Inspiring Change: A Four-Step Guide to Transforming Your Habits and Achieving Your Goals

Ready to make a change in your life, but not sure where to start? Ryan Laswell, Nourish’s Executive Director, put together four-step guide can help you get inspired, gather information, set goals, and reflect on your progress. We'll also delve into some of the theories surrounding behavior change and how they can inform your journey. If you're ready to take the first steps towards positive change, read on.

Step One: Get Inspired

Be inspired by those around you, maybe you see someone at the store, someone in your neighborhood, online, or at work.  Observe closely, what it is that the person is doing that inspires you?  Maybe you don’t know what needs to happen, or where to start, but step one is about being inspired to change, and you don’t need to worry about the actions you’ll be taking yet.

Step Two: Do Your Research

Gather information by noting what the person is doing, and then a simple search online for how to start the inspiring actions you’ve observed.  Maybe it's cooking a healthier meal for your lunch, or having your family cook and share a meal, starting some herbs or a garden, or being more active.  Step two is about preparing to take action.  If you tell someone what you’re going to try and do, there is a greater than 50% goal you will attempt this change.  

Step Three: Set Reachable Goals

Now you are inspired, you have some initial information, you’ve told someone what you’re going to attempt, and now is the time to try.  Before you start, set goals around your actions.  First goal might be that you muster up the confidence and courage to start, second goal is that you try the action twice, third goal might be that you pull someone near you to help with achieving your goal.  Way off in fourth place is actually fulfilling your goal.  By setting up chances for small wins, your actions will bring you closer to success.  The saying goes, you don't fail if you get up and try again, you only fail if you quit trying.  Making new actions or changing is a never ending process which isn't about the destination, it's about the journey.

Step Four: Reflect and Set New Goals

Let’s say that you are somewhat successful with your goal.  What worked and how can you build off that success?  What didn't work, and what have you learned that will allow you to try something differently next time?  Change can take several attempts to make into a new habit.  Remember your goals about starting, sharing, trying…. It's not just about the destination.  The more you try, the stronger the chance you can establish a new pattern and make your inspired observation something that you regularly achieve.

Change might seem scary, but it is likely the chance of failure that is scary and not the change itself.  Give yourself permission to try and fail and give yourself grace when things don’t work out as easy as planned on your first try.  Every day we are faced with choices and sometimes they come too fast and too many at once.  Change is about being present in the moment, making specific choices, and working toward the best version of yourself.

At Nourish, our mission is about actions that lead to more wholesome food choices.  We don’t tell you what to eat, or how to eat, but we do want you to give yourself experiences, awareness, and education so that you can pursue the best version of yourself.  Often times as we pursue the best version of ourselves, it supports those around us too, such as the farmers who grow our food and the businesses and people who are working toward similar goals.  Your people, your community, your network… these are the people who will help you be that best version of yourself.

Goodnight Bees: Winter Pollinator Tips from the Nourish Hive

As fall comes to a close and the snow begins to fly, Nourish’s volunteer beekeeper Dan Hocevar shares his tips for keeping your pollinator friends comfortable over winter.

Dan says, “We had been feeding them as the flowers were ending.  Now it is time to get the hive ready for the cold winter.  We put insulation between the top covers to keep the warm and cold air from meeting and condensing, which forms water droplets. We put a wrap of insulation around the hive to reduce the entrance to keep rodents out. In the open areas, we put up wind breaks.”

Nourish’s beehives with protective insulation and windbreaks installed for winter.

For more information about winterizing bee hives, please visit our friends at the Sheboygan County Beekeepers Association. Click here.

Dan and his daughter, Hannah. They take care of the beehives at Nourish’s Educational Farm and provide us with delicious honey to use in our programs!

Did you know? The queen bee will start laying more eggs following the winter solstice to build up the hive for a busy spring season! Her internal clock lets her know when the time is right to prepare the hive.

Celebrating Nourish Volunteers

On the farm. In the kitchen. In schools. With our youth-serving programs like the Good Food Club. On our board of directors. At our events and community dinners. 

This is where you can find the dozens of Nourish volunteers helping spread good-food education, good food and good times throughout the community. 

We took some time out recently to serve them good food and our thanks during our Volunteer Recognition dinner. Here are just a few of our most active volunteers who we recognized recently for their work to date in 2022.

Volunteers Jim Chapman and Pat Mersberger at the Volunteer Appreciation Pizza Party!

Jim Chapman 355 hours 

Jim helps with most of our culinary classes and community dinners, sharing his grilling and BBQ expertise and passion with our class and dinner attendees, students and families. You can also find him helping out at Old Plank Farm with their pizza nights as well.

Pat Mersberger 72 hours

Pat and her husband Mike (who has clocked 63 hours) are both master gardeners. We’ve been fortunate to have them both so involved in beautifying our grounds and maintaining the gorgeous flower beds around the Nourish Good Food Education Center. 

