The Edible Peace Patch

Finishing Touches

2012-01-30T17:54:00.000-05:00

The Edible Peace Patch at Lakewood Elementary has finally become operational. After many hours of hard work by many ambitious volunteers, the Garden is ready for production.

Aesthetically, there is no comparison

And the same goes agriculturally.

These new beds will hopefully contain far more nutrient rich soil and will promote healthy growth among the various crops.

Even the sunflowers will have better soil, proper organization, and greater protection.

As we can see, they are taking it very well.

With all of the beds finished, sand sloped appropriately, and mulch spread, we were finally able to start planting.

This involved some careful note-taking in order to know what was where and the notes were then organized into a whiteboard chart for ease of use.

(left of bottom half nearest school and top following to the right)

Some of the crops, such as the tomatoes and some sunflowers, were left planted from the previous garden:

Others were transplanted in fresh new beds:

Collards,

Peppers (left), Parsley (right top), Broccoli (middle), Cilantro (right bottom),

Eggplant (left), Romaine Lettuce (right),

A few mystery greens (likely a form of Collards),

And yet others received drastic upgrades to their pre-existing homes:

Pineapples,

lets not forget about those Sunflowers.

Even the compost, mulch, and soil starter piles reaped the benefits of the renovation.

Some plants from the old garden were even able to be harvested in order to provide for future generations of superior crops.

The Edible Peace Patch here at Lakewood has sure come a long way, but the real exciting part is still to come.

Everything Coming Together

2012-01-20T23:33:00.000-05:00

Even after lots of progress on the beds over the previous week, things were looking a little barren around the Peace Patch. In fact, the Garden almost resembled a mine for a while. Recently, however, things have been brightening up.

More renovation meant more supplies and we got a lot of it.

Some of the materials came from local businesses: shrimp, wood, topsoil, coffee grinds, etc.

And some of the materials came straight from the ground

After all the beds were caught up to speed with layers up through fish, mulch and topsoil, they were ready for shrimp.

On top of this were more coffee grinds, some good compost, seaweed, more mulch and topsoil, all stacked like lasagna with good topsoil from the old beds mixed between each layer.

We also spread/sloped the sand and spread mulch over it.

The pineapples were happy to have their home cleaned up

And a long trough was created in which to hopefully grow a wall of giant sunflowers.

We even moved the compost off of the fence to the far side of the Garden and built new frames for seven of the beds.

Luckily, on Wednesday and Thursday this week we had some extra help around the Garden.
A whole class of Eckerd College students volunteered at the Peace Patch and made a big impact in the volume of work we were able to complete.

Slowly but surely, the Peace Patch is coming together.

Transformation!

2012-01-13T18:06:00.000-05:00

It is hard to believe it has been only a week since we started working on the Peace Patch Garden! This is what we walked into a week ago...

And this is what it looks like now...

It may not be as green as before but, the Garden is undergoing great transformations and we are all anxious to see the results!

Here is a step by step of what we are doing to the garden beds.

After digging out all of the beds to a depth of about inches 30 inches, they have all been lined with a thick plastic material to keep the water in the beds.

Next, a layer of mulch was added and it was followed by a layer of logs.

The logs were then covered by another layer of mulch

Next a layers of leftover fish parts!

This layer of fish is also covered by mulch...

Next, all is covered by top quality, topsoil. But wait, it is not ready yet, there is more! Tune in next week and see what is happening in this transforming and happening garden.

Holes

2012-01-06T19:25:00.000-05:00

Today was a busy day in the garden for the peace patch will be getting a subterranean makeover. over the next few weeks we will be creating some new additions to the peace patch. Though the majority of the changes will not be noticeable above ground we hope that the changes will be evident when the plants start growing. Today we began the process of digging out the beds, we will be digging out the beds about two feet below the frames in order place cut down tree branches and trunks, mulch, coffee grounds, fish bones, and shrimp shells below the topsoil. We completely excavated one bed and are almost done digging out two of the other beds. Today we also harvested the collard greens much to the delight of the ladies at the front desk, harvested the spectacular sweet potatoes, and cleared off some of the other beds. A solid start to the long list of things to do to get the garden ready for planting.

Andrew Porter
1-5-12

Christmas!

2011-12-09T23:39:00.000-05:00

Its been a great season so far for everyone. We are all going to miss being at the garden but i think we are all excited to have some time away from school for christmas. I hope the garden holds up well by itself, because there won't be many people there between now and early january. So many of the things we have grown are really coming along. The tomatoes are starting to show small signs of turning red. All of the students were very excited to find green tomatoes.

After class we spent a lot of time trying to clean up around the shed. It was quiet and adventure getting our broken wheelbarrow full of trash. We then had to wheel it all the way through the school, through the cafeteria and out back to the dumpster. After three loads the janitors started giving us dirty looks! However after our efforts the shed looks really good. All of the junk lying around is gone. So with that we end our year with a great looking garden and a great looking shed!

Merry Christmas Everybody!

-Tristram

Flowers Feed the Soul

2011-12-08T15:16:00.000-05:00

Gardening is about enjoying the smell of things growing in the soil, getting dirty without feeling guilty, and generally taking the time to soak up a little peace and serenity. ~Lindley Karstens

Today was a very cold day in the garden. It was in the 40's when we arrived there at 8 o'clock this morning! The kids were clearly just as cold when they came out. In spite of the temperature, it was indeed a lovely day. The sun shined brightly over the garden. We spread some mulch, but overall, there was not much to do for maintenance now that we have reached the close of the semester. The corn is coming along quite well and we found an enormous gourd, which was really cool.

Today was our last day with the kids. We did a scavenger hunt and leaf rubbing. During the scavenger hunt, we broke the kids into two groups and took them into the garden. We asked them to find a variety of things (e.g. something red, a bug) and then took pictures of the objects they found. We harvested the remaining ripe carrots and green beans and the kids took them back to their classroom to share. It was quite encouraging to see them enjoying the vegetables from the garden!

It was sad to say goodbye to the kids. I plan to be back next semester but I am not sure that I will have the same class. They were a really great group of kids and it's wonderful to see the impact we've had on them, as well as the amount they have learned. Until next semester...Happy Holidays!

Elena

2011-12-08T00:35:00.001-05:00

"Nature is not a place to visit, it is home"- Gary Snyder

Today was our final day at the edible peace patch for this fall semester. We pulled the weeds around the beautifully growing vegetables. Hank brought some more pineapples to add to the pineapple forest. Its really amazing seeing how succesfully everything has grown this semester. Its great to see the plants standing tall with the fruit and vegetables big and lush and delicious. Butterflies and bees have been spotted in the garden much lately which is great to see. Everything has really come along well.

At around 9:30 the students came out, they all greeted us with hugs. We were sad to inform the
students that it was the last class of the semester and that we would not be comming back next week, but reasured that next semester we would surely be back again. The teacher was especially sad to hear this. We had the kids draw some leaf rubbings as our first fun activity. Next we took them out to the garden where they pointed out different parts of plants , pointed at the butterflies and told us that they each have six legs and two wings. We did a scavenger hunt where the kids pointed out vegetables, flowers, leaves, roots, and any other things they have learned about this semester. I am always astonished to see how much they have learned. It was great, and is always great spending time out at the edible peace patch.

-Lilian Gonzalez 12.7.2011

Winding Down.

2011-12-06T21:39:00.000-05:00

As our semester begins to come to a close we are left thinking about how much we will miss our students and our garden. We spread some of the last remaining mulch today and I am afraid to see what will happen when we are absent for three weeks and no one is there to tame the weeds. There are also so many beautiful things that we will all miss over our winter break.

Our corn is really starting to take off. There are even some husks that are taking shape. Soon the corn will be the tallest plant in our garden. Besides the trees of course.

When Sam and Becca are woken up before 8 am they sometimes take on their evil bean mustache wearing alter ego's. When this happens it is not safe for the children to come out. Me and Nico can usually find safety in the shed or the branches of a tall tree.

It was a great day and the kids could not get enough of the garden. We started with a scavenger hunt that was going great, but then three Monarch butterflies appeared. After that it took the guys a few minutes to get me and the kids to stop chasing them and back on task. It is fantastic to see the gorgeous butterflies appearing more frequently as the garden starts to develop.

The scavenger hunt continues. Sam helps a few kids find some of the more elusive leaves.

I could only manage to hold onto my camera for about five minutes before it was plucked from my hand by eager students. The chase is on.

The camera theif is caught and stands for a picture that captures his true remorse.

Before stealing the camera again and photographing friends.

At this point the competitiveness of the scavenger hunt is at its peak. Im pretty sure I'm loosing to.

Despite the fact that the tomatoes are still green. It does not take our students long to figure out this trick. Nico got some great shots of their adventure through the garden.

The carrots are found and devoured!

Finally it all comes to a close with a game of sharks and minnows. The great thing about this game in kindergarden is that everybody wins, except for the college students.

Saying goodbye to the kids at the end was a really difficult thing to do. We all hope that we will see them next semester and that they have a happy holiday. The garden will be very lonely without them. So will many of us.

-Tristram

2011-12-06T00:51:00.000-05:00

A bittersweet day in The Edible

Patch

The garden was buzzing with life today as we prepared for our final activity with the kids; a scavenger hunt! Two monarch butterflies darted about the garden as I chased them down trying to capture a picture. The bees were plentiful, waiting for us to test the kids to see if they could point out a pollinator. I stood for a moment in the center of the garden soaking up the sun and admiring how far we have come. The corn is taller then me, the beets are bursting out of the ground. The pole beans have climbed high weaving around the wood stakes we had set up for them. I grab a bean to snack on, delighting in the knowledge that it was grown organically by us college students and that it was as fresh of a vegetables one could ever get. In the world we live in today we forget where food comes from; the earth. Gardening bring us back and reminds us how importance this process is for our very survival. It also gives us a better appreciation of way nature works. The opportunity to learn these skills and be able to share it with the students is amazing! I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into when I signed up to work with this project but I have learned an incredible amount from both my peers and the students!

The kids were filled with a lot of energy today, bouncing up and down eager to explore the garden. We split up into our groups and sent the kids off on their scavenger hunts. Some of the things the list included were; finding the different plant parts, acting out the butterfly cycle, taking a picture of something that plants need to grow. Their excitement made it a little tough to keep my group together but all I had to do was ask them to find some bugs to get their attention. They all knew were to look and crowded around the overturned tree stumps. Their once shrieks of fear have been replaced by shrieks of excitement as they captured roly pollies and other assortment of bugs. I had to drag them away from the bugs so we would have enough time to finish the rest of the scavenger hunt. The students were bursting with information pointing out to me the different plants by name. After an exciting scavenger hunt we ended the days lesson sprawled in the shade of a tree creating leaf rubbings for the students to bring home.

We attempted a group picture and then said a bittersweet goodbye to our students. It has been a very rewarding experience to see the students progress over the weeks and to see how our work with them has payed off. I can't wait to be back next semester!

-Alina Dallmeier

Friday Fun and Fund Raiser!

2011-12-03T17:48:00.000-05:00

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the things you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. . . . Explore. Dream."
~ Mark Twain

Coming into our last week of teaching at Lakewood, we have all been excited to return again in February at the start of our next semester to continue the small legacy we've established with the Peace Patch. This once grassy plot was dreamed and transformed into the fruitful garden we see today. We've been excited as well for the amazing news that (with funds raised) we have been approved to continue the project at 3 more elementary schools in the St. Pete area. Not only will these schools include our integrated schoolyard gardens, but approval has also been seen in the development of a small scale farm directly associated with food programs at the schools themselves! With this amazing news we've been scheming on ways to raise funding for these projects as well as get the name of The Edible Peace Patch Project known at Eckerd and surrounding city. We'll be needing many volunteers and students to help spread our reach in these new ventures and are ecstatic to have more room for those in St. Pete who want to participate in positive change.

Friday marked the beginning of our fund raising efforts with a bake and harvest sale on campus at Eckerd. Alina, Katie, and I spent the early morning hours harvesting squash blossoms, carrots, summer squash, cilantro, okra, green beans, salad greens, and gourds to sell. We really wanted not only to attract donations for sugary treats, but to show prospective volunteers and community members the fruits of our and the children at Lakewood's labor of love.

