Meet Jeanne Pinsof Nolan
Jeanne Pinsof Nolan, “The Organic Gardener,” has been growing food for over 20 years.
In her current role as project manager for Chicago’s Green City Market, she is responsible for designing and implementing The Edible Gardens, a 5,000 square foot vegetable garden for children at Lincoln Park Zoo. She is also the founder of “The Organic Gardener Ltd”, focusing on helping people to have fun successfully growing organic vegetables. She has helped hundreds of Chicago-area families create and maintain organic vegetable gardens and works extensively with schools, restaurants and institutions.
She began her career with an apprenticeship in organic vegetable gardening and farming in the high desert of California in 1987. For the next 17 years, she lived on three different organic farms located in Southern California, Austin, Texas and Asheville, North Carolina. During that time, she completed her apprenticeship and went on to manage the gardening operation, teaching her craft to both children and adults.
Nolan has been featured in Travel and Leisure, Food and Wine, Woman’s Day, Parade and on ABC7 Chicago and The Daily Buzz. She was a recipient of Shape magazine’s “2009 Green Living Awards.”
She currently lives in Chicago with her husband and two children.
JEANNE’S TIPS:
Get Your Hands Dirty: Involving kids in the entire process of growing their food in a garden will make them more inclined to try all kinds of veggies. Pull out the seed catalogs and let them pick what they want to grow based on the colorful photos and fun descriptions. Go on your own Great Veggie Adventure and choose some unique veggies like purple carrots, watermelon radishes or even Romanesco. When kids make their own choices from the start, the veggies have a greater appeal on the plate!
Sweet Chips: Kids love to crunch when they snack. Skip the potato chips and make homemade kale chips instead. Toss curly green kale in a mixture of olive oil, maple syrup and tamari then bake at a low temperature. You’ll get a crispy, slightly sweet chip that kids will love. These are great dipped in Hidden Valley® ranch dressing, too!
(Soy)Bean Them Up: Moms don’t realize just how easy growing edamame can be, plus these soy beans are delicious and kid-friendly. Edamame beans are a big hit with my daughters and they are versatile and easy to prepare in the kitchen.
More Peas, Please: Kids love peas – they are easy to grow and thrive in the cool weather of early spring. As early as March and April, try planting all three types, sugar snap, snow and English “garden” peas, and see the many ways kids will enjoy them. Sugar snaps and snow peas are eaten whole, English peas are shelled, which is great fun. They are also wonderful finger food for babies.