Lynn Thornton 54 hours

Lynn is our lead education volunteer who also helps out on the farm. She is a retired elementary school teacher and a member of Sheboygan County Master Gardeners. 

If you’ve got some time, skills and interest, please check out our volunteer opportunities and submit an application! We promise you’ll also gain some new knowledge, skills and friends when you share with Nourish! https://nourishfarms.org/volunteer

2022 Good Food Champion Announced

This year’s Good Food Champion has been championing local and seasonal fresh foods for Plymouth School District students for nearly a decade.

Nourish congratulates Caren Johnson, who was named the 2022 Good Food Champion during the nonprofit’s annual fundraiser.

Nourish initiated the Good Food Champion award in 2017 to recognize an individual or group each year who has been influential in encouraging more healthy and local foods being shared in our community and/or has helped advance good-food and nutrition education.

Nourish Program Manager Katie Bartelt presents the 2022 Good Food Champion Award to the 2022 Good Food Champion, Caren Johnson

Johnson joined Plymouth School District in 2013 as district chef and has been the district’s foodservice director since 2020. Nourish Executive Director Ryan Laswell said Johnson has been an important partner to Nourish ever since she joined the school district. He recalls one of her first projects was engaging Plymouth High School students to make healthy snacks for the elementary students to enjoy during their after-school programs. She sources as much food as possible from local farms, in her efforts to make school meals healthier and more flavorful by using seasonal produce. This has been made easier as she established the district’s kitchen to receive, use and process local foods – including the Harvest of the Month vegetables or fruits identified by Nourish.

Recently, Nourish and Caren collaborate with the Department of Public Instruction to hold a training for foodservice directors from around the state. Caren is also featured in DPI videos focused on the culinary guidance and nutrition education necessary to incorporate fresh foods in school meals.

Planting Garlic

There are a few crops, like garlic and parsnip, that you can overwinter in Wisconsin’s climate to get a head start on the next season. This week before Thanksgiving, we will be breaking up much of the garlic bulbs we grew last year and planting the cloves in the ground. Since that’s on our minds, we thought it would be a good opportunity to share some tips for home garlic growing.

When to Plant

The best time to plant garlic is between September and the end of November. I like to plant late when I won’t have to worry about weeds, and it will be the last field work of the season. But if you don’t have to worry about weeding a one-hundred foot bed, you can plant earlier and help the garlic establish a bit more before it goes dormant for winter.

Alternatively, you can plant in early spring and still develop great, albeit slightly smaller, garlic by harvest time. 

Where to Plant
You’ll want a space that gets a good 6-8 hours of sun in the growing period, and a raised bed or a well tilled or broken up patch of ground with a little compost added.

Where to Get Seed Garlic

You can use garlic from the supermarket, but it may be treated for shelf life which could affect growth. It also may be a variety less than ideal for growing in the area.

Garlic from a local farmer’s market is most likely going to be grown locally, and so a good variety for you, and is probably not going to be treated in any way for storage.

If you really know what variety you want to try, you can look through the many seed catalogues online, like Johnny’s, Fadco, Seed Saver, etc.

How to Plant

I usually just take a clove, make sure the pointy end is pointed towards the sky, and shove it about three inches into the ground, and cover. Tilling or working up the ground right before this makes it very easy to get the clove in the ground. And if planting in the spring, wait until the soil thaws and drains some of the moisture. 

I space the plantings about every five inches in rows about the same distance from one another.

After that, we will cover the beds with a generous layer of straw mulch. Some people wait until after the ground freezes to mulch, but we do it right after since we are planting late in the season. That mulch will also be nice for keeping down the early weeds in spring.

Maintaining Your Garlic 

Garlic is nice and low maintenance. It helps to water regularly in May and June when most of the bulb growth takes place, but after that, natural rainfall should be adequate. Weed regularly, mostly for your own sake so when it comes time to harvest, you aren’t wading through a forest of weeds to find the garlic.

Harvesting Garlic

We usually end up harvesting our garlic in mid to late August when the leaves are browning, and the leaves are what you will want to pay more attention to than the calendar. Get the soil around the bulbs loose, and carefully dig or pull the bulb out, knocking some of the dirt from the roots. 

You store them somewhere cool and out of the sun for a couple weeks, then chop off the stem. And now you can start the entire cycle over again, but now you’ve grown your own seed. Pure profit from here on out!

Written by Matt Friauf, Nourish Farm and Facilities Coordinator

Overwintering Your Herbs

The best way to keep a little bit of your garden going over winter is with herbs, many of which can be dug up and transplanted from outdoors or started new to transplant outside in the spring. The most important thing you’ll need to start is good sunlight during the short days of winter. If, like me, you have almost no good south facing windows, a grow light can supplement the natural light from a less sunny spot.