We spent the morning cleaning loads of salad greens and bundling cilantro talking of our deep love for this project and the ways it's touched each of us. We've all learned so much, not only from the children, but from the land and one another. Working in such a dynamic group of passionate individuals fosters our power and determination to make this project everything in can be, and I know we're all looking forward to an amazing year of in depth planning and start-ups of our new projects.

Nasturtium, Buttercrunch, and Mesclun Green Salad

By the time I had to head back to the garden, Katie and I had raised nearly $100 in the mere 45 minutes we had open the stand on Campus! I zoomed back to Lakewood, meeting Tristram for our Friday class' final assessment. The students did an amazing job of answering their questions and showed an amazing rate of retention, even yelling out vocabulary words on our tour through the garden. They were all overjoyed when "Mr. T" and I let them pull carrots to take home and show their families the awesome job they'd done in the garden this term.

- Erin Mattick

I Garden, Therefore I Am

2011-12-01T14:13:00.000-05:00

There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling. ~Mirabel Osler

What a beautiful day it was in the garden today! While it was a bit chilly, the sun warmed my fellow gardeners and myself rather nicely and the sky was wonderfully blue! The progress I have seen in the garden is incredible. We have full sized okra, beets, squash, radishes, carrots, green beans, and a plethora of green tomatoes well on their way to ripening.

The sweet potatoes are especially enormous!

Today the kids did their final assessment. It was absolutely wonderful and amazing to see how much they absorbed this semester. At the beginning of this year, I could hardly get them to give a cohesive response to the questions and today, giving nearly the same assessment, they got all the answers right! I am quite excited for the Harvest Festival next week. Being a part of this project has confirmed for me that I want to teach and grow my own food for the rest of my life!

Until next time,

Elena

Reflections for a Rainy Day

2011-11-28T19:16:00.000-05:00

Aaarg, the rain! It kept the little ones inside, so we were not able to do our lesson today. It was our assessment day and I am not sure if we will get to see the kids again… sniffle, sniffle… we never got to say goodbye…

It is mind-boggling how fast the semester has gone, how far the garden has come, and (more than anything) how far the children have come. Although we were not able to “objectively assess” them, I can tell how far they have come. Maybe they will not remember exactly what a “decomposer” is, but they have experienced the cycle of food scraps to compost heap to soil to plant food to human food to food scraps… and repeat. Their attitudes towards dirt and bugs have, in most cases, done a complete reversal. Many have gone from screaming yelling about how gross bugs are to screaming and yelling (hey, it’s what kids do after being cooped up in a florescent lighted rectangle for most of the day, and are then exposed to real stimulus outdoors) about how cool they are. Dirt has gone from simply something you don’t want to get on your uniform, to something that plants live in and feed on to make us food.

I will never forget helping Tydarius get over his fear of insects. He was obviously fascinated by the roly-polies. Edging closer to the bugs he would tentatively reach out to touch them, but as soon as contact was made he would let out the most blood-curdling scream and tear off, only to come back to hover over the bugs again. Scooping up a handful of dirt with a few roly-polies in it, I called Tydarius over to me. Holding out the dirt in my cupped hand I asked him to place his hand over mine and on top of the dirt. Holding still, I explained to him that there were roly-polies in the dirt and that they were harmless and more afraid of him than he of them. On the count of three we flipped our hands over, so now Tydarius was holding the dirt. No screams. I removed my hand and left him standing there, marveling at the little gray sectioned bugs snuffling through the dirt in his hand. Soon the chaos of a first grade class digging for insects called my attention elsewhere, but I will never forget the look on his face; a look of utter awe.

I was lucky enough to be born and raised on a Permaculture Land Co-operative, and so these things have always been a part of my reality, but this experience has quickly taught me just how far from natural cycles and food pathways most children are. It has given me great joy in sharing what I know with the students here at the Edible Peace Patch. And the best part is that they love it too!

With that, I’ll leave y’all with the wise words of Wendell Berry:

“Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.”

Forest

Science is a great game. It is inspiring and refreshing. The playing field is the universe itself. Isidor Isaac Rabi

2011-11-18T16:34:00.000-05:00

Things are really coming along in the garden. The pole beans are reaching to top of their poles and starting to branch out to other areas. There is now an almost constant supply of bees and other insects buzzing all around.

The children are amazed by the flowers every week. (much to our amusement it is usually the same flowers each week.) But either way it is really great to see so many different colors coming to bloom in our garden. Everyone has been working so hard to far that every flower is like a small reward for our diligence. Working with the kids at lakewood though is reward enough.

Tomatoes! It is really cool that vegetables are starting to come in. Even though they are still green everyone including the kids are excited for them to start turning red. With there presence right at the entrance fully red tomatoes will be quiet a welcome when entering the garden.

The three sisters bed is really coming into its own. The corn stalks are starting to make a presence and the gourds are taking some shape. Soon the corn will be taller then most of our students. Watching them grasp the concept that food grows right out of these plants is a real pleasure.

Some of our vegetables are really coming along nicely. Some of the leaves are looking a little worn down by bugs and a few of the pineapples are looking a little dried out. However science is the real point to much of what we are doing and this has been such a great chance to teach these students.

We started on the math lessons this week and watching our kids count on their small fingers was very rewarding and entertaining. They were very good at math but even better at the coloring. Better then i am at least, with math... i'm pretty good at coloring if i do say so myself.

Everyone was looking very sleepy this friday morning. But we all gave thanks for what we each have in our lives and in the garden. I think we are all really dissappointed we won't be seeing each other over thanksgiving.

A surprise visit cheered us all up. And ironically it showed up during the week we were doing our butterfly lesson. Taking pleasure in small things is something this garden can really supply you with.

-Tristram

November Rain

2011-11-17T11:12:00.000-05:00

"In the garden, Autumn is, indeed the crowning glory of the year, bringing us the fruition of months of thought and care and toil. And at no season, safe perhaps in Daffodil time, do we get such superb colour effects as from August to November."
Rose G. Kingsley, The Autumn Garden, 1905

I managed to acquire a few pictures before the thick clouds above condensed, quenching the thirsty roots of flourishing plants in the garden. I could not take my eyes off the growing squash in our three sisters garden bed. So much progress has been made in all the beds and it is my understanding we will have arugula growing soon!
Sadly, the downpour began right on time for the children to come out. We missed their smiling faces as we sought shelter in the shed, waiting for the pouring rain to subside. The time I spend in the garden each week brings my soul such tranquility and joy. What a wonderful thing it is to partake in the cultivation of environmental education in a flourishing garden. As environmental studies is not my specific area of study at Eckerd College, I learn new things each week while gardening and teaching lessons to the students. At the beginning of this semester, the process of weeding was out of my comfort zone (I was not accustomed to weed identification). I am now growing quite comfortable with the identification and removal of weeds, and I see that it can be quite a therapeutic process!
Thanks for reading :)
-Elena

"Walked for half an hour in the garden. A fine rain was falling, and the landscape was that of autumn. The sky was hung with various shades of gray, and mists hovered about the distant mountains - a melancholy nature. The leaves were falling on all sides like the last illusions of youth under the tears of irremediable grief. A brood of chattering birds were chasing each other through the shrubberies, and playing games among the branches, like a knot of hiding schoolboys. Every landscape is, as it were, a state of the soul, and whoever penetrates into both is astonished to find how much likeness there is in each detail."
- Henri Frederic Amiel

Busy Butterflies

2011-11-16T02:43:00.001-05:00

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.

-Rabindranath Tagore

As we began working on the garden this morning, the sky was full of clouds, threatening the garden with rain. We worried that the weather would keep the class from joining us in the garden. However the rain held off and the kids were able visit for this week’s lesson on butterflies! Although the clouds were gray, the children’s shining faces and exuberance, as they ran towards us, made the day seem a little brighter.

We started the lesson with a poem that described the butterfly cycle. While the poem was read we had them act out the different stages, mimicking the round egg, the wiggling caterpillar, the wrapped up cocoon, and finally the fluttering butterfly. Doing the silly motions with the children has me laughing right along with them.

Using the white board, we than had them come color in certain areas of the butterfly based off math problems. Each color had its own number. It was difficult to get the students to try and figure out the math, while they were so excited to color! They all yelled out as many numbers as they could so they could be the first one with the correct answer and then chosen to color in the butterfly. It took some persuasion to get things in order.

With the children so riled up and full of excitement, we thought we would try a more active game with them. We had them play “Rock paper scissors”. The winner would get to metamorphosis in to the next stage of the butterfly cycle. They would play until they became butterflies. This was also very exciting and fun to play with them! By now, it was time for the kids to go. As the children said goodbye, we prepared to get some mulch for the garden.

In the end this cloudy day turned out to be quite lovely!

Until next time,

~Sam

What Kind of Fly do You Put on Toast?...

2011-11-14T23:11:00.000-05:00

What Kind of Fly do You Put on Toast?...
A Butter-fly!!!

Whoever said puns are the lowest form of comedy must have lived a very sad life. That one was my own original creation as well!

Todays lesson was on Butterflies! Our kindergardener lepidopterists (Butterfly Scientists) learned specifically about the butterfly cycle, how a Mama Butterfly lays an egg, which hatches into a caterpillar, which spins a cocoon (or chrysalis if you want to get technical), and finally becomes a Butterfly and the cycle starts all over again. We acted the cycle out, read a poem about it, arranged cards with pictures and words of the cycle, and quite a few other activities to help them learn this cycle. Acting out the cycle was particularly fun as it got the kids active and moving about, and seemed to help them focus on the idea a bit more than just telling it to them. The cards were really fun as well. One of the kids in my small group suggested that we each take a card and go around in a circle reading out the stage written on our card, which was a really good idea that we had a lot of fun with. We then spent the last few minuets in the garden and the lesson had a perfect ending as well as a monarch butterfly flew into the garden and all the kid got a really good look as she fluttered around us!

-Noah Schlager

Beetle Queen Conquers Peace Patch

2011-11-12T19:00:00.001-05:00

For those who haven't seen Jessica Oreck's incredible documentary on the Japanese love of insects, Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo, I have the trailer posted above. The film explores how in Japan the interest in insect ranges from kids collecting insects on family vacations to businessmen spending thousands to tens of thousands for these impressive stag beetles. Some of these beetles cost more than a VW Beetle! But at any rate what we see is a culture where attention to ones environment, and the living things within it, is cherished through childhood and into adulthood. It is a sort of evidence for E.O. Wilson's idea of Biophilia, the innate curiosity and bond between humans and other living things.

Here in the Peace Patch there is no shortage of Biophilia, especially when it comes to insects. our sizable population of rolly-pollies (woodlouses or terrestrial isopods for you technical folk out there) has been of particular interest to the Kids. I have often in past classes had to drag kids away from their collecting to focus on the plants; I must sympathize with them though as I found most plants to be SO boring when I was in first grade, especially compared to insects. This time however, our roles switched from keeping the kids focused to keeping them from grabbing at them too much (we did have a few rolly-pollie casualties). The kids learned that an insects body has a head, a thorax, an abdomen, 6 legs, 2 antennae and wings! We also worked on reading out loud the names of these insect body parts, some of which like thorax are kinda hard to say and remember! We then showed them a few of the different types of insects in the garden, as well as some critters like rolly-pollies and spiders that look like bugs but aren't! One of the kids and my favorite bugs was a little white weevil (most likely Artipus floridanus) that I found and that the the kids could hold and let crawl on their hands. This was one of my favorite lessons thus far!

As someone who spent a lot of time catching and raising bugs as a kid, and who still has a pair of hibernating hercules beetles in his refrigerator and a jar of caterpillars munching away on his desk, it really makes me really excited to see the excitement that these kids get from bugs, and that i am in a position to support and nurture that love and curiosity. Most kids in America aren't like me, and by the time they are in college don't really care about bugs or even despise them. I can only hope that a few of these awesome kids will hold onto this love of nature and living things as they grow up. I hope that we as a community can support this bond and between kids and insects and that America can become a place where kids and adults alike can keep exploring and growing upon this relationship with our fellow living beings!

