Home Grown Fun™ began in 2010 in Southern California with a goal of inspiring families to enjoy nature. Our little family of four spent a lot of time camping in the desert, rock hounding, fossil hunting, gardening, and learning – as a way of life.
I pitched a “composting fair” to or elementary school principal and when he gladly approved, it was the start of many volunteer efforts at schools in California and Texas.
At the first event, I constructed a replica of a landfill, and set up our compost tumbler, compost piles, red wiggler bins, and a massive demonstration showing all the things we can compost attached to a long chain link fence. Students rotated through stations and took part in activities. It was a huge hit!
You can see our early video on YouTube. It was the only time I asked for press releases for the kids so I could post the video online. There was no race to be the next social media sensation back then and I made sure to focus on the students rather than online followers.
At the largest farmers market in Southern California, I caused an uproar when I set up a booth to sell Garden Gifts and Kits. I demonstrated homemade gourmet potato growing kits using burlap coffee sacks. My husband thought I was crazy when the truck dropped off a full pallet of sacks on the driveway. Back then, coffee sacks were relatively cheap. Every kit contained a coffee sack along with three types of gourmet potatoes. People returned to show me how well everything grew!
I also made homemade seed papers (before they were in garden catalogs) and seed collections packaged in tubes, cute tins, and eye catching totes. One seed paper kit came in a barn-shaped box and all you had to do was lay it out flat for veggies and herbs in a 4′ x 4′ garden
It’s clear now I was ahead of my time.
The farmers soon stopped challenging whether I belonged at the market and we started to “click”. I traded the torn jute sacks for local honey. The bee farmer smoked the fabric to calm his “killer bees”.
Over the years we would go on to build awe-inspiring gardens at two other elementary schools in Camarillo, California, and Weatherford, Texas.
I say “we” because the students did most of it, inspired to learn while creating! I was so focused on the kids that I did not want to spend time taking pictures. It was important to me not to give the impression I wanted to promote myself.
No one knew at the schools that I had a website! I spent hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars at the schools with most of my own funds and some donations outside of school.
I have many stories about changing people’s lives.
I once provided two sullen brothers a worm bin after they demonstrated a rare interest in taking care of them. They were being raised by GREAT grandparents (parents and grandparents unfit). The pride on their faces as they wheeled the bin up the hill was priceless.
I received an emotional thank you call from the great grandma later that day.
There are many children stressed out about life, and many times what’s going on at home. We constructed a calming zen garden at school – a beautiful corner to relax. It has proven that a connection to nature can relieve stress.
Experimenting with hypertufa (lightweight cement), I sculpted a giant snail for one of our gardens and found used benches online to create a succulent garden. Soon, the principal would take students there to talk.
Years after creating the large school garden in Camarillo, I got an email from a city worker who was a Dad of one of the students. Back then, he supplied me with an aerial shot of a landfill for one of our projects. He told me I was missed. I made an impact!
Funny thing is, I inspired the students to run the show! We had a garden club, garden games, worm composting demonstrations with my worm model, and countless other events and activities that promoted relaxation and a connection with nature, while learning – and the kids added the energy and completed the projects.
It was important that the teachers would not have to prepare or pay for anything, and I stuck to my word. I gave up the corporate life temporarily to give back, and there are no regrets.
Imagine a “coffee shop” in the garden with a blackboard of fun drinks made from herbs and fruit. Students dawn aprons and gloves, grind lemon balm in a mortar, and pour herbal flavors on top of crushed ice in a fun paper cup.
Or a monstrous solar oven cooking kale chips. We did that too!
Now I harvest my elderberries, garlic and herbs and transform them into truly unique gifts and kits inspired by nature, and even some local landmarks, such as the Great Dismal Swamp. I call the line “Swamp Gourmet”. Read more about it here.
We continue to explore and experiment, and inspire others to see bugs, gardens, outdoor adventures, crafts, beauty products and food in a different light.
The Internet is now saturated with homesteaders, gardening experts and personalities. Home Grown Fun keeps going strong without the worry of maintaining “influencer” status.
Reach out to me, Cindy, with comments or questions at homegrownfunfamily@gmail.com
Find out what happens when you:
- Give 200 elementary students burlap sacks and seed potatoes
- Grow our own luffa sponges
- Hunt for geodes in the California desert
- Hold a composting fair at school
- Make your own fossils
- Learn how to identify real gold
- Take a tour of a world renown gem and mineral show
- Interview a pea moth maggot
- Swim with manatees
- Grow over 25 pounds of sweet potatoes in one grow bag
- Try malabar spinach
- Make your own fertilizers and soil amendments from stuff you find around the house
- Figure out how manures differ depending on the animal it comes from
- Make a model of the earth’s structure out of a tennis ball
- Save a waxed amaryllis from certain death
- Recycle human hair
- Understand the warning about the kissing bug
- Learn the difference between straw and hay
- Hunt for Pink Halite Crystals in Trona California