Beyond ample light, you’ll need to know which plants can or should be transplanted. There are three types:

• Hardy Perennial Herbs left outdoors that will come back after winter in our zone (USDA Zone 5)

  • Oregano, lavender, sage, thyme

• Vulnerable Perennial Herbs that have to be brought indoors over winter but can be replanted outside in spring.

  • Rosemary, lemon grass

• Annual Herbs that only last one season.

  • Basil, cilantro, parsley, dill

Unless you really want a specific herb over winter, you may prefer to leave the hardy plants in the ground for next spring. Certainly digging up the annual herbs at the end of their life cycle doesn’t make much sense, so if you want a basil plant over winter, I would recommend starting a new one, from seed or young plant, indoors. Once you’ve decided which herbs you want indoors, there are a few additional factors you’ll need to consider.

Timing: For plants like rosemary, that are green all year long, you will want to wait until the average overnight temperatures are consistently hitting the mid to low 30s.

Digging: Dig the plant up including as many of the roots as possible. Shake any excess soil off the root and repot into a container with fresh potting mix.

Location: Wherever you have the most sunlight.

Written by Matt Friauf, Nourish Farm and Facilities Coordinator

Garden Basics: Getting Ready to Plant!

Previously we discussed seeding and indoor growing to get a head start on the season. Next, we will identify when your plant starts are ready to go outside. 

Growing in Cells

I personally like seeding into a 72-cell tray. Each cell is about 1.5”x1.5” which works well enough for most young plants. Brassicas, like broccoli and brussel sprouts fill the cells pretty well with their roots that they should pull out pretty easily when they are ready to plant. Alternately, if left too long, the roots will take over and the plug could become root bound and stunt growth when planted. 

Other seeds like tomatoes will need to be repotted a couple times before they are big enough to plant in the ground, or container. 

Root vegetables are usually not well suited to transplanting from cells. Radishes, turnips, carrots, parsnips and beets are best sown directly into the ground. Carrots and parsnips, with their long, thin taproots especially, can quickly get stunted by the restrictive size of the cells. 

Frost Dates

When looking at what plants you want to start from seed, knowing your local last frost date is important. The frost date is based on historical weather trends and tells you when the chances for frost after that date drops to 30%. We all know Wisconsin weather, and since there’s always a chance of winter until June, you might want to wait another week past the frost date if you’re really worried about cold damage.

The frost date can also vary dramatically over a geographically small area. For example, the last frost date for Sheboygan is April 28th, while it’s May 14th in Sheboygan Falls.

Once you’ve figured out the final frost in your area, you can start planning where and when to start your seeds. Vegetables like beets can be seeded into the ground up to a month before the last start date, while more cold sensitive vegetables like tomatoes should be started inside 6-8 weeks before the final frost. Here is a list of commonly grown vegetables and when and where they should be planted based on the frost date. If you’re growing something not on the list, it will most likely say, on the back of the seed packet, when to plant relative to the last frost date.

Repotting

A lot of seedlings won’t need to be repotted, but if you have the time and desire, stepping up the size of the pot a seedling is in can give it a good head start when you’re ready to finally plant. Tomatoes are a good example of a plant that benefits greatly from repotting. If you can get the plant to around 1’ tall by the time it’s ready to plant outside, you’ll have a much longer and productive growing season from that plant. Repotting is also helpful if you just need to delay planting outdoors for a little longer and need to keep the plant from becoming root bound.

Brassicas don’t need repotting. If they are around 3”-5” in the cells, they should take off nicely when planted into good soil.

Like tomatoes – squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, and zucchini will all benefit from repotting until they are somewhere around the size of the tomatoes in pots 2 and 3.

Hardening Off

If you started seeds indoors, it’s best to “harden off” the seedlings gradually so they are not shocked by the volatility of outdoor weather conditions.

• After outdoor temperatures are consistently above 45 degrees Fahrenheit, you can start hardening off plants. 

• -Two weeks before you want to plant them, take the starts outside. 

• Keep them out of direct sunlight and wind for one hour. 

• Every day increase exposure by an hour, while being mindful if the temperature dips too low, or it’s too windy outside. 

• Gradually increase sun exposure as well, moving from shade, to partial shade, to full sun just before planting. 

• If overnight temperatures are reliable over 50 degrees, you can leave them overnight towards the end of hardening off.

• If you are growing seedlings inside, you can use a gentle fan or breezy window to help your seedlings toughen up their stems before taking them outside.

So, are you ready to plant your seedlings?

Check these conditions first: 

1. The roots are sufficiently developed

2. You’re on the right side of the last frost date in your area

3. You’ve repotted your plant to the appropriate size

4. You’ve gradually acclimated the seedlings to outside conditions

Next up, Planting! Stay tuned for our next post!