- Noah Schlager

Chilly Weather, Warm Hearts

2011-11-11T23:49:00.002-05:00

Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers

where I can walk undisturbed. ~Walt Whitman

This mornings meeting met our group with the chilliest weather we've seen yet. As we all gathered bright and early, we huddled together to keep warm and each spoke of the personal impact of the garden thus far. Everyone shared heartwarming stories of how the garden has changed their perspective and the indescribable feeling we each get when one of the children remembers your name and holds your hand or hugs you just for being there. It is amazing to witness the joy and excitement on their faces when they run to greet you and, without knowing much about you at all, attach themselves to you and ask hundreds of questions. The feeling really can't be put into words, especially when something in your lesson seems to have scattered over being noticed and without expectation, is remembered when you see the students again without any reminder.

After our meeting I walked about the garden noticing the bounty that had sprung over the week that needed to be harvested: squash blossoms, okra, cilantro, and lettuce. Squash blossoms, an amazing treat if you've never tried one, taste (to me at least) reminiscent of a spicy queso cheese. I harvested a few and set them aside for my morning class to sample.

After our lesson on bugs in the garden was completed I handed out the tasty treats, showing what part of the squash plant they originated from. The kids were beyond excited to eat flowers and with no lack of hilarious faces decided they weren't the grossest thing in the world to eat.

The kids noticed all the baby veggies beginning to sprout on our way back from the squash bed. They especially loved the baby gourds and tomatoes.

Later that day I continued the lesson on bugs with mine and Tristram's afternoon class. The kids were rowdy and were all excited to get their hands on a shovel and dig for bugs! Below I've shared a video that can better describe the amazing capacity the students have for retention in learning. Even the hard words like abdomen or thorax seemed to jump right out of their mouths as if they were born with an instinct for bug parts.

I love the experiences I have at the garden. It's amazing to know that the excitement the kids portray on their smiling faces is building 10 fold in me when I'm working and teaching. I don't think any other experience could match it.

** grubs also turn into beetles :) Just to clarify **

A Bug’s Eye View

2011-11-10T20:10:00.000-05:00

What could be more exciting than lots of creepy crawlies, crayons and magnifying glasses? To the kindergarten class this morning, the answer was absolutely nothing. The class was practically jumping to get a look at the bugs we had collected for them.

I used to love to collect bugs and look at their jointed, funny looking legs and have them crawl over mountains made by my hands or knee. When I was in elementary school catching bugs was an exciting pastime. However, upon arriving at the garden, catching bugs seemed slightly scary. Perhaps it is because I am now fully aware that some bugs bite or sting or are just plain scary. Mustering up some courage (and remembering that I am a 21 year old college student and many times the size of an insect), I grabbed a collecting jar and went about catching insects. Before long I was enjoying myself and the tiny creatures once again captured my imagination.

The kids were excited from the very start to see some bugs. As we went over the parts of a bug and counted how many legs they have the kids would yell in unison “1...2...3...4…5…6!” After passing out the bugs I had collected, most of the class wanted to catch some themselves. They all crowded around the different jars and looked at the bugs through magnifying glasses and continually counted the legs, commented on the colors and were generally captivated by the insect. Before long, the kids were drawing the bugs they had seen.

At the end of the session the kids said goodbye to their new bug friends and slowly got in line to go back to class – all the while pointing at the butterflies and bees that constantly circled around our group.

I’d say it was a wonderful morning.

-Emma

Creepy Crawlies

2011-11-08T21:52:00.000-05:00

Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar. ~Bradley Millar

Today, as we approached the lesson on bugs, I could not contain my personal bias on the creepy crawlies. I usually cringe from the common feeling of the small critters moving across my legs as we work on the garden, yet today I hunt for them. We spent a while looking for specimens to show the kids.

When the class arrived at the garden, and we announced the lesson plan, the kid’s faces lighted up. Their excitement was obvious. We began by teaching them the different parts of the insects. They had a few problems pronouncing some of the words like thorax, and abdomen. After the teaching we showed them the bugs we had collected, even letting them hold some of them. We made sure to tell them to be gentile with them, so we could return them to their home afterward. I found it amazing how eager they were to touch all the bugs. It made me realize how silly my apprehension for the critters were.

Once the excitement from the live creatures died down, the kids were aloud to draw their own versions of the bugs they had seen. Most of the students had no problem creating their bugs with the correct amount of body segments, and other parts. It was very encouraging to see them utilizing the knowledge we had taught them.

Untill next time!

~Sam

2011-11-07T21:54:00.000-05:00

I was worried that I would miss today’s lesson in our wonderful Edible Peace Patch, but I made it just in the nick of time. I knew being part of a historic march on the Capitol for environmental justice was worth being gone for, but it saddened me to miss a lesson with the kids, especially since I had forgotten to tell them I would be gone.

With seconds to spare, I leaped out of one of the vans which had taken 225 of us Eckerd students all the way up to Washington DC to call on Obama to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline from Canada’s tar sands. I dropped off my bags, hopped into Alina’s car, and we sped off to the garden and the children.

Today’s lesson was an especially exciting one. Bugs!

“Legs!” the children shouted out as we indicated the picture on our portable blackboard. “Head!” they shouted in excitement as we indicated the head. They needed a bit of help with “thorax” and “abdomen”, but by the end of the day Gavin, one of Ms. Early’s 1^st graders, after drawing his termite, pointed to the back of his insect and asked me how to spell “abdomen”. What do you know, after a fun day spent mostly rooting around in the ground looking for ants, termites, roly-polies, spiders, and grubs (and reassuring the children that they were harmless) the lesson had worked!

The kids did not want to leave the garden and their obliging teacher let them stay an extra 10 minutes with us, but eventually the time came to leave and to give back all the little insects we had collected back to nature and back to the garden. With the rest of our time we watered the beds and planted cauliflower and more radishes. We also harvested some lovely looking okra from our now-chest-high okra plants.

I must have caught some of the children’s infectious imaginations for as we worked, I fantasized about all the colorful insects they had drawn, flying/crawling/squirming around the garden as they pollinated our plants and decomposed our compost for us.

Until next time,

Forest

If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.

E. O. Wilson

A Rainy Morning

2011-11-04T10:55:00.000-04:00

As the end of Daylight-Savings Time quickly approaches, our weekly Friday morning meetings have become increasingly dark and cool. This morning, the crew huddled under a big tree while the rain battered down on our garden. The purple skies were just beginning to lighten up by the time our meeting was over, but the rain continued. Everyone seems to feel like the kids are truly soaking in our lessons on recycling and composting, regardless of the intense excitement of being outside!

The garden is looking as green and lush as ever. I was amazed to see so many flourishing cilantro plants in the herb garden, in addition to the rapidly climbing pole beans and flowering okra! We have some green tomatoes plumping up on the vine and a city of sweet potatoes, I'm sure, beneath the soil. The radishes have been harvested and the lettuces and beets are looking beautiful. I remember the carrots in my garden at home as a favorite munching spot for swallowtail caterpillars, so I wonder if we'll have any here as well. Next week, the kids will learn about bugs (a particularly exciting topic in the realm of kindergarten and first grade minds).

Since it was still raining at the conclusion of our meeting and there was no mulch to spread, we duct-taped a quick fix on the welcome trellis and headed out to breakfast for some team bonding time. Unfortunately our class was cancelled due to the weather, but it presented a great opportunity for the girls and I to get to know each other over hot tea and grits at Munch's. We all agreed that the hands-on experience in the garden, working with both the plants and the elementary students, is incredibly gratifying. In addition to the environment-related courses that are amping everyone up just before registration time, we are all staying involved in the garden next semester. The continuation of active learning in the field will not only be educational in the fields of agriculture and leadership, but it will also serve as a working model for building a stronger local community in St. Petersburg.

Carly

It's compost stew making time!

2011-11-03T18:53:00.000-04:00

Today was another great day at the garden. It was chilly when we first got there but once the sun started to shine it felt very comfortable. Elena brought some compost from home and we looked at what we had in order to let the kids create the "compost stew." We decided to split up some of the compost into cups so that the kids didn't have to touch the compost itself.

Our kids didn't come out until 9:30 so we had some time to do maintenance. We weeded mostly in different beds. Even though weeding is a bit monotonous, it needs to be done to make the garden look as nice as it does every week. It's always a good day when I have to wake up early and go to the garden. I know that the rest of my day will be wonderful after I see how excited the kids are to learn so much more. When they came out this morning we asked them what they learned last week, and they were spot on with recycling. We then explained to them what we were going to do today. We were going to create a compost stew and they were going to be the chefs. Despite the look of the compost, I tried to explain to them that insects love compost and they will do a great job of decomposing all the food scraps and turning it into dirt. They all seemed to understand somewhat, but it was also hard to get them to pay attention. Once we gave them jobs, they were so excited to create the stew and throw it on top of all the other compost.

I always love coming to the garden in the morning, especially seeing the kids. One little boy and girl gave me a hug twice today. Every time that happens, I just get a huge smile on my face and I get that much more excited to come to the garden every week. I just hope that I am making as much of a difference in these children's lives that they are in mine!

Thank you for following our Blog!

Jessica Stitt

Happy Halloween, compost stew anyone?

2011-10-31T20:56:00.000-04:00

Despite a threatening cloud cover, we were fortunate enough to make it through our shift in the Edible Peace Patch with no rain. Yay!
It was great to be out in the garden with the kids again today after missing a week because of fall break. The kids must have felt the same because the extra energy was palpable. Plus it is Halloween, one of the most exciting days in children's lives!
Despite the anticipation of candies later on this evening, both Ms. Morris and Ms. Early’s classes were eager to throw on their aprons and become “compost chefs”.
“We are going to be making food for the plants today because they are making food for us and they need to eat too,” we explain. Soon the initial aversion to the food scraps on the table was gone and the kids were fighting each other to grab a mushy grape or a stale piece of bread to throw into our “stew”.

Initial hesitation over the creepy-crawlies in the compost also melted away as the children found a few bugs they recognized like rolly-pollies and millipedes. We taught them of the importance of these insects and how they help us in the process of decomposition so that our lovely stew can be turned into delicious, nutritious soil for the plants.
We finished up the day planting a beautiful foot-tall bean plant from a previous lesson a few weeks ago into our three sisters garden, explaining the benefits of growing certain crops together in a polyculture, as has been practiced on this continent for millennia.

Thanks for following!
Forest

"You are what you eat eats too."
Michael Pollan

Look how far we've come

2011-10-29T13:50:00.000-04:00

It was a wet and rainy morning in the garden. Our early morning meeting had been canceled but since everyone was there we decided to go over next weeks lesson plan.

While waiting for our kids to arrive we planted more pineapples in the pineapple forest and weeded the relentless sedge that seems to pop up everywhere. At 9:30 our class showed up bursting with excitement.
As they came closer they were already waving to us, I could tell they were excited to be in the garden even on this rainy day. When we asked them how their bean plants where doing they all raised their hands eager to talk about their plants. After recapping last weeks lesson we started our lesson on recycling. First we taught them the three Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle. After that we had the students put different recyclable materials in the appropriate bins. In a circle we talked about ways that they could reuse materials and recycle. They all came up with some pretty good ideas.

After our lesson on recycling we took them for a walk through the garden. One of the students saw a lady bug on an okra plant and the rest of the kids gathered around intrigued and excited by their lucky find. I could tell by their smiles and questions that they loved the garden and it has been definitely a great learning tool for them. Of course one of the most exciting things for the kids is when we let them eat something from the garden. We let all the kids try some arugula a salad green with a peppery flavor. The kids did not like it very much but their faces when the tasted it was priceless. This did not deter them from tasting anything else and they eagerly tried anything we gave them.

Its amazing how far the kids and the garden have come in just the last few weeks. If one of the kindergarteners was asked what plants needed to grow they would be able to rattle it off in seconds. Just a couple of weeks ago they would have had no idea.

- Alina

A Day to Recycle

2011-10-27T16:56:00.000-04:00

This morning at the garden was a little chilly until the sun came out and then it started to warm up. Before the children came out at 9:30, Emma, Elena, Julia, and I took the time to do some maintenance of the garden. We decided to do some of the daily weeding, and also Emma got the hose out to water all of the beds.

