN PREPARATION Hillels Soil Health and Preparation Johns Hopkins Hillel Compost Seeds Special Needs Plants Needs to Grow Tools for you Garden ADDITIONAL RESOURCES PART IV: GARDEN SET-UP & MAINTENANCE What type of Garden? Garden Beds Watering and Irrigation Harvest Schedule Trellising Pest and Weed Control What to do with food from the garden? Shalom Aleichem WELCOME TO THE GARDEN! With great thanks to the Covenant Foundation, we offer this resource in Jewish community gardening based on three years of Pearlstone’s experiences creating and collaborating with eight unique gardens throughout the Baltimore Jewish Community. A two-year Signature Covenant Grant enabled us to create the Jewish Community Gardening Collective (JCGC), an innovative and dynamic network establishing grassroots Jewish community gardens and making the most out of them with experiential education. d Thank You To Our Local Baltimore Jewish Partners! Beth-El Congregation; Harford Jewish Center; Johns Hopkins University Hillel; Learning Ladder at Oheb Shalom Congregation; Needs to Grow; Netivot Shalom Congregation; Owings Mills JCC Early Childhood Center; Weinberg Village. Thanks to all the garden captains, volunteers, teachers, gardeners, administrators, and most of all participants—you bring these gardens to life! And you bring Judaism to life with hard work and dirty fingernails, outreach and engagement, excitement and celebration. May your gardens flourish for years to come. Infinite thanks to the talented staff of the Pearlstone Center: Morris Panitz, primary author, Jewish Community Gardener, Program Director; Levi Gershkowitz, editor and designer, Director of Media and Marketing, manifesting vision; Elisheva Stark, Jewish Community Gardener, educator, researcher, and manual contributor. May these seeds spread far and wide—cultivating crops and community, together. B’shalom, _ e Jakir Manela !!!!!!! Executive Director Be in touch! [email protected] 410-429-4400 2 OUR INVITATION The Goals Of This Manual Are Twofold FOR HOW TO USE THIS MANUAL This manual seeks to consolidate necessary resources and original insights that will benefit your institution’s process of starting its own 1 To document the successes, challenges, stories, and lessons Jewish community garden. Each section of the manual presents dif- learned from Pearlstone’s JCGC, highlighting the extraordinary ef- ferent facets of the process, following a basic layout made up of forts and contributions of innumerable individuals in the Collec- the following components: tive. As such, we’ve included many lesson plans, pictures, re- sources, reflections, and materials developed by Pearlstone staff and JCGC participants. Use them, improve them, and add to this ● Insights: Pearlstone’s original orientation to the topic with tips growing field! and best practices offered. All insights are composed of original writing. 2 To provide a useful and comprehensive manual for Jewish insti- ● Two types of resources are present in this manual: 1 Useful tutions interested in improving or starting a Jewish community gar- information for creating and maintaining a Jewish community den. As such, many of the sections in this manual deal with the garden—many of these resources include excerpts from and technical aspects of starting and maintaining a garden. There are links to other websites and are marked, “see here.” 2 Original countless resources available on this topic on the internet and books, which we’ve attempted to provide a sampling of in this resources developed by Pearlstone or JCGC gardens. These manual. Similarly, many Jewish, environmental resources that are may include lesson plans, fliers, or curricula and are marked of great benefit to community gardens already exist and are in- as “Resource #1” cluded in this manual. Please explore the links and resources ● SPOTLIGHTS Examples from JCGC gardens that pertain to we’ve compiled here for more information on each section. the topic or section All red text, underlined or other are live hyperlinks. 3 Here is a blessing for your garden and community as you begin the fulfilling endeavor of starting a Jewish community garden. Credit to Rabbi Michael Panitz, Morris Panitz and Teri Jedeikin. 