Elianna is our current amazing Social Media intern! She has been doing awesome work keeping Foxberrye’s Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn up to date and creating some beautiful artwork for the page. Here is an example of Elianna’s art:
Hummingbirds in a nest by Elianna Chen
We are so happy to have Elianna as part of the team as she studies Early Education and Family Studies at the University of Washington. She originally hails from Taiwan and loves swimming, drawing, listening to music, and reading. An animal lover, she has an adorable pet dog named “Niny”. Elianna is a very passionate, authentic, and caring individual. Her personal motto is “It’s okay not to be fine”. Thanks for everything you do, Elianna!
For the past few months, we have had a Social Media Intern at Foxberry. She has been completing her Service learning requirements at UW by helping Foxberry Education with our online and social media presence! Elsa has been an amazing asset, and we want to thank her so much for her contributions!
A little about Elsa:
I grew up in Taipei, Taiwan, a beautiful island in East Asia, and currently study Education and Business at the University of Washington. I chose to intern at Foxberry Education because I love nature and I think it’s an amazing program that helps the younger generation understand more about our surroundings. I also really wanted to learn more about social media management. Back in high school, my friends and I started a Harvest Sustainability Program in which we owned a little organic garden on campus and used it to grow vegetables and sell them to our community for charity. In the future, I hope to incorporate education and business together in my career. I can’t wait to learn from this program and see the great things Foxberry Education brings to our community!
Well, it is now late October. Let’s be honest, those tomatoes on the vine out there are never going to ripen. Luckily, we have some suggestions for how to use them so they don’t go to waste!
Try these fun, family friendly activities this season and enjoy the memories for years to come. A few of them are also freeze-able, which makes them last all year! Give them a taste, invite friends over to help you eat them, or give them as a gift. Whatever you do, make sure to make good use of your green tomatoes this year with these 3 delicious recipes.
Saturday 1:00-2:30PM PST/ 4:00- 5:30 PM EST January 23, 2021
Instructor: Nicole Parish
Treat yourself to a fun, relaxing, self-care experience. Gift as a holiday or birthday present, or host your friends for a safe, socially distanced spa day at home! In this workshop, you will learn how to make four awesome projects for self care using 8 simple household ingredients. We will be making bath bombs, face masks, salt scrubs, and hair masks to use during or after the party!
All students will receive the Zoom recording of the workshop to watch at their convenience for two weeks after the workshop. Participants may choose to observe the virtual workshop and work later, but you may also work alongside Nicole during the demo.
Recipes and a tool list will be sent to participants who register through Sonoma Community Center.
Happy National Pollinator Week! I know what you’re thinking- Pollinator week is every week. Well, that’s true. But this week, we wanted to highlight the amazing creatures that pollinate our fruits and vegetables, and allow us to have healthy, delicious foods. In this post, you will find (at least) three different ways to help your local pollinators, and fun, hands-on pollinator friendly activities to do with your family around.
Food
When I talk to kids about pollinators, I like to ask them what they think pollinators need to live. Their needs are similar to ours! Food, water, and shelter. What do pollinators eat? Nectar, and often, pollen, from flowers. As the pollinators visit the flowers, some of the pollen rubs off on each flower they go to, which is the process we call pollination. This is how plants make their fruits and seeds. In order to attract more pollinators, you should provide a wide variety of food for them- not all pollinators like to eat the same things! Butterflies are attracted to red and orange flowers, and bees’ favorite colors are blue and white. Meanwhile, hummingbirds love trumpet-shaped flowers. In addition, you want to think about the time of year your blossoms are blooming. It is important for a good pollinator habitat to have something in bloom almost the whole year- from February to October when they are most active.
One thing to think about if you have a garden is letting some of your veggies “go to seed”. For instance, letting radishes flower creates a great food source for butterflies and is pretty to look at until you need to plant something else!
A fun activity to do with kids is making Pollinator Seed Bombs. This is a quick, simple, messy project that’s good for pre-K and elementary aged kids. Watch Foxberry’s video on how to make this project here:
Water
Like humans and other animals, pollinators need a water source! When thinking about water for pollinators, remember bees can’t really swim! When their wings get wet, they are unable to take off and fly again until they dry off. Therefore, you don’t want to keep a deep bowl out as a water source for bees. One thing you can do is put marbles or rocks in your bowl for the bees to land on and sip from. Using a shallow dish like a plant saucer works well. First, find some rocks from the garden, and arrange the rocks in the dish. Then fill the container with water just up to the level of the rocks. Place it somewhere in the shade so the water doesn’t evaporate too quickly.
Butterflies, on the other hand, prefer drinking from mud. This behavior is called “puddling”. Butterflies get the salt and nutrients they need from the minerals in the wet soil. You can help these colorful fluttering creatures by creating a butterfly puddle! Again, find a shallow dish, like an old pie pan or plant saucer, fill it about halfway with soil, and mix in water! Make sure your butterfly puddle stays wet all summer so butterflies can sip from it. Place the mud puddle somewhere visible, but where it won’t dry out too easily. If you want to, you can decorate it with pretty stones for the insects to land on or place rocks in a fun pattern in the mud. In the early spring, this is also a great project for mason bees, which require mud to make their nests.
Shelter
Creating a place where pollinators can live can be a bit more tricky. “Pollinator hotels” are generally used for nesting. Which materials you use for pollinator hotels depends on which pollinators you want to attract. Mason bees, for example, come out in early Spring, around March, and need tubes about ¼ inches wide and 3-6 inches deep. Leafcutter bees, however, come out in the summer and need tubes or holes only 8 millimeters wide! Other materials such as dried leaves and moss can also be used as nesting material and to add an interesting look to your design.
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