Every week I come back to the garden it amazes me how fast all of the plants are growing. There is definitely some magic in this garden. Every early morning that I have to pull myself out of bed, once I get to the garden I immediately forget about being tired and there is a sense of peace and happiness that I get from being there. Especially when the kids come out, it makes me so happy to see their faces and how much they want to learn and how much they grow from week to week.

Once it was around 9:30 we started to get the materials together for the class. We put out the chalkboard with the recycling symbol as well as the 3 R's, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle written around the symbol. Julia had a good idea from the previous day of being at the garden; since the children are small and it is hard for them to reach up to the bench at the garden, she said it would be easier to put the recyclables on the ground and we could teach them to pick up trash and recycle it. It was a bit hectic with our group because they were very excited this morning, but once we got their attention we taught them the 3R's as well as asking them if they recycled at home and what things they thought could be recycled. It was so good to hear that a lot of the children knew about recycling and they all said they were going to tell their parents about recycling when they got home.

One of the boys in our group amazes me every week he comes to the garden because he has made such a change from the first week; he was so quiet and not really happy about being in the garden, but today he had all the answers and wanted to do everything! He even knew that if we didn't recycle things that animals such as seagulls would eat them and get sick. It made me so happy to see such a dramatic change from week to week. If the garden had something to do with that, it surely is a magical place!

-Jessica

It often happens to children - and sometimes to gardeners - that they are
given gifts of value of which they do not perceive until much later.
- Wayne Winterrowd

Friday Peace Patch

2011-10-27T15:10:00.000-04:00

As I leaned over the carrots and comparing them to last week’s size, I am suddenly blinded by two small hands covering my face as I am holding a running hose. Apparently I am a jungle gym to be climbed all over and treated as an observation deck for the class of students. The group of children that visited the garden today was only able to stay for a few minutes as they passed through to their next class. However, in these few minutes I was amazed by the amount of knowledge and interest that these students showed in the garden. I showed the students the importance on of delicacy needed when watering seedlings. After a quick watering Chelsea and I gave the grand tour of the garden followed by a tasting of several herbs and vegetables.

It’s the enthusiasm of the kids when they enter the garden that keeps the edible peace patch running. A perfect combination of laughter, curiosity, and innocence that keep the kids coming back every morning filled with energy. After about two months of maintaining the garden this year, almost every bed has at least sprouts popping out, the pineapple forest is expanding greatly, and the kids are learning more and more each day. I will look forward to returning to the patch this Friday, hopefully with enough energy to keep up with the kids.

-Brad Samuels

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE!

2011-10-26T14:19:00.000-04:00

Today was a wonderful day to garden! My class comes out the last twenty minutes of my shift so the bulk of my time spent in the garden today was characterized by maintenance work. Our carrots are coming up nicely but to help them along I weeded out all its competitors that found their way into their bed. I also weeded out the cantaloupe’s side of another bed and started weeding by the pineapples. On Friday a local man drove by the garden, saw what we were doing and offered to donate some plants from his own garden. I watered them, the carrots and our starter cantaloupes.

The lesson for this week is all about the 3 R’s: REDUCE, RESUE, RECYCLE! The best part about this lesson is hearing what the kids have to say about different ways we can reuse household items such as plastic water bottles. They are so creative! They suggested using them as a vase for flowers and other plants, candle holders and containers to put things in. To conclude the lesson we walked through the garden with the objective of seeking out various materials we reuse/recycle to make the garden look the way it does. Examples of the things we noticed: we have a plastic cup which we used for a starter cup for plants, stumps from trees were made into a sitting ground for the kids, a broken up wooden trellis is what we use to mark what plants are in which beds, etc. It was a lot of fun walking through the garden with the kids and having them point out these various usages of materials that could otherwise be discarded.

- Chelsea Ehmann

“I’m going to grow up and work in the garden”

2011-10-20T22:16:00.000-04:00

Another great day in the garden! It seems as if fall has finally caught up with Florida. Bright and early we arrived at Lakewood finding it to be a bit chillier than anticipated. Having not been out to the garden in over a week I was amazed at how much it had grown. The plants seemed to double in size. The first part of the morning was spent weeding the beds and preparing for our class of kindergarteners.

When the kids finally came out we were pretty excited. They seemed a little cautious at first (and cold), but as we started talking about plant parts they jumped right in and before long all of the kindergarteners were jumping up and down with their hands raised to answer the question “what do leaves do?” Even the kids who had been more timid in previous weeks warmed up and were very excited to see what was growing.

After passing out clipboards with paper to draw the plants in the garden, we helped the kids write their names on the papers and find the plant parts we had talked about. While they seemed to have fun drawing, I’m sure the favorite part of their day was watching the bee we found on one of the radishes. We took this opportunity to remind the kids about pollinators and talked about how you actually don’t want to kill the bee.

The time seemed to fly by. Before we knew it the 20 minutes had passed and the kids were getting back in line to go inside. When I told one of the girls I would see her next week, she looked at me for a second and then replied, “I’m going to grow up and work in the garden.” What a wonderful way to start the morning.

-Emma

We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses- Abraham Lincoln

2011-10-18T22:50:00.002-04:00

Today in the garden we had threatening rain clouds overhead all morning, but were spared of any plan ruining drizzle. Our Tuesday morning group spent the first half of the morning weeding the stubborn grass and trying to tackle the weeds that persistently come up in the butterfly garden. We also continued to work on mulching the area between the beds and the fence and admired the newly set up outdoor classroom.

Throughout my morning stroll through the beds I recognized some interesting new growth. The okra not only has grown dramatically in size but it has some beautiful new yellow and purple flowers, and some promising new fruits. I also observed some equally beautiful purple flowers on the sweet potatoes and some bulbous roots of the almost pickable radishes. My fellow gardeners and I were happy to see that the stumps that had been resting along the fence in previous weeks are now arranged in a little mulched circle that is perfect for Lakewood kids as well as Eckerd students to sit on. We decided this spot was an excellent location to execute our day’s lesson about the plant parts. Where better to learn about plants than surrounded by them on all sides.

After briefly going over the lesson plan and setting up for the kid’s arrival, Mr. B’s class came bounding toward the garden with loads of excitement. We arranged them into a line and led them to the outdoor classroom. We went over the main parts of the plant: roots, stem, leaves, flower, and fruits, and then asked them to identify and assemble our tomato plant on our chalkboard. The kids impressed me with their knowledge and were extremely willing and ready to soak up all the knowledge we had to teach them.

We then gave each student a clipboard and some paper and colors and had them draw their own plants with all the parts that they had just learned. This aloud us to truly see what all they had absorbed, and fill in any gaps, which they still had. After viewing many gorgeous representations of the plants we had just learned about, we let the kids take a tour of the ever-changing garden. They viewed the new flowers and taller corn, as well as tasted some basal. We finished with a barrage of hugs as they left as excited to come back as they had arrived.

-Becca Waitz

The Kinder-Gardeners

2011-10-17T12:55:00.000-04:00

“I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in tune once more.” –John Burroughs

After another weekend, the garden continues to surprise us with beauty. When examining the first bed with the tomatoes in it I notice that quite a few tomatoes have been planted since I had last been there. The biggest one in the bed continues to grow. We were excited to find that it has a few yellow flowers that have recently bloomed.

I did some weeding and thinning out in the carrot bed, between the sweet potatoes and tomatoes. I noticed that the sweet potatoes also have flowers that are a white and purple growing within its leaves. These flowers are not easy to see because they are hidden by the big leaves.

Other excitement in the garden was in the pole bean bed. The bean’s long spiral tendrils finally decided to climb up the pole. It won’t be long till the other beans do the same.

Mrs. Barlow’s kindergarten class came out around nine-thirty. We asked them how their bean plants were doing that they planted last week and if they noticed any changes. They said they had seen some green in the cups. We then introduced our topic of the Lesson, “Plants have Parts”. Using a chalkboard with a stem drawn on it and paper cutouts of pictures and labels of the other parts, we had them attach various parts of the plant (roots, leaves, flower, and fruit) to the diagram. We reviewed all the parts again and went over their various functions. Roots are like a sponge; they absorb water and nutrients and hold food. The stem is like a straw sucking up water while the leaf lays out to collect sun and food. The flower and fruit holds the seeds for new plants to grow. We told them to draw a picture of all the plant parts, using the plants in our garden. The okra turned out to be the best example because it had a flower and fruit.

The radishes are nearly ready for harvesting so we decided to pull one up to show the kids some roots. They were amazed by how much of the plant was hidden in the soil.

The kids lined up and got ready to go back to the classroom. It seems like they would much rather prefer to stay in the garden and I can understand why. Everything is growing and it is exciting to be part of the process!

Julia Melton

Weeding and Planting

2011-10-14T15:16:00.002-04:00

Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.

- Og Mandino

During our early morning meeting we all took a stroll through the garden to determine what we thought still had to be done. After our walk through the garden we met up and talked about what work was left to do. The students who come up with the lesson plan each week presented the activity to us. Next week we are going to be teaching the kindergarterns and first graders about plant parts. With little cut out plants we will have them “build” a plant on the chalkboard and then review the names. Today we had two groups role play next weeks lessons.

"Children are born naturalists. They explore the world with all of their senses, experiment in the environment, and communicate their discoveries to those around them."

Everyone on my shift was disappointed to find out that we would not be having any classes come out today. We still had plenty of work to do though. Katie and Erin carefully transplanted some of the starter plants including kale and lettuce. Carly got to work labeling the sunflowers while I put poles in the pole bean bed. We had a couple of extra workers in the garden today and we all spent a lot of time weeding the wildflower bed, which is very overgrown. Someone also tackled the mess in the shed and organized it.

-Alina

A Rainy Thursday

2011-10-13T16:49:00.000-04:00

Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

~Langston Hughes

This morning was a rainy day at the garden. First, Julia and I started weeding some of the beds, and then a big black ominous cloud came across the sky. Julia and I decided to take shelter in the shed while the pouring down rain passed. I thankfully took a picture of the garden before it started pouring. The garden is really coming along, even from week to week when I come back, it has grown. I am so excited to see how the garden will look at the end of the semester. Despite all of the rain it was a good morning. While Julia and I took shelter in the shed, we got together the materials for the kids to come out.

While getting the materials together, it was a little difficult to decide how many kids that Julia and I would have, since we were the only two there today. We decided that each of us would have two cups and in each cup we put two seeds, as the lesson plan said. Before the kids came out we tried to find a space where the rain wouldn't be as bad and we decided to put the blanket out under the tree.

It is amazing how fast these plants are growing, all of the rain over the weekend must have helped tremendously. I was so happy that the cucumbers and squash that Julia and I planted last Thursday have sprouted and look really good. Julia also mentioned that in her other group they trimmed them a little bit and she said the leaves smelled just like cucumbers.

The kids came out right at 9:30 and luckily not all of the kids came today. It was only ten kids, so Julia and I were able to split them up equally. First, Julia read them the story and they really liked it; there were three kids who raised their hand after every color and gave very good answers. One of the little girls that was in my small group last week remembered me and it was very cute. When we split off to do the seed activity she ran to me and held my hand. It was a bit hectic with five kids and two cups because every kid wanted to do every job.

Since it was raining still we stood under the tree and did the activity. We weren't able to get the last part of the activity done with the clipboards because it started raining harder by the end of the shift. It has only been a couple weeks, but being at the garden and making a difference in these children's lives is turning out to be pretty amazing!

Must we always teach our children with books? Let them look at the stars and the mountains above. Let them look at the waters and the trees and flowers on Earth. Then they will begin to think, and to think is the beginning of a real education.

- David Polis

Jessica Stitt

The Magic of the Garden

2011-10-12T21:05:00.000-04:00

“No two gardens are the same. No two days are the same in one garden.” ~Hugh Johnson

It seems like every time I return to the Edible Peace Patch something new appears as if it were magic. It is amazing to actually see all the hard work that we put into the garden. I was very excited to see the radishes we planted such a short time ago have started to show their magenta colored bulb from underneath the soil. It brings a sense of pride to have planted them.

