It's worth it in the end By Ellen Donker Every year, as spring moves into summer, I am determined to improve my gardens. I’m aware that I should probably be saying this in winter when it’s time to start seedlings, but I can never seem to rustle up the enthusiasm or plan ahead to get a spot in the Maplewood greenhouse. Early June comes along and I’m just getting started with clearing garden beds of leaves and weeds (hoping I don’t yank a perennial by mistake) and figuring out

Inside the Maplewood Youth Gardening Program By Adrianna Donat L to R: Eden Prager holds freshly-picked spinach, Ameer Azma is getting ready to plant an eggplant seedling and Annelise Salierno with harvested radishes. Photos by Julia Maloof Verderosa. On a Saturday afternoon in Maplewood, the MapleFood Garden in the greenhouses behind Maplewood Town Hall has the pleasant, slightly chaotic, feel of a place where real work is getting done by people who are not too worried about

Local volunteers advocate for youth in crisis By Amy Lynn-Cramer L to R: CASA Essex County board president Neil Yaris, executive director Marla Higginbotham and board member Ed Schwarz. In communities like ours, where daily life moves through school pickups, coffee shop conversations, neighborhood gatherings and familiar routines, children navigating foster care are part of the everyday fabric of community life. One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding foster care is the