Students growing veggies they hope to eat in the fall
By Jean Caspers-Simmet
simmet@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 06/16/2011 9:11 AM
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INDEPENDENCE, Iowa —The dill has spread into a soft bed of green. The potatoes are unfurling, the tomatoes and peppers are reaching upward, and the spinach and lettuce are thick and luscious. Marigolds form orange and yellow borders.
Mustangs Roots and Shoots, the Independence Community School District garden, has 13 raised beds in back of the school administration building. Elementary school students planted the beds, which are divided by classroom, on May 19.
"First grade teacher Micki Sand-Cohen has taken this on, and she got a list of what each classroom wanted to plant in their bed," said Kelly Crossley, school district food service director and head of the local Farm to School Chapter.
Volunteers built the raised beds last year out of recycled materials, and this year a volunteer built a large cold frame to extend the growing season. The next project is a compost bin.
Oelwein FFA donated plants and grants from USDA's Team Nutrition and Annie's Root 4 Kids paid for the other plants and child-size gardening tools.
Crossley hopes some of the students can visit their class gardens this summer with their parents, maybe do a little work and sample what's growing.
Sand-Cohen said the school garden gets a little bigger each year. Her first grade students learn about growing and preparing food as a part of their curriculum. When they read Aaron Reynolds' "Chicks and Salsa," they make salsa using peppers and tomatoes they harvest from the garden.
When they dig potatoes, they cook up a pot of mashed potatoes using a recipe from a Laura Ingalls Wilder book.
"We pick, wash and peel the potatoes," Sand-Cohen said. "We cook them and then mash them with a hand potato masher. The next day we make latkes with the leftovers. We also talk about food traditions."
Sand-Cohen said that East Elementary School, which consists of kindergarten through second grade, has a cooking cart with utensils, an electric skillet, a microwave and spices.
This spring Sand-Cohen's class planted radishes, turnips, peppers, tomatoes, flowers, onions, parsley, cilantro and potatoes.
"When my students come back in the fall, they'll get to see the results of their efforts," she said.
Joe Olsen, a Independence Farm to School volunteer, helped students harvest Brussels sprouts last fall. He also found a simple recipe and prepared them for lunch.
"We sauteed them in olive oil and sprinkled them with a little Parmesan cheese, and we had students asking for seconds," Crossley said.
Students have discovered that they like lettuce and spinach when they pick and sample it from the garden, Sand-Cohen said.
Sand-Cohen's grandmother taught her to garden.
"I want is to inspire my students about growing their food," she said. "It's my way of giving back."
"The more options we give kids when it comes to fruits and vegetables, the more likely they are to try something," Crossley said.
In the fall students pick vegetables from the garden. Crossley's staff prepares and offers the vegetables to the students during lunch.
Through its Farm to School program, Independence has arranged field trips to farms and had farmers visit the school. Crossley has purchased a variety of locally grown foods in past years and has green beans, zucchini, sweet corn and strawberries ordered for this summer. The produce will be fresh frozen for use during the school year.
Crossley's goals with Farm to School are to encourage good health and nutrition, sustain local growers and lessen the school district's carbon foot print by cutting down on the miles food travels.
"With the garden and our Farm to School Program, we want to get kids reconnected with where their food comes from," Crossley said. "Even here in Iowa, so many kids think food comes from the grocery store."