The beets that were planted on the other half of the bed have begun to sprout up. They were looking a little crowded so we decided to thin them out to give the beets room for their roots. The beets that we pulled out had the most magnificent magenta color to their stems; it was similar to the radish bulb color but way more vibrant.

The cucumber’s that we recently planted in mounds were also getting bigger and were looking a little crowded. We pulled some of the cumbers out very carefully so that we could try to transplant a few in another bed. I was surprised to find that the tiny little cucumber sprouts already smell like cucumber. Also, most of the seeds were still hanging on to the roots, which gave us hope that they could perhaps survive being relocated to a new bed.

Another magical presence to the garden was found in the okra bed. One of the okra had a beautiful flower that blossomed. I had no idea that okra had flowers.

When it was time for the kindergarteners to arrive, we were very prepared after doing the lesson on Monday. After the kids had planted their bean seeds in the cup they wanted to check out the Edible Peace Patch. They wanted to water the plants in the beds with the leftover water from the beans they planted in their cups. We told them to bring the bean seeds that they planted two weeks from now so we can see if they have grown. I am really enjoying working with the kids. They are enthusiastic to be learning outside and they are starting to recognize the garden as their own.

Julia Melton

"Earth laughs in flower."- Ralph Waldo Emerson

2011-10-11T22:34:00.002-04:00

Today was quite a productive day. Our Tuesday morning group started out planting some eggplant and corn, which should be sprouted by this time next week. We then watered all the beds inspecting them closely for new growth since last week. The okra and sweet potatoes are definitely still dominating the garden thus far but the radishes, tomatoes and pole beans seem to be catching up.

After pulling a little stubborn grass growing up through the mulch we were visited by Mr. B’s eager class of first graders. We all put on our SCIENCE APRONS and listened to an enthusiastic reading of Planting a Rainbow! It took a little while to get the kids into the book but once we got to the rainbow of flowers part, the class was quite enthused. The reading led perfectly into our next activity.

In the next part of the lesson we split the first grade class into four groups. In these small groups we each had our own part in planting a pole bean. One student poked a whole in a cup of soil to the right depth; the next student planted the bean into the hole and covered it up and the last student had the opportunity to water the plant. All of the students seemed to really enjoy all the steps of this process. The kids may have gotten a little over zealous with the watering step, but we’re going to cross our fingers that they will germinate anyway. The culmination of our lesson consisted of having the kids predict what will happen to their bean as it grows. Our kids illustrated and colored in beautiful pictures of flowers, beans, the sun and water. Over all I believe both the kids and my fellow Eckerd students had loads of fun working and learning in the garden today.

-Becca Waitz

“Planting a Rainbow”

2011-10-10T14:52:00.000-04:00

“A new word is like a fresh seed sown on the ground of the discussion.”

-Ludwig Wittgenstein

It is amazing what a rainy weekend can do. Not only did it make our Monday morning watering less work, it also seemed to encourage growth in our beds. The tomato plant has a new ladder that is used for stability. The tomato plant appears to be beginning to climb up the ladder.

Other improvements are visible with the Okra as well as the recently planted radishes that were planted about two weeks ago. The radishes seemed to have blossomed in such a short time span. Before we know it, they will be ready for harvesting. I am looking forward to harvesting the radishes with the children because they have been part of the process in watching the radishes grow into what they are today. I think the kids will also be surprised that the radishes grow under the soil and that they are more than just the tops that they can see at the surface.

I was also excited to see that the cucumbers and squash that we planted in hills last Thursday were sprouting up. The red ants seem to have recovered their home in this bed. We are hoping they will relocate to a new area.

The lesson plan that we had with the kids today was called, “Planting a Rainbow”. We were supposed to read a children’s picture book that uses colorful illustrations to describe what seeds need to grow. Unfortunately, the class came out to the garden late so we only had time to do our second part of the lesson.

We told the children to break up into the small groups they were in last week. I had a group of three girls that were well behaved and attentive. I asked them what were some things that seeds need to grow and they responded with the correct answers “soil, water, and sun”. Then our next task was to have them plant bean seeds. I gave them each a job. One kid was assigned to give our lima bean seeds soil, another kid was assigned to plant the seed in the soil and the third kid was in charge of watering the seed that was in the soil. Once they each participated in planting the seeds, I asked the girls what they predicted the seeds would look like in two weeks. In the small amount of time we had left, I had the girls draw their predictions on a piece of paper.

Although we only had a little time to work with the kids today, it was nice to have them experience planting a seed. I predict that the kids are going to grow from learning at the Edible Peace Patch.

Julia Melton

Feels like fall

2011-10-07T23:58:00.000-04:00

As everyone gathered around for our weekly group meeting the peace pathchers shivered in the cool morning air. It finally feels like fall! As we talked about our weekly experiences everyone was eager to share their stories about the first week with their students. It was apparent to me that everyone was excited to finally be able to share the garden we have been working so hard on, with the kids.

After the meeting my early morning shift of Erin, Katie and Carly and I got right to work before our group of students arrived. We weeded the beds, watered and planted some more pineapples. The recently planted pineapples are looking a little sad but we are hoping that they will perk up soon. The time flew by and before we knew it we had a line of kindergarteners waiting for us.

After introducing ourselves to the group as a whole we then split up into smaller groups. We asked them questions about the garden to see how much they know. I was surprised about how much my three 5 year old girls knew about the garden. They were all excited to answer the questions and when we toured through the garden they kept rushing from bed to bed guessing what each plant could be. It is so much fun to teach when the kids are so eager learn!

I can’t wait to see my kindergarden and first grade group on Monday!

-Alina

Planting a Seed

2011-10-05T13:27:00.000-04:00

“When, just as the soil tarnishes with weed,

The sturdy seedling with arched body comes
Shouldering its way and shedding the earth crumbs.”

-Robert Frost

Today was another peaceful morning at the garden. We began by examining some of the beds. The larger of the two tomatoes in the first bed is getting even bigger. Today was the first time I have notice the tomato touching the line that weaves above it that is used for added stability.

The Radishes we planted about a week and a half ago are growing very fast. One of my group members, Noah, decided it was a good idea to thin the radishes out by taking some of them out. Then they transplanted the ones they took out in the other half of the bed. We are curious to see if the ones we transplanted will survive.

We remembered the group of kids that came out last week on Wednesday mentioned how much they loved carrots and wanted to plant them. We decided to designate the bed between the tomatoes and sweet potatoes as the carrot bed. We prepared the bed so that the kids could plant the seeds at the end of their lesson. We dug six rows and made small holes for the seeds about three inches apart.

When the kindergarten class came out with smiling faces, we did our introduction and got into smaller groups to do the assessment. The first thing the kids in my group asked was, “Are there any carrots?” We decided that was a good time to let all the kids plant the seeds in the carrot bed. Each hole got about two to three seeds. This was a little difficult because the carrot seeds are very small. After the seeds were planted, we told them to cover the holes with the soil. Then I guided the kids in my group around the garden and told them what was in each bed. For the empty beds, I asked them what they would like to see growing there in the future.

Before we knew it was time for the class to go to lunch. They gave us all hugs and smiles and I told them that we would see them next week. There is so much gratification in working with children in the environment. Getting to share the Edible peace patch with younger children is a neat opportunity.

Julia Melton

I know that you'll feel better, when you send us in your letter, an' tell us your favorite vege table"-The Beach Boys

2011-10-04T23:24:00.001-04:00

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Well, we all started off a bit sluggish this early morning, but once we started to get our hands dirty our morale quickly picked up. Tristram welcomed the garden by giving the compost a few turns with the ol' pitchfork while Sam and Becca were quick to start liberating our mulch of wee, little grass-heads poking through. Due to the recent lack of rain I decided to give our garden a refreshing and much needed shower. The sweet potato bed has nearly disappeared under the lush layer of its large leaves. Our lone tomato seems to finally have some strong followers, and it wont be long before a few more seedlings join them. The soldier-like army of radishes is truly an impressive site, and is quickly becoming one of the most successful crops! A couple heads of corn are showing a promising start for our future, Native American-style, three sisters bed and the pole beans a few beds down are starting to wrap their vines around the trelis. Our pineapple forest is growing by the day. Although not all have fully established themselves in the soil, the ones that have give us great hope for future fruit salads galore! The once empty watermelon patch is now adorned with three bountiful mounds of seedlings. Around 9:30, Mr, B and his smiling kindergarten class greeted us in the garden. Once the kids circled round we introduced ourselves and informed them of our favorite color and vegetable. When asked what the garden rules were, all hands flew up. Almost everyone of them new a rule or thought of a new one that should be added. We split off into groups of four and had the kids play an identification game with some of the common garden knowledge. I was truly impressed with how knowledgeable these little youngsters were, some of them even knowing what a decomposer is! After the game we led the class through a garden tour and answered the many questions they had. From bugs, to flowers, to fruits, the kids wanted to know everything and couldn't wait to start planting. One of the little girls even told me she couldn't wait to take a watermelon to her grandmother's house. Mr. B wrangled up his curious bunch and headed back for the classroom a little after 10:00. As they walked away a small ocean of waving arms left with them, and a few lucky ones took some treats to show their families. All in all it was truly an amazing morning, and I know I can speak for all of us in saying that it will be the best part of the week. Till next time, Nico.

A New Page

2011-10-03T21:51:00.000-04:00

A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.

- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Today was not our typical morning at the garden; it was our first day with kids. We had the first hour and a half to do some weeding and final preparations for the kids. The radishes that we planted a week ago are looking very promising.

My group member, Lilian had brought the radish seeds from before and she suggest we build rows on the other side and plant beets with the kids if we had extra time after we gave out tour of the garden. So we prepared the rows on the other side of the radish plot ands poked a quarter inch holes about an inch width apart.

Before we knew it, it was nine-thirty; time for our kids to arrive. These kids came from recess and were a little rambunctious. Once we got everyone’s attention we had the kids make a giant circle. We introduced ourselves as Eckerd College students and went over our three basic rules: don’t step on the beds, don’t run, and don’t touch any plants without our permission. Then we got into smaller groups to do our assessment. I had three kids, two girls and one boy. They were very enthusiastic about the garden and did not like the idea of doing paperwork. They each spelled their name for me to write on the assessment and then I told them they got to pick the pictures that they thought were the answers to each questions. Although they circled every answer on the entire page, I think that it made them consider how much there is to a garden and how much they will learn.

Then the fun began. I gave them a tour of the garden. They were excited to guess what plant was in each bed, and could not wait to get to the next part of the garden. Then since we had some spare time at the end, we gave each kid a beet seed to put in the holes that Lilian and I made earlier. Some kids lost their seeds, so I gave advice to cup their hand when holding the seeds.

All in all I feel that we had a good first day in the garden with the kids. I think that they enjoyed contributing to the garden (by planting a seed) and they look forward to next week. My group members and I are excited to teach the kids and learn from them as well.

Julia Melton

100-Acre Pineapple Wood

2011-09-30T14:08:00.000-04:00

This morning, Hank and Noah gifted us a box of pineapple scalps from Eckerd's cafeteria. Though their absence of sweet, tangy fruit may deem them useless to the common consumer, these green spiky parts will soon root themselves into the ground and begin producing new shoots. It takes a couple of years for the plant to produce another small pineapple, but I think the kids will enjoy the sight of what has now become quite the extensive pineapple forest. I spent a good part of the morning planting and watering our new members of the bromeliad family, and I'm sure there will be more to welcome in the following weeks.

Since the elementary students are due for their first garden lessons next week, we decided to get some more plants into the ground. A few eggplants had sprouted, so we lined them up in a fresh bed. I was also very pleased to see so many vegetable babies making their way towards the sun! We have plenty of radish sprouts, pole beans, and corn on their way. The sweet potatoes and okra are progressing along fabulously, and one of the tomato plants has grown twice it's size since last Friday.

As we continued pulling out grass, weeding, and digging around, we had a couple surprise visitors. I encountered an especially attractive grub in my pineapple escapades, which found a new home in the compost pile with no hesitation. Katie offered a curious passerby a sprig of basil, which he happily accepted with a brief explanation of our project. To my delight, we also learned that there may be a bald eagle nesting nearby! Noah spotted this beautiful bird as she soared above in the morning sunlight.

