Ann Jensen

This presentation will about how small daily acts that can ripple and ultimately change not only your world but the world. Examples and artifacts will be pulled from my collaboration with Karen and Mark at the Hawthorne Avenue Farm, my work at Hawthorne Avenue School, and my daily life. Examples will include: teaching young people about gardening, enjoying fresh produce, the community building effect of listening to other's wisdom, sharing the bounty of the garden, inviting alienated community members back into the fold, reawakening the awe of the seed, community building through gifts from the garden, and helping others by making gardening physically accessible (for elderly, space, etc).

Five minutes will be spent in break out small group brainstorming activity. Speech will conclude with a small scandinavian wheat heart ornament made from wheat from the garden.

Amy Gage

You may have heard that native plants provide food for wildlife, but did you know there are over 100 native plants that humans can eat too? Learn how to grow and prepare some of these delicious plants in your own garden.

Malcolm McClain

Come and learn about the importance of keeping organic matter out of landfills. Master the tips and tricks of how to operate an at-home compost bin including: what can and can’t be composted, how to care for your compost bin, and how to use your completed compost to feed your garden.

Deb Ellis & Dena Corbin

When we garden, we can support insects, butterflies, and birds through the plants we choose! The presenters will give specific advice about the best native flowers and bushes to add to your garden; this workshop is perfect for a beginner or experienced gardener.

Karina Hemsani

Come learn about the world of sourdough bread making! You will learn how to make, use and maintain a sourdough starter. We will also discuss basic breadmaking science, most commonly used flours, and follow a beginner’s bread recipe. This workshop will save you research time and inspire you to make your very first sourdough bread at home!

Jacqueline Pilati

This workshop will help growers seed a community of change within their gardens by providing them with an overview of urban seedkeeping practices as well as the botany and horticulture skills applied in seed saving. Participants will explore the history of consolidation and control of seed, the importance of stewarding regionally and culturally significant seed, how to build and contribute to resilience and resistance movements in their community gardens, and how to determine if a seed source is reputable and responsible.

Claus Holzapfel

Why do we like to watch birds? There must be very many reasons, but one of my favorites is the uncertainty and therefore the potential for an unexpected discovery. Birds move around and can show up in unlikely places, one never knows exactly what you will see on a given outing. During migrations in the spring and fall even small urban green spaces will attract many bird species often in good numbers. Did you know that downtown Newark provides a stopover habitat to more than 150 species of migratory birds? Birds of cities are often interesting on their own right. They are the real survivors who manage to make a good living among us. Think of the ubiquitous House Sparrows, Starlings and Street Pigeons – you might not like them, call them unwanted non-natives, but you have to admire their tenacity. But there is more, like to true island, migratory birds are attracted to small green spots and once here, are relatively easy to locate. So, if you want to see an Ovenbird, a Northern Waterthrush, an American Woodcock, a Swamp Sparrow, a Merlin Falcon, just be in the morning in an urban green island. The workshop will illustrate how to find urban birds and what to look for. More importantly, the workshop will showcase the things we need and can do to make these avian guests feel welcome and to let them thrive. We want them to come back every year, right?

Cuir Kitchen Brigade

This workshop is a basic 101 on fermentation. It will discuss: what is fermentation, how to get started with fermentation, which vegetables to choose from, different types of salts you can use and what their difference is, how bacteria interact with your body, and why fermentation is good for you. We will also discuss how this practice can prepare us for the revolution and is an act of self-care.

Keith Williams

Hydroponics is the art of growing plants without soil. Learn how to build your own at-home hydroponics system out of a five-gallon bucket. You will learn how to keep the pH stable, how to start from seed or seedling, and be provided with a list of all the materials you will need to make your own!

Keven Porter

We will identify and discuss common kitchens herbs and other healing herbs growing wild in the city. Household Remedies for common ailments using these herbs will be discussed. Participants will learn simple methods of preparing herbal infusions and tea. We will also discuss tips to start growing your own herbs.

Dena Corbin is the founder of Natural Ground 1, a company called to support individuals looking to live a Natural/Whole Wellness Life Style, through company or personally designed workshops, individual or group consultations. Dena is a wife, mother, grandmother, retired Special Education Teacher and Best Selling Author of Change, Balance and Flow An Essential Oil Journey. Dena is an Essex County Master Gardener and member of the Steering Committee of the Native Plant Society of Essex County.

Lucecita Cruz is a Queer Anarchist Latinx farmer, organizer, and food justice advocate from the Puerto Rican Diaspora that lives in New York City. They are fighting to protect front line communities who are affected by food injustice and climate change. They have organized with inter-generational BIPOC Queer and Trans folks around gender, race, and food. They have helped agroecological movements in Puerto Rico, Mexico, and the United States. Luz organizes in a way that combines, art, food, and activism to better understand our current conditions and develop ways to help fix them. They believe in the liberation of Boriken and of all peoples from their oppressors.

Deb Ellis is a life-long social justice lawyer, activist, and teacher who concentrates now on environmental issues. Named a champion of change by President Obama in 2011, Deb has served in leadership positions in many nonprofit organizations.

