Garden Day: October 2nd, 2008

The Youth in Agriculture Program, which is located at the University of Vermont Extension Farm, has been donating extra vegetables to Green Street School for our Thursday Farm stand as a fundraiser for our Garden Program. The students LOVE to make taste tests for customers, debate pricing, count money and make change! They learn a lot of skills from this project. This week we took some students to the UVM Farm to harvest the vegetables they would add to our school garden harvest for sale at the farm stand. Other activities included making herb sachets, harvesting tomatoes, planting garlic, and making more tomatillo salsa. Here are some quotes from students’ writing about their trip to UVM:

"I went to the University of Vermont Extension Farm near Fort Dummer today. We got to harvest all different varieties of peppers, eggplants and kale. The kinds of peppers we harvested were Lipstick Green Pepper, Hungarian Round peppers and another kind of green pepper. We also got to pick ruffly kale and big leaf kale."

"Today at garden time I went with some other children to UVM Extension Farm. There we harvested lots of vegetables such as radishes, peppers, kale, edamame, basil and eggplant. It was a great feeling to be out in the field with all of the plants and learning about each one. I would like to do it again."

"[At the UVM Farm] I picked a big eggplant. It was really big. Then we got to go into the greenhouse. In there we got to pick seeds out of a sunflower."

Garden Reflections: September 18, 2008

This week is the Kids' Localvore Challenge. Students are trying to eat as many local foods as possible. We added to our list with our harvests from the garden. Today in garden time the fourth graders did a variety of activities. Some made herb tea from lemon balm and lemon verbena. Others made green salsa from tomatillos, jalapenos and sorrel. We made canapes with herbed butter and cream cheese (herbs from the garden), cinnamon basil jelly made last week during garden time, and edible flowers and herbs. Another group canned dilly beans. Other students worked to prepare the Thursday farmstand for dismissal time: harvesting and cleaning vegetables, pricing them, and counting money.

“Today during garden time I helped picked lemon balm which I learned was not yellow but green and looked like basil. We used lemon balm to decorate the bread that we gave to teachers and that we had for snack. I never knew what lemon balm looked like or had never tasted it until today.”

“Today at school I got to prepare our class snack. [A friend] cut the bread into fine pieces. [the rest of us] picked herbs and edible flowers to put on the bread with cream cheese… I really enjoy working in the garden and cooking a lot of recipes!”

“At garden time I made fancy ou d’ourves. While I was spreading cream cheese on one of the pieces of bread a reporter from the Brattleboro Reformer and a photographer came and took pictures. The reporter asked me lots of questions about the localvore challenge. He also tried some of our basil jelly that we made last week… I had an awesome time in the garden!”

“Today I picked lemon balm leaves to make tea. We had to boil water so the tea is hot.”

“When we were making dilly beans we saw a praying mantis. I’ve never seen one before until now. I was mind bottled [mind boggled?] It was brown like a stick, and its wings were green like green grass.”

“Today we harvested tomatoes, tomatillos, and peppers. We also made bouquets of lemon-scented flowers. I liked harvesting for the frost.”

Garden Day: September 11th, 2008

We are now in our second harvest season at the Green Street School Garden. The fourth graders get 45 to 50 minutes of garden time every Thursday, in between band lesson pull-outs. We are grateful for support from our school administration, custodial staff, and money from a parent fundraiser which has made it possible to hire a garden coordinator, Maria Chambers who works part time, teaching students in the garden and doing other tasks needed to keep the garden going. Below are some excerpts from students' writing about their day in the garden on September 11, 2008.
-Laura White, 4th grade teacher

“At garden time I made signs and prices for the food.”

“We made bouquets and I had a lot of fun.”

“Today in the garden I picked some flowers for Jody (school counselor). I think that picking flowers is great. I LOVE IT!!!!! I hope we do this more often.”

“Today in garden I helped sort out the foods for the farm stand. It was really fun because we sorted out peppers, onions, turnips, cucumbers and a lot more.”

“I enjoyed picking flowers and making them into a beautiful bouquet. I gave them to Rhonda because she helped me through 2nd grade. I used orange, purple and red flowers. Rhonda really liked it and that made her smile and that made me really happy.”

“I made a bouquet for the fifth grade teacher Ms. Brin Tucker. My bouquet had zinnias, dill, and a seedy pink and red type of flower and a white flower with a yellow center… Ms. Tucker was very happy with it.”

“Today we picked nice juicy cucumbers with tons of spikes.”