Once again, the muddy shoes and sweaty brows are only evidence that our time has been put to excellent use. A beautiful weekend is upon us, during which I trust our garden will be preparing itself for the eager eyes of next week's classes! Happy Friday, everyone!

Carly Chaapel

The Helpers

2011-09-29T06:19:00.000-04:00

"Food is our common ground, a universal experience."

— James Beard

Wednesday was another beautiful day in the garden. We began the day by checking on our radishes that we planted in rows on Monday. The radishes have a rapid harvest between one to two months after planting. We watered the radish plot as well as the other recently planted seeds in the garden.

Then my group decided to attack the grass that is between the garden and the fence. We used shovels to dig up as much grass as we could and then piled the grass into the wheel barrow. This took a lot of time to make a dent in the grass, but the final product looked spectacular!

Once a good portion of the grasses were taken out, we had some time to lay out cardboard to prevent the sedges from returning (although it is inevitable). The finishing touches will be to lay the mulch out on top of the cardboard.

The highlight of my shift and I’m sure for my fellow group members was when a class of about 12 students came out to the garden with their teacher. Some of these children made it clear that they were 5 years old. They came into the garden with wide eyes of amazement. Immediately after we introduced ourselves, they ask my peers and I if they could be our “helpers” and undoubtedly we responded “of course”. They walk through the garden with their teacher and we went along pointing out what was planted in certain areas. They asked the adorable, innocent questions such as,“can we plant popcorn?” and “can we plant mashed potatos?”. I can already tell that the kids are going to get so much out of the Edible Peace Patch. When they teacher acknowledged the students that it was time to get back to class the children didn’t seem to want to leave. A lot of them gave us hugs even though we had met only a few minutes.

Getting to meet the children that we will be teaching gave us some feedback for all the hard work we have been doing to prepare for them. It warmed our hearts how excited they were about coming out to the garden and how much they seemed to want to get to know us. The Edible Peace Patch is a very special place, in that it can be shared by many people of all ages.

Julia Melton

"Every quiet step is thunder to beetle life underfoot..." - Barbara Kingsolver

2011-09-28T01:03:00.000-04:00

Tuesday morning started off beautifully brisk after the refreshing rains. Upon arriving at the Edible Peace Patch we noticed that our once tall heap of mulch had now been spread across the growing garden landscape. Knowing that the mulch was essential to the expansion of our garden we decided to retrieve the "green monster" from Eckerd campus. After loading up the truck with several pitchforks we made our way to the recycling complex just down the road from Lakewood Elementary. Luckily the resources we were in need off were in excess! The persistent rains of the this past week had added a substantial weight to the mulch heap and it soon became obvious this job would not be a quick one. As the sun's rays began to grow stronger we tossed in the last loads of mulch into the bed.
A short trip back to the school and we began to unload our steamy, warm mulch heap. Although unloading the mulch proved to be a much easier task it did not come without casualties...

By the time we finished unloading all the mulch it was time for the next group to start the day's work. We packed up our things and headed back to Eckerd campus to return the green monster. Until our next adventure in the Edible Peace Patch, farewell to all!

-Nico

More Mulch

2011-09-26T23:11:00.000-04:00

"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." --Greek proverb

We all hoped that this week we would be finally be able to start working with the students but it turns out that we have another week without them. At least the garden will be in very good shape for the kids. Today was another hot one but lucky for us there was a nice cool breeze that made the humid air more bearable. It was a relief to see that the stubborn grass that I spent so much time digging up on Friday morning was finally all cleared out. We started off our shift by watering some of the beds and wildflowers and then we set up the sprinkler to do the rest. Forest got right to work weeding some of the plants along the sides and re mulching them.

We also mulched the entire trench where we will soon plant some sunflowers! It's amazing how fast the garden has grown in just the three days that I have been gone. So many of the plants we just planted last week have shot up.

The red current tomatoes that Erin and I made starters for last week have already sprouted!

Our shift flies by and I feel like we never get as much done as we should be able to.

Until next time!

-Alina

A Carousel of Progress

2011-09-23T20:07:00.000-04:00

Though Walt Disney coined this fitting term to represent decades of American progress, it seems only appropriate for the transformation of our garden over the past week. This Friday, I sweated through my second shift in the Peace Patch, and I am already astounded at the beautiful work that our team has invested in our growing garden. With a hot cup of coffee to get me revved up and the morning sun just beginning to peak over Lakewood Elementary, the girls and I got straight to work with shovel and pail in hand.

The bulk of our energy was channeled through a couple big shovels as they sliced through the omnipresent thick grass roots in what will soon be our watermelon patch. This project will take a few days and many more hands, but we managed to fill a few wheel barrels with the pesky stuff. We also smoothed over some beds and planted seeds that will hopefully soon sprout into kale, pole beans, and a start to "the three sisters" - squash, corn, and beans. This garden plot will be of particular interest to me, as it represents a classic working permaculture system inspired by Native American subsistence technique.

Upon cupping the tiny seeds in my hand, I couldn't help but feel a bit skeptical. How can such a fragile little pebble of life transform into the leafy greens we envision blossoming from our beds? It requires so much care and diligence to protect, water, and weed the small seed's environment so that it has the chance to thrive as we hope. I can already tell that we have a team of very dedicated volunteers, though, and from what I've heard, the kids will pour their hearts into these plants as well. I can't wait to get to know them as we all progress through another season of gardening adventures!

Carly Chaapel

Watering Seeds and Pulling Weeds

2011-09-22T21:43:00.001-04:00

Another wonderful morning in the garden! Julia and I got right to work watering all our newly planted seeds as well as the crops that are growing strong. Thankfully we were in the garden bright and early and were able to use the hose, as we were not the only ones looking to utilize the water. As the sun crept higher in the sky we moved from watering to getting our hands dirty and weeding. Once declaring war on the sedge that seems to pop up everywhere, Julia and I had our hands full.

The sedge not only crept into the beds, but was also thriving in the paths. It’s amazing how plants can make their way through cardboard and mulch so rapidly! We started pulling sedge out of some of the beds but soon realized how much was in the path and quickly shifted our focus. It was difficult to pull out all of the roots of the sedge but hopefully not many were left behind so our paths and beds will stay weed-free for a longer period of time. After a solid 40 minutes of pulling up sedge out of the pathways and beds we were covered in dirt and sweat. It felt great to work outside in the morning. By the end of our shift we cleaned up the paths around the beds and were acceptably dirty.

It’s amazing how much can be accomplished in just a week! Everything looks so much better now than it did just 7 days ago. The garden finally looks ready for some kids! I can’t wait until we get some more plants in the ground!

A Little Dirt Never Hurts

2011-09-21T13:13:00.000-04:00

“All my life, I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower whenever the flower would grow in thought and mind.”- Abraham Lincoln

I started the early morning shift at Lakewood Elementary by adding some vegetables scrapes to the compost pile. Once doing this, one of my fellow group members, Lilian, began to turn the compost. This is important to break down the compost.

Another member of my group, Hank, brought a couple of pineapple tops to plant in the pineapple garden. We have a few premade rock circles for the tops. After Hank dug the hole and planted the pineapple, I watered them so they would be comfortable in their new home.

I decided to water a few other plants in the garden that seemed a little dry. The tomatoes I transplanted a few days ago seem to be doing fine. I learned when transplanting tomatoes, it is extremely important to use plenty of water.

We concluded the day by weeding throughout the mulch and in a few beds in the garden. Its amazing how weeds continue to grow back. It takes continual work to maintain a garden; it would not exist at Lakewood Elementary without people looking after it.

Julia Melton

Children: Gardeners of the Future

2011-09-21T02:26:00.000-04:00

As the rising rays of the sun began to greet the day our work in the garden was just beginning. Tristram was the first to rouse our sleepy garden as he provided a much needed morning shower for our new generation of little vegetables. The sweet potato bed is well on its way to a bountiful future, and the lone basil plant is not far behind. Small blades of grass have started to poke their heads through a few of the beds, but our unceasing battle against them continues to hold them back. Although it seems that a few of our tomato plants have gone missing, the ones that remain seem to be picking up the slack and it wont be long before more join their numbers.
Once the entire group arrived we quickly got to the task of expanding our pineapple forest. Equipped with shovels and gloves we began the long, hard task of pushing back the matt of grass. The swift sound of our shovels tearing through the earth provided us with a rhythmic groove to help pass the time, and before we knew it we had pushed the grass all the way to our fence line. Drenched with sweat and covered head to toe with sandy soil, we began to lay down the recycled cardboard on the now naked earth. About halfway through our work we were greeted by the smiling faces of a first grade class. Accompanied by three teachers, the little future gardeners surveyed their land and expressed their excitement for this coming growing season; most of their eyes growing wide with the thought of a pineapple forest. The class bid us farewell and we continued our work. After using up all the cardboard at our disposal we placed a top layer of mulch to secure our hard days work. Ten o'clock rolled around just as we were dumping the last of the mulch, and with the return of our tools to the shed we packed up our gritty hands and said our goodbyes... Until next time, peas out!

Another day in the Peace Patch

2011-09-19T23:03:00.000-04:00

Today was another sweltering Monday afternoon in the garden. Even with the Florida sun beating on our backs we set off to work with high spirits. It felt good to be out of the classroom/ dorm-rooms and be working outside. Chelsea stayed around with the truck to help us get another load of mulch. Due to a shortage of pitchforks Erin and I stayed back at the garden while Forest and Chelsea went to fill up the truck. I started to pull some more of those stubborn weeds out from around the pineapples while Erin began to water some of the beds. I have never done much gardening before but have quickly found that I really enjoy it. There is something soothing about working in the garden. I love getting covered in dirt and digging my bare hands into the soil.

When Forest and Chelsea got back with the truck full of mulch we spread it around the pineapple beds and we started to spread it around the main beds. We then planted some wildflowers and marigolds. Erin showed me how to make starters for the red current tomatoes. She explained how they grew better if we planted them separately first and then transplanted them into the main beds later. I have always wanted to learn how to grow my own food so this whole experience is very interesting for me.

Near the end of our shift a beautiful yellow butterfly fluttered around the garden but wouldn’t sit still long enough for us to capture a picture. I can't wait until the garden is brimming with plants and animal life! There is something very rewarding about being able to look back after our shift is done and seeing how much we have accomplished.

-Alina Dallmeier

Lets talk compost

2011-09-17T16:08:00.000-04:00

My whole life has been spent waiting for an epiphany, a manifestation of God's presence, the kind of transcendent, magical experience that let's you see your place in the big picture. And that is what I had with my first compost heap.
-Bette Midler

Friday was one hot and dirty day when it came to compost. The morning meeting went well during the cooler hours but as the day heated the jobs seemed to heat up with them. First we had to discuss the issue of the missing water melon, an issue that still haunts many of us. Next came mulch. We finally got a chance to get some mulch in but some has to be re-spread to allow for a dream of a forest of pineapples.

When Erin and I arrived in the afternoon we were faced with a sweltering afternoon but moved on undeterred and started turning over beds to replace what had become sand heaps with fresh and nutrient rich soil we could be proud to plant it.

Erin took up this task quickly despite the immense heat and i moved to the compost pile.

The compost was i need of much love with only one pile producing the heat required to break down our weeds into serious soil. Without this soil some of the gardens plants will have very sandy homes. The piles were all turned over fully and moved around and we are hoping that when we arrive monday morning we will be confronted by simmering compost and rich smells of soil.

Last but not least we started getting some beds ready for planting. The sun was beating fiercly but with a steady supply of water and moist ground we hopefully were able to resurrect a disturbed and sandy bed. We will see on monday if our efforts payed off and even if they didn't everyone will be well rested with beds ready for planting. We are also all getting very excited for the following week when we will get to start working with the smiling faces of the Lakewood elementary children!

I hope everyone has a great and restful weekend!

-Tristram

Progress in the Garden

2011-09-15T11:24:00.000-04:00

“All is connected... no one thing can change by itself. “ –Paul Hawken

The morning shift arrived at Lakewood Elementary at 8:00. It was still cool until the sun continued turning it into a hot sweaty morning. We began our work where others had left off just past the pineapple garden it hopes of creating room for the watermelon.