Deb is the founder and co-leader of the Essex County chapter of the Native Plant Society of New Jersey, a Master Gardener, has served on the Montclair Environmental Commission, and has had a Certified Backyard Habitat through the National Wildlife Federation since 2005. Deb frequently teaches about gardening with native plants to a wide variety of civic and educational groups.

Amy Gage is an ecologist living in New York City where she cultivates edible roof- top gardens of her own design (Amy Gage LLC). By sourcing native plants adapted for cliffs and the seashore instead of traditional non-native green roof plantings, her gardens provides habitat for local wildlife and survive with minimal maintenance. She is currently a PhD candidate in Ecology and Evolution at Rutgers University.

Karina Hemsani studied Horticulture at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and later came to the US to be a gardening intern at Longwood Gardens, PA. She has been living in the US for 26 years and studied Art History at Hunter College of the City of New York. She currently works at a fine art print gallery in Manhattan.

She is an avid home cook and is especially interested in traditional foods of the Middle East, where grandparents were from.
Last year Karina started a personal blog on Instagram (@foodandroof) to document her favorite recipes and photographs of her roof garden in Brooklyn for her daughters. Having this blog has inspired her to delve deeper into cooking techniques by taking courses at the ICE Culinary and become captivated by baking.

I am an ecologist with an interest in bird ecology and biodiversity who is fascinated by the intriguing ways of how species interact with each other. After my education drifted me from Central Europe to the Middle East and the New World (and back), I joined the faculty of Rutgers Newark sixteen years ago and ever since I am leading our “Fusion Ecology Lab” every which way. A focus of our lab’s work is on the interaction of native and non-native species and on the formation of novel communities formed by the fusion of old and new. We are investigating and teaching about these fused communities and their potential value for biodiversity conservation in a wide range of systems ranging from true deserts to urban “deserts” (i.e., polluted, post-industrial brownfields and the like) to disturbed wetlands.

Ann Jansen is a native of Minnesota. She has lived and tried many things including falling out of windows, hiking in the jungle, and inventing new features and manufacturing components for diapers while working for Kimberly Clark Corporation. Ann has a wonderful husband, Greg, of seventeen years and two children, Grace a 9th grader and Evelyn an 8th grader. She has just recently completed a master's degree through the Newark Montclair Urban Teachers Residency and is now in her first year of full-time teaching as a Second Grade Teacher at Hawthorne Avenue School in Newark. Ann and her family have been frequent gardeners and volunteers at Hawthorne Avenue farm.

Malcolm McClain is the internship coordinator for the Newark Youth Leadership Project at Greater Newark Conservancy. As a college student, Malcolm interned at Greater Newark Conservancy, working to introduce Newark high school students to urban agriculture practices. In 2019, Malcolm completed his MA in Sociology from Lehigh University and has adapted his studies to promote an understanding of food systems among Newark youth.

Ollie Montes de Oca is a queer, gender-nonconforming, trans Person of color with a passion for dismantling hierarchies in political regimes. They started working with Cuir Kitchen Brigade in the wake of Hurricane Maria and most recently went down to Tijuana and worked with Food not Bombs. They have a growing desire to continue working with like-minded individuals/ groups to provide resources and sustenance to BIPOC and Queer/Trans communities. They primarily focus on thee distribution of food to frontline communities affected by climate change, racism and socio-economic issues as a form of community organizing, which in turn strengthens communities.

Ollie also utilizes illustration, tattooing and music as a platform to share their antifascist views, allocate resources and hopefully inspire others to share, collaborate and grow.

Jacqueline Pilati is a Professional Development Instructor at the New York Botanical Garden and Adjunct Instructor at Bank Street College of Education where she leads teacher institutes and courses in garden-based learning and elementary science investigations. She has taught in general and special education settings throughout NYC and Sonora, Mexico. During her tenure in the nonprofit space, she developed and led childhood and youth programming around urban ecology, scientific inquiry, food justice. In 2018, she founded Reclaim Seed NYC, a grassroots organization reconnecting people to their foodways through history, education, and seed. The project stewards community-sustained seed for the commons, while educating and organizing for seed and food sovereignty movements.

Keven Porter is a yoga instructor, massage therapist, and an urban farmer. Keven was born and still lives in Newark where he and his wife stared Rabbit Hole Farm Newark in 2013 after being inspired by a talk given by the Conservancy. He serves as director of Rabbit Hole Farm in Newark located at 36-38 Rose Terrace. For the past three years, Keven has been learning the healing powers of plants. Last year he was invited to join a few local farmers' markets.

Keith is the Conservancy’s resident horticulturist. Keith has been working with the Conservancy for 11 years with no plans to stop. Through a combination of classes and learning on his own, Keith has gathered the knowledge to establish and maintain our beehives, chicken coop, hydroponic greenhouse, and Outdoor Learning Center. He is always very enthusiastic about sharing his knowledge about gardening, which adds to his success in supervising corporate volunteers, summer interns, and the landscaping crew during the winter.