Live Like Ally on Instagram
Imagine if all our streets were lined with fruit trees, producing an abundance of healthy fruit right in our communities! Teenager Alicia Serratos @3sistersseedbox planted 21 Community Fruit Trees in her neighborhood! Her example of improving her community through Community Fruit Trees is so inspiring.
Special thanks to @robjgreenfield for partnering with us to plant these trees!
Ruth White Wolf Bear has shared her garden plan for the Free Seed Project. The abundance is shared with her community and she encourages others to garden as well! Ruth is grateful for the addition of the Free Seed Project seeds to supplement the seeds she has saved from last year's harvest. Between fresh, canned, frozen, and dehydrated, she believes to have enough food to sustain loved ones through the winter! Incredible!
We have released a seed saving resource page, so that we can all continue the growing we get out of the Free Seed Project, and any other varieties you may grow! Free Seeds Project is a lifestyle! Visit the link in our bio to access.
Seed saving is a term used to describe the process of harvesting seeds from a crop and saving them for use at a later date.
With the abundance of turnips in the garden, we made turnip top pesto for us and to share! Turnip greens may be intimidating to some because of their spiky leaves, but blanching will get rid of this texture. Are you giving this recipe a try? What other ways do you eat your turnip greens? Share in the comments!
Ally believed that every living thing is good and worthy of unconditional love. A way she practiced this was through a three-year correspondence with John, a forty-seven year old man serving a life sentence in a Texas prison.
This exchange was important to both sides. When John didn’t have any actual paper, he wrote to Ally on toilet paper; when she realized that prisoners were regularly denied something as basic as pen and paper, she sent John money to buy them in the prison commissary.
John had hand-painted and neatly lettered a beautiful card for Ally’s twenty-first birthday (May 27th) and had mailed it with enough time to make it to New Zealand. The card thanks Ally for being born, writing, “Your presence makes the world a better place, particularly my world,” and wished her “ten million more lovely breaths.” Heartbreakingly, the card was never received, it was en route when the tragedy that took Ally’s life struck.
John received news of what happened by a letter from Ally’s sister, Emily. “She was the only person in the world who genuinely cared about me,” he wrote, his pain palpable. “She reached out to me, a nobody; she gave me love and dignity when no one else would.”
If you are interested in showing your humanity by connecting with an incarcerated member of society, there are a number of organizations dedicated to prisoners’ rights and to helping inmates cope with incarceration. @abolitionapostles has a program you may sign-up for, and is a great resource to educate yourself on further topics.
Diane started gardening on a larger scale 5 years ago, trying to grow as much as she can to freeze, dehydrate, can, and eat fresh! She is always reading and watching videos to learn from others. This year she had the idea to try growing in a few cardboard boxes. Looking at the photo, you can see there is a box in between the fence and cinder blocks; check out those beautiful mustard leaves! This has given Diane more growing space and it’s been working quite well! Her garden is chemical free and thriving!
How is your Free Seed Project garden going? Take a photo and tag us at Live Like Ally Foundation on Facebook and Instagram @livelikeally
One of our Community Fruit Tree recipients, @impactearth_composting, donated 3 Paw paw, 2 American hazelnut and 1 bing cherry to the Rochester Museum and Science Center @rocrmsc. They held a planting day where local preschoolers were invited to learn about the significance of trees and compost! To be a Community Fruit Tree steward at four years old... imagine their future!
Learn about Community Fruit Trees by visiting the link in our bio!
This is Alexandra’s first harvest of Free Seed Project mustard greens and arugula that was shared with the neighbors! We LOVE these vibrant, flavorful greens, what a special gift to share with our community. One week later, she pulled ANOTHER harvest! Talk about abundance!
What varieties have been growing prolifically for you? We’ve got a load of turnips!
Lynsey and her family have recently started a ‘Take a Plant, Leaf a Plant’ stand in front of their home! It is similar to a seed library exchange, but expands to include plants, clippings, seeds, vegetable/fruit starts, pots, soil, yard art etc. Community members simply bring a plant or anything garden related and exchange it for something at the stand; handcrafted or homemade is always a welcome! They built the stand from materials sitting around their yard (old doors, window screens, expanded metal, pallets, old fence board). Upcycling for the win!
Lysney’s family has also installed a neighborhood garden in the front yard! What was grass and weeds a few months ago, is now producing fresh food for her family while putting out any extra home grown produce at the plant stand for others to enjoy!
Their hope is to inspire others to connect with others by starting a stand or garden of their own! It has been a positive experience for the family: they have met so many new neighbors and people in the community stopping by… Let’s build relationships centered in growth and care!
Thank you SO much for the wonderful impact you and your family have made Lynsey!
This teenager helped start 100 seed libraries across the USA and you can start a Free Seed Library in your community too!
Meet @alicia.serratos from @3sistersseedbox.
Learn more about the Free Seed Project by visiting the link in our bio!
Turnip and Arugula went crazy in one of our Free Seed Project demonstration gardens! Here we are going through the rows harvesting and thinning in one go. We got a basket full of greens to make a delicious cold soup for these hot days!