We noticed how using our hands to pull out tall grasses would sometimes cut them, so we decided to use garden clippers to trim them down and then take them out by their root. This was followed by raking all the grass that we pulled and added it to the compost. We noticed how the compost has really piled up in the last week, which we hope to put to good use eventually.

There are still preparations needed before we introduce the children to the garden, but it is nice to see some strong sprouts beginning to make their debut. For instance, the basil plant is beautiful and seems to be strong.

The garden still has more to come!

Julia Melton

The Result of Teamwork

2011-09-14T14:00:00.000-04:00

"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success". ~Henry Ford

After a two and a half mile bike ride, I met my fellow peers at the garden early in the morning. It was a pleasant surprise to see the improvements made since Monday. It shows how far working together as a team can go. Besides the nicely cleared out plots free from sedges and other weeds, there were many more sprouts that had grown since we had been there last.

Specifically, the sweet potato plot has been thriving. Another crop that was doing well was the cucumber which seemed noticeable in several different beds.

Since the plots have been maintained and nicely groomed, we decided to focus our time working on the pineapple garden. We continued to clear out the grasses that had been removed remarkably since the last time we had been there. Then we laid out cardboard around the pineapple garden. Each pineapple has rocks surrounding its perimeter and some rock circles we made today for pineapples to be planted in the future.

Once we finished laying out the cardboard we began mulching on top. This is done to keep the grasses from growing around the pineapples so as to maximize their ability to grow. While we were doing this, Noah found beautiful red and black colored bugs in the butterfly bush which he classified as “True Bugs”.

It seems like every day in the Garden we find new things and get to learn to identify new species. It is very rewarding to be working on a project that is continuing to come together!

Julia Melton

Moving Forward

2011-09-13T22:12:00.003-04:00

“This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

- Sir Winston Churchill

The beginning of EPPG is over and we move steadily into the body of our work. What a great beginning it was but today we all got our hands dirty. The beds are all weeded and the garden looks great. But there is still much work to be done as we begin expanding the garden in two directions. The first will be mulching the ditch were the sunflowers are grown. The cardboard is down and as we wait for the much we weed our way back into the undergrowth to develop a pineapple garden. This turned out to be no simple task. The grass is tall and well-established and other weeds seem to be stubborn in giving up their ground. The ground is firm and slightly rocky.

As we moved slowly backwards our compost piles grow higher and higher. However great progress was made. Our already resident pineapples are now happily sitting in their new private plots. The progress was slow and slightly daunting at first but besides a few run-ins with man eating spiders and incredibly stubborn plants we moved ahead undaunted. Much of the undergrowth is removed and soon we will be able to lay down some serious layers of cardboard and mulch. We have also been ordered to quest out into the world and return with as many pineapple tops each student can find.

Working in stages with separate groups makes watching the development of the garden very interesting. Every time I go it is slightly improved and looks slightly better. Also it leads to some very interesting conversations such as how different children treat nature. Some love to stare some love to touch things and some like to cop attitudes and stomp frogs apparently. We did get a quick visit from a kindergarten class today. The looks of excitement reminded us all of why we are working so hard in the morning sun. In the end it was worth it and I believe were all excited to keep moving forward.

Tristram Norman

Weeding, Discoveries, and Things To Come

2011-09-12T22:50:00.000-04:00

     Today was one of firsts. As a new member of the team working on the garden it was my first true day working at Lakewood Elementary along side two other firsties, Forest and Alina. For the group in its entirety today represented our the first day of our new schedule, and for many of us, our first day ever having interacted with gardening in general.
     Walking onto the school campus, seeing the children we'd be educating for the first time walking along the corridors and up the portable ramps staring with interest and waving to us with giant smiles across there faces created a sense of kindredness between we three students who had barley met before our afternoon shift. I think we all felt at ease in each others presences, talking of our environmental interests, goals and opinions and sharing what our own personal value of working in the garden.
     Having worked in gardens before it felt amazing to be able to break free from my daily courses and lectures and dig my hands in the soil for the first time in months. Although it was a very warm and sunny Florida afternoon, Forest, Alina and I managed to weed the entire trench area where we plan to plant Sunflowers. managing to fill 2 wheelbarrows full of compostable overgrowth from the small area! After, we laid the base of cardboard over the trench to maintain the weed growth until the area can be mulched.

With an hour left in our shift we decided to continue weeding many of the raised beds and a bit of the pineapple area as best we could. As we picked our way through the Sweet Potato bed, Forest and I noticed a patch of Purslane sprouting. Purslane is an edible "weed" that can be used as a leafy green in salads. It has the highest amount of Omeg-3 fatty acids found in any other leafy vegetable. It is also amazing ground cover, maintaining soil moisture.
After weeding a few of the beds in the heat we deiced to move toward the Pineapples, an area in much need of some TLC. Finishing our shift we cleared as much of the thick rooted grasses as we could. Forest and I talked at length about how interesting it must be for a child to see a pineapple grow for the first time.

Erin Mattick

Fall Semester Begins

2011-09-09T13:59:00.001-04:00

"You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result." Mahatma Ghandhi

And so we are underway. After Ethan Mauger spent the Autumn Term cleaning out weeds and planting seeds and putting things in order, we begin the new semester with an anticipation of great things to come.

This morning a dozen and a half Eckerd College undergraduates showed up at 7:30 in the morning, while the air was still cool and the dew was still on the grass, to visit the garden for the first time and come together as the Fall garden teaching community. Everyone was in a remarkably great mood despite the early hour and we got lots of little things accomplished.

We have squash or cucumber (too early to tell) volunteering all over the garden this fall. It is popping up in every bed. Elsewhere, okra sprouts are taking roots and growing well in the past week of rains. In less than a week, the sedge and grasses have started to try to recolonize the beds and push up through the mulch, but with this new community of gardeners, we will soon get ahead of it once again.

The lovely pointed leaves of the sweet potato vine are sprouting from the place where tubers were buried last week and we anticipate a nice crop of the delicious underground fruit by December. As you can see, the weeds are doing well, too. Many hands are needed to help along our food in this Florida climate.

Our tour began in the storage shed and ended with the watermelon that has somehow survived a summer of drought and overgrowth of grasses at the far end of the beds. We witnessed many pineapple plants that have made similar remarkable survivals and that will be a part of the garden growth in the season ahead.

In past years, with little expience to guide me on what will come next I have often begun the year with a bit too much anxious anticipation, worry even that things will not go as thing ought to go. Now this fourth year of work, my worries are erased. I look at the sprouting plants, the beautiful space, the happy faces of Eckerd College students, and I am filled with joy at the opportunity to be a participant in this community, to be a cultivator of relationships and a tender of spirit.

On Monday, the final preparations of the site get underway, and before we know it, the Lakewoods kids will join us and the whole cycle will begin again.

Kip Curtis
Project Director

The planting has started!

2011-09-03T18:15:00.000-04:00

After a long couple of weeks of weeding and mulching in the garden the beds were ready to get some seeds and plants to start the fall growing season. All of the beds needed some supplementing of manure and soil to boost their growing potential. Katie and I picked up manure from a local horse farm and added it to the beds and ALL of the soil came from our compost! I was amazed at how much soil we created from last semester.

Last week Katie and I planted a few starters of okra, corn, squash, broccoli, peppers, and eggplant.

We also planted all of the small sweet potatoes and their leaves have already started to sprout out of the bed.

The okra came up very quickly too in our starters, and all over the garden in random beds. These beds also have some random sprouts coming up from seeds of last semester’s veggies.

I've had a great time fixing up the garden this month and can't wait to get started with the kids!

Peace,
Ethan Mauger

Before


After!

Into the Street 2011!

2011-08-29T18:28:00.004-04:00

For the past two weeks Ethan Mauger, an Eckerd College senior, has been laboring away on the Edible Peace Patch, clearing overgrown grasses and weeds, transplanting bushes, planting seeds and getting starters started. He's done a fantastic job, but, except for one or two of the days, he's been completely on his own sweating it out in the Florida sun.

This past Friday, however, we got some major assistance from a group of 14 Eckerd College freshmen participating in the annual "Into the Streets" service day where Eckerd College sends its students into St. Petersburg to help out wherever it's needed. From what I saw, the class of 2015 is an impressive group!

The day was almost unbearably hot, in the nineties with a thick humid air and a burning summer Florida sun, and we asked them to turn sod, pull weeds, and lay mulch. Without a complaint, they set to work. The joy I get as an Eckerd College professor listening to the quiet conversations of working students cannot be measured. Here they learn about each other and begin to make friendships that will last four year and then a lifetime.

I had to convince them to stop and rest under the shade of a nearby oak tree after two hours. They seemed unwilling, persistent, driven, dedicated. In the photo above you can see the large area they had already cleared and after twenty minutes of cooling down, they went right back to work unprompted.

I had expected to complete maybe 1/4 of the garden area last Friday, but these students completed almost half of it, and laid a lot of mulch to boot. They were soaked with sweat, and sunburnt from the pounding rays of sun, but joyous in their own way and when I told them it was quitting time, they asked if I was sure. "Have we done enough?" One of them queried.

These young adults were amazing. They impressed me, and further reinforced my belief that the future will be in good hands. Thank you all and thanks to Brian MacHarg and the Service Learning Office who organizes this event every year.

And thanks especially to Ethan Mauger, who has picked up again where the freshmen left off last Friday and has turned a tangle of weeds and overgrown beds back into the beautiful garden we will tend this semester. I am grateful for all that you do.

Kip Curtis
Director, Edible Peace Patch

The first week back

2011-08-19T16:57:00.000-04:00

It has been about three months since I’ve been to the peace patch and I’ve missed it. The first thing, or things, that I saw were the weeds. It looked like an over grown meadow to the point where I couldn’t even find the beds!

So I spent the first two days weeding all the beds and managed to fill two of the compost piles up to the top of the fence. I was definitely surprised at the amount of time that it took me to find the bottom of each bed. I also managed to get myself sun burnt during the first few hours of work. During the first day I was lucky enough to find about a dozen sweet potatoes to harvest and another dozen that will be replanted when the bed is ready. I made some delicious sweet potato fries for my roommates as soon as I made it home.

I spent most of Wednesday picking up mulch from the local recycling center and piling it up at the edge of the garden. It seems like I picked up a lot of mulch, but I’m sure I’ll be making a few more trips before the end of the month to make our garden look great.

Thursday was my favorite day because the garden finally looked more like the peace patch. I mowed all of the grass that had crept up over the summer so all of the beds could be seen. I also pulled up all of the weeds from our three sister’s plot (squash, beans, & corn). This was a task that took about three times as long as I first expected, but now looks great. Friday I prepared the beds by raking up all of the roots that did not get pulled out the first couple of days. Now all that the beds need is a little bit of horse manure and they will be ready for seeds!

Next week I have to weed the pineapple area, which has about five that made it and start planting seeds!

Peace from the peace patch,

Ethan

2011-05-05T23:39:00.000-04:00

Today was my last day of teaching for the spring semester 2011, but definitely not the last time I will be teaching at the Peace Patch. The kids came out and ran into their groups, excited for this week’s lesson. Unfortunately it was not a lesson today, but a little test on all of the lessons that we have taught throughout the semester. It seemed like we hid the fact that it was a test from the kids pretty well because they were so excited to do the worksheet and got started right away, no complaints! It also could have been because we told them that if they were good they would get to play a game at the end of class. Anytime the kids were having a little trouble with one of the questions I would mention a game or activity that we did over the semester and they would remember the answer. This semester has helped me realize that this active teaching style works really well with kids and I’m pretty jealous that I didn’t have a program like this at my elementary school.

Once the worksheet was completed we played the compost game and a few rounds of the butterfly life cycle.

After the students left Jamie, Sarah, and I were visited by a preschooler whose pet butterfly had hatched around 9:00 this morning. It is the second one she has released into our garden this year! These preschoolers have not yet experienced the garden lessons, but they already have a fascination with butterflies and nature so I’m excited to teach them more next year.

