Amy Hooker, Garden Teacher, Albert Einstein Academy, San Diego

“Not having a farm shouldn’t stop one from growing his/her own vegetables. It can be done on your kitchen counter. Kids can grow alfalfa, sunflowers, and seed sprouts.”

“Not having acres and acres of land shouldn’t stop you from farming. Farming can be done in many other ways. I think that everybody can benefit from growing their own food at whatever scale they can grow their own food. Many of the students complain because they don’t have a yard at their house…they live in an apartment, they walk down the sidewalk into their house, there’s not enough sunlight to grow anything in their apartment, and what are they going to do?”

“So we do a lesson where we show students how to sprout alfalfa sprouts or sunflower seed sprouts just in an old produce container with the top flipped up and holes in it. They can set it on any windowsill in the house on a plate, and then they can cut and eat those sprouts. So, that’s the smallest scale, all you need is a window that gets sun and you can just scale it from there. No, I don’t think you need to have a giant farm, you can grow tomatoes in a pot on your patio and eat them. You’re not going to sustain yourself of course, but you can enjoy them.”