How are you eating your Free Seed Project greens?
Full sun, the garden, and friends; What a life we get to experience!
Our dear friends at the Napa County Seed Library have been growing the Free Seed Project pack (plus some extras!) in their garden since March; check out the harvest! Growing your own food to share with the people around you is one of the best ways to make a difference for both people and the planet. Our relationships with each other and greater life will fruit a connection like no other, tended with love and intention.
@napacoseedlibrary Thank you for all you do! We love you!
Zulma Polanco had some mystery greens growing in their Free Seed Project garden bed. After deliberating with the Free Seed Project Facebook Group, they pulled out the plant in the night to reveal: radishes!
Join the conversation on the Free Seed Project Community Facebook group! In the group you can:
-Ask questions and get answers from experienced gardeners.
-Talk to other people who are starting gardens with Free Seed Project seed packs and find out what’s working and not working for them.
-Post photos with updates from your garden.
This group is a source of motivation from other new gardeners as a space to share successes and failures with the other gardeners to motivate and encourage them too!
This is Brandy Branett’s first kale and mustard greens salad topped with radishes from her family garden! She shared that it was great and it felt amazing to eat what they have grown!
Who else is enjoying the Free Seed Projects fresh greens? Share nourishing meals with loved ones and your community!
To ‘Live Like Ally’ is a mindful way of being in the world based on the principles Ally clearly and beautifully embodied.
This is to embrace life courageously, whole-heartedly, and without regrets. Having an active reverence for the Earth and to be committed to making this world a better place for all living things. To challenge oneself and grow by a willingness to move out of one’s comfort zone and push past personal limitations.
In her life Ally inspired so many, and her legacy continues to inspire more. How do you Live Like Ally?
Judy Taylor Smith planted Free Seed Project radish seeds on April 5th in Roswell, New Mexico. On May 31st, she harvested these beauties! From SEED to FOOD in under two months! What a turn-around!
Anyone else’s radishes get this big? Send us a photo! Let’s showcase the largest Free Seed Project radish of the season!
You’ve planted your Free Seed Project carrot seeds, be sure to thin the seedlings! In order for a nice, full carrot to grow; there must be space in the soil!
Use our beginner gardening guide for tips to use the seeds for an abundant garden! www.robgreenfield.org/freeseedprojectguide
#LiveLikeAlly #FreeSeedProject #Gardening #GrowYourOwn #GrowYourOwnFood #BeginnerGardener #FoodFreedom
Apryl Dawn Burnette has transformed her FRONT yard into a garden after being inspired by the Free Seed Project! She loves eating greens and radishes fresh outside. She plans on growing to save the seed and add to the seed bank. She plans to share her bounty with the neighbors and a food bank.
What a great embodiment of what the Free Seed Project is all about! Thank you, Apryl!
#growfoodnotlawns #freeseedproject #yardtransformation #livelikeally
Last two photos are how the plots started out... Look at the transformation in 6 weeks!
This is the story of how a family embraced a tragedy to share their daughter’s compassionate spirit with the world.
Meet: Ally
She was a passionate environmentalist and activist finding great joy and philosophic reflection in nature.
She would leave her phone at home when out with friends so she could be present.
She had a long-standing incarcerated pen-pal, John.
She spent 2 weeks in the tash to convince her college to have a recycling program; it worked!
Ally’s kind heart, open ears, raw conviction, unbridled enthusiasm, and non-judgmental outlook endeared her to others, and inspired them. Ally planted the seeds of curiosity, compassion, happiness and adventure in everyone who met her. As word spread of her passing, a movement took hold. To honor her, people began dedicating themselves to ‘Live Like Ally,’ and the seeds of the Live like Ally Foundation were sown.
The Live Like Ally Foundation honors Ally's memory by sponsoring people and organizations aligned with her beautiful world vision and inspiring others to live a life of intention and meaning, to think higher, to feel deeper, to love the Earth and to continue on the path that Ally was walking. "What you leave behind is not what is engraved on stone monuments, it is what is woven into the lives of others."
---
Follow for more inspirational stories! #LiveLikeAlly #LiveLikeAllyFoundation #FreeSeedProject
Lauren with @napacoseedlibrary has grown a Free Seed Project Garden! Check out this ABUNDANCE and COLOR! Healthy greens, herbs, and flowers to enrich your life and those of your neighbors! Remember to share your bounty (there is plenty!) to spread the love 💚
Free seeds, free plants, free FOOD!
Leslie McFarron started ALL of these plants from seed! So far she has already given away over 30 pepper, tomato, cucumber, and dill plants to her neighbors! Talk about community building and establishing food sovereignty; who else plans on doing this?
Leslie has been with the Free Seed Project for a while now; the dill and flowers are from this year’s pack, and saved seeds of cherry tomatoes from the Free Seed Project a few years ago!
She also traded seeds within our Free Seed Project Facebook group (join us!), and seeds swapped with other FB seed swap groups.
Thank you Leslie for spreading the good!