63 MEET THE 64 Morris Panitz (Main Author), Program Director at Pearlstone Center, grew up in Norfolk, Virginia and attended the University of Maryland, College Park where he earned a double degree in Philosophy and Jewish studies. He participated in the Adamah Fellowship at the Isabella Freedman Retreat Center, and served as a farm apprentice at Ocean Air farms before joining the team at Pearlstone Center. Morris, an emerging leader in the field of Jewish environmental education, manages the Jewish Community Gardening Collective, helping local Jewish institutions create educational gardens. As Program Director at Pearlstone Center, he oversees a wide array of innovative educational programs, including farm-based field trips, conferences and retreats, immersive programs, and service learning. He enjoys playing the piano, a good game of chess, and the wonderful company of friends and family. Levi Gershkowitz (Editor and Graphic Design), Director or Marketing at Pearlstone Center, is a visual ethnographer, specializing in digital photography, marketing and design, with experience conducting research for US-based corporations and non-governmental organizations. Levi has been a part of projects for Amicus Therapeutics, Inc., Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Keene State College, Sviva Israel, State Farm, Friends of Nepal-New Jersey, In-Sight Photography, and Hebrew College. In addition to widespread research and photography, he has also worked internationally as an informal educator, centered on promoting multicultural dialogue and service-learning initiatives. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies from Keene State College, where he focused on the structural violence waged against indigenous populations and the role of social amnesia in the memory of the Holocaust. Elisheva Stark (Contributing Author), Community Garden Coordinator at Pearlstone Center, attended from Binghamton University and graduated with a degree in Environmental Studies. Her passion for environmental education came to life as a teacher’s assistant at the JCC of Rhode Island’s Early Childhood Center, leading her on to work as an outdoor environmental educator at the TEVA Learning Alliance. From there, Elisheva participated in the Integrated Sustainability Apprenticeship at Pearlstone Center, then transitioned into her current role and involvement with the JCGC. Elisheva now shares her love of gardening with the greater-Baltimore Jewish community, helping others to form a meaningful personal connection to the natural world through gardening and Jewish learning. 63 INTRODUCTION TO JEWISH COMMUNITY GARDENING What is Jewish Community Gardening? then you shall plant." [Translation by H. Freedman and Maurice Si- mon] Rabbi Yehudah ben Shimon began his discourse with the text, "After the Lord your God shall you walk" (Devarim 12:5). But is it possible -Leviticus Rabbah 25:3 for a person of flesh and blood to walk after the Holy One, blessed The Midrash above poses a striking question, “How can we ‘walk af- be He?! … But in truth the Holy One, blessed be He, from the very ter’ God as mortals residing on earth?” The answer: By imitating beginning of the creation of the world, was before all else occupied God’s ways. God ‘was before all else occupied with planting,’ so we with planting, as is proved by the text, "And first of all, the Eternal too, must plant. Through the simple and powerful act of placing God planted a Garden in Eden" (Bereshit 2:8), and so do you also, seeds in the ground, witnessing and participating in their cycles of when you enter into the land, occupy yourselves first with nothing growth, nurturing them and being nurtured by them, we take one else but planting; as it is written, "And when you come into the land, step closer to fulfilling our divine mandate to be holy. 2 Gardening, or lovingly tending to plants, is a universal act. ship forming. Reach out to your neighbor, your students, your family, Gardening teaches humility, gratitude, responsibility, and hard work. and dig deeply, for surely you will uncover hidden treasures. Gardening instills in us a sense of interconnectedness with the world and the call to be responsible stewards of this planet. Gardening re- minds us to pay attention to the seasons, to relish the dirt underneath our fingernails, and appreciate timely rain. Gardening offers us moments of deep introspection and quiet satisfaction And, gardening brings friends and strangers together over shared purpose and sweat. Gardening is also a distinctly Jewish act. The echoes of God’s com- mand to Adam (Gen. 2:15) “l’shomrah u’lovdah” (to guard/till and work/tend) resound through the generations as a call to remember that adam is inextricably linked to adamah. As Jews, we strive to cul- tivate an awareness and ultimately a practice that recognizes that “the land is God’s; [we are but] strangers and sojourners with God” (Leviticus 25:23). Through gardening, we learn to care for God’s planet, to recognize that Creation is a gift to be blessed and shared. Our tradition provides ritual, blessings, liturgy, holidays, and mitzvoth that connect us with the sacred rhythms of Creation and its Author.
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