It was a little sad leaving the garden and saying bye to all of my students, but I know we will all be back next year for more garden fun in the Peace Patch.

Ethan Mauger

Harvest Festival 2011!!

2011-05-04T08:58:00.007-04:00

Another season passed.

What a blessing to be a part of this community, to be a part of Eckerd College, where students care about making the world a better place and actively do something about it, to be a part of Lakewood Elementary School, which has welcomed us and allowed us to spend time with all of the beautiful children there, to be able to build and plant and cultivate and harvest a garden...and a community. What a blessing it is.

We had visitors tour the garden in the late afternoon, croon at our sunflowers, admire the tomatoes, peer into the compost.

Our kale and collards and sweet potato and beans all welcomed them with bright green leaves and food for the picking.

There were samples to try in the garden, nasturtium flowers, basil leaves and dill seeds.

There was okra the size of small children.

There was a palpable feeling of joy as we all shared our landscape with the community.

Inside, Eckerd College students had prepared a feast. They each made a dish based on the vegetables we grew in the garden and the food was stupendous and healthy.

Everyone filled their plates with pasta and salad and a host of dishes like lasagna and eggplant and sweet potato.

There was more than enough for everyone and everyone was well fed.

We even spotted some elementary kids actually eating their vegetables.

Two of my project coordinators, graduating senior Jamie P. and phenomenal sophomore Katie S. greeted folks as they came through the door, welcoming them to our celebration.

Kaylie B., who was a big part of the garden before she graduated last year, came to visit her old and new friends, sharing a laugh with Tommy L., Cheslea E., Ethan M., Sydney C., and Jamie P.

There were seconds, and thirds.

And everyone readied themselves for some entertainment.

Three of the fourth grade boys from chorus agreed to sing The Garden Song led and accompanied by Lakewood Elementary's fantastically talented music instructor Mrs. Alfaro.

Three fourth grade girls from strings then serenaded us with four songs on the violin and viola.

We had an opportunity to thank Alpha Kappa Alpha, whose generous support helped us get started in the fall and serve up full dishes in the spring.

We also had an opportunity to thank Sarah T., who brought her mom, and whose work developing the Wellness Kitchen and teaching nutrition from our garden was perhaps the most generous gift we received this year.

We will MISS Sarah!!

The Eckerd students enjoyed the show.

We even raffled off eight eggplant and pepper plants to several lucky winners who were excited to bring them home and see how much they could grow.

It was a wonderful evening with a lovely community,

and I am truly one of the luckiest people in the world.

SEE YOU NEXT FALL!!

Kip Curtis

Project Manager

Planning and Cooking up a Storm!

2011-05-02T21:37:00.001-04:00

Today was spent making final preparations for the harvest festival... making posters, buying last minute groceries, and gathering pictures... everyone is so excited! Despite some initial organizational confusion (as is the case with most big events), everyone left the meeting with a sense of preparedness and anticipation. I'm excited to see how the parents respond to all the hard work the kids have been doing this semester... I think they will be pleasantly surprised!

I have been spending my afternoon cooking up a storm! I am making eggplant lasagna, and so far it's coming out as planned... let's keep our fingers crossed!

In other news, everyone was quite amused with the plight of monk parakeets that frequent our garden. They showed up this morning, despite the mass of people, and tried to attack our sunflowers. We managed to shoo them away (for now), but this introduce species definitely enjoys munching on the flowers pretty regularly. Here they are pictured perched on the power-line, waiting for us to turn our backs!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's update from the Harvest Festival... you won't want to miss it!

Getting Ready and Growing Strong

2011-04-29T20:45:00.003-04:00

Every day is literally a new day for me in the garden. Things grow so much in a weekend's time and although we are battling fungus in some of our beds, the others are doing phenomenal! Our Okra is so delicious and healthy. I've never grown my own food so I'm learning a lot - my favorite fun fact is that when the flower of a plant (like squash) dies, that means it's ready to be eaten! What great communicating mother nature is capable of :)

The most amazing thing I've seen when it comes to fast growing are our sunflowers! They are my favorite flower and it is so welcoming to see this giant leaves and flowers every time I visit the garden!

Just so you have an idea, Max (pictured) is about 6'2'' and most of the sunflowers are taller than him! It's been such an incredible journey watching them go from tiny stalks to illuminated flowers. I cannot wait for the Harvest Festival next Tuesday and I know the kids are just as excited to show off the garden.

We have put a lot of hard work into the garden this year and I cannot wait to cook food using the veggies and show the parents what the kids have been up to at school! A lot of my Lakewood lovelies have been talking about wanting to start their own garden and so maybe if their parents see the success of ours, they'd be willing to start one of their own! Although, a large majority of my children's families already have gardens which is great!

This semester has been so inspiring for me and I hope it is as inspiring the children. Above is a picture of our baby watermelon growing into a young adolescent :) (pictured above with the sandal). I remember a couple weeks ago when it was the size of a grape! Our tomatoes (pictured below) are also looking quite delicious. I'm getting so excited for all the delicious foods we are going to have and all the wonderful company that we are going to be surrounded by!

We spent the day prepping the garden for our visitors as well as reviewing all of the cycles and lessons we've learned over the semester with our kids. Next week will be our final goodbye :(

Next Tuesday @ Lakewood Elementary!
"Be there or be a rotten cucumber"
(as one of my darling first graders exclaimed when I told them about the Harvest Fest)

Peace,

Jamie P.

Growing and Progress!

2011-04-28T16:28:00.000-04:00

April 28, 2011

Today was one of the first days I started to notice the hot Florida temperatures, as the temperature is normally pretty moderate at 8 AM in the morning. Upon arriving, we had some time for maintenance. I did some weeding of various areas, while Joanisa worked on removing the beetles from the sunflowers. We also made some kale chips for the kids with garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. They were delicious.

This morning we noticed that the birds had chewed off a sunflower from its stem, and it had fallen to the ground. We took this opportunity to dissect it and teach the kids about the anatomy of a flower, and how each part is beneficial. We used terms like seed, stem, petal, and leaf to help them identify each part.

When the kids came, we reviewed everything that we have learned this year. We went over the life-cycle of a butterfly and its importance (with kale chips as a reward), and the water cycle. Additionally, we discussed the different elements plants need to grow such as soil, water, and sunlight. Finally, we covered the topic of the insects' role in the garden, which is by far the kids' favorite topic. It is very rewarding to see that the students are starting to recognize which plant is which, and where each plant is growing.

The pumpkins (above) are coming along very nicely, as does the corn (below).

Today's lesson was about watering the garden. We filled up several watering pots and allowed each student a chance to water some produce. However, things quickly turned chaotic when the students got carried away and began to get very wet. It was at this point that we reconvened to have a discussion about how to safely and correctly water a garden without getting wet.

Tommy spent a lot of time collecting seeds from the wildflower and herbs area. The process looked extremely tedious. However, this process is the most beneficial when teaching about sustainable gardening. A lot of the students seemed surprised that the seeds are produced by the flowers. It was a good visual for them to actually see this happen.

Dill seeds have been collected on the left in the clay cup, and cilantro was collected in the plastic cup to the right.

All in all, the day was very successful. With the help of the students, the garden is fully watered and the weeding and seeding seems to be under control. We are very excited for the Harvest Festival, and are looking forward to sharing the food with the community, sampling all the dishes, and enjoying the garden.

Wednesday April 27

2011-04-27T20:34:00.001-04:00

This week's lesson is a review of the many cycles we have talked about in the garden with the kids. On Wednesdays, we have all younger kids, so instead of playing the scavenger hunt, we simply walked them around the garden and talked about some of the things we have learned. We stopped at the compost to talk about soil and what makes good soil.

We stopped at the wildflower bed to talk about and pollination and the seed cycle

We also stopped to look at different bugs found in the garden, and talked about why they are important members of the garden

We finished the lesson by letting the kids pick their favorite game to play.

The rest of the day was spent spreading mulch around the garden, and getting it in great shape for the Harvest Fest.

We have been visited a few times this week by a group of wild parakeets that love to munch on our sunflowers. Sadly, they tend to destroy whole parts of the flower:

At least the birds are enjoying our garden as well!

Good Morning Peace Patch!

2011-04-26T21:07:00.000-04:00

I love walking through the doors leading out to the Peace Patch. It is quiet, a little before 8 in the morning and the sun is just coming up over the garden.

What a great sight. It has been an amazing experience watching not only the plants grow week to week but the relationships with the kids and community grow as well. The time has flown and with only 2 weeks remaining today's lesson was a review of what we have learned. The kids had an awesome time on a scavenger hunt with clues that lead them all around the garden.

Sweet Potatoes ready to be harvested.

Lots of yummy vegetables are ready to be harvested for the Harvest Festival next week. The festival will be on May 3rd from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Students are encouraged to bring their family and friends to show them the garden and to share in the harvest. Each volunteer will be making a dish from a vegetable grown in the garden that will be served at the festival. I personally am looking forward to the sweet potato casserole Katie is making. Yummy!

Can you guess what I could be making from this vegetable?

Hope to see you all next week at the Harvest Festival!!

peace and gardening

Elizabeth

Start your morning right...With a big pile of mulch!

2011-04-25T23:31:00.000-04:00

Today was a quiet day at Lakewood, it was a teacher work day so we sadly did not have any youngsters to grace our presence in the garden. However, as we near the harvest festival (May 3rd), having no kids around did not mean we twiddled our thumbs. There is much to be done in the garden.

When I arrived Erin was arms deep in clearing leaves which had been overtaken by a fungus from the cucumber.

Once our friends arrived with the truck filled with mulch, Erin, Christina and I set out on the job of moving the mulch to its new home on the ground.

After much joyful labor, we emptied the truck. This was one of the biggest truckloads of much yet!

And much needed, as the sedge was already taking over as fast as it could.

Soon the garden will be looking in tip-top shape. Starting the week with some sprucing up is a great way to build high energy and hopes for a wonderful harvest-fest next week! Hope to see you all there!

Max

A Reflection

2011-04-22T13:32:00.000-04:00

As an independent study person (i.e. a project manager) for the Lakewood Edible Peace Patch project, I really don't have words to describe the experiences I have encountered and the things I have learned this past semester. I have learned more then lesson planning and what goes into organizing a project - I have learned about myself. There is a sadness that comes with my graduating because I know that working in the garden with these kids is probably not something I will able to continue next year. I love seeing how excited they get when they come to the garden, and even more, I love how well they retain information they have learned in the previous weeks! This hands on learning style is so great for them and I'm a tad jealous I never had this experience in elementary school!

It has been such a phenomenal semester at Lakewood and coming into this project knowing VERY little about gardening, I am shocked that I know have the confidence to start my own garden at home and that I am capable of planting and taking care of things that turn into food! I have learned that although it's hard work and sometimes doesn't turn out the way you plan, in the end it gardening and growing food feels great, looks great, tastes great and is just such a powerful and amazing thing that has come into my life, and I am so thankful for this opportunity.

And who says the Wellness Kitchen run by Sarah Tucker is just for the Lakewood students....this garden has made ME improve my eating habits at home. Not only do I shop organic, I have started composting, and am absolutely addicted to kale chips! Sarah Tucker definitely makes eating vegetables fun and delicious :)

My favorite part of the garden this week is definitely our baby watermelons! Maybe because they're small and adorable but mostly because the kids thought I was lying when I said we had watermelons and now I have proof! :)

I have taken so much from this project and I cannot wait to see the progress it makes through the years.

Peace
Jamie P

Sunny Day

2011-04-21T23:19:00.000-04:00

This morning we asked what students remembered about the previous lesson. "Don't pick the veggies!" they cried out earnestly, nearly in unison and echoing each other. Good enough. We continued with this week's lesson about endemic plants as we meandered through the outskirts of the garden, home to many of the native plants (as described eloquently in Monday and Tuesdays blog posts). Today, before we could quite complete the lesson, most of the class had wandered off, distracted by the beauty of the sunflowers (we can't blame them, they were tiny last they had seen). Now, the stalks towered over them, flowers as big as their faces. Some sunflowers had beetles buried in them, as one student noted. Though a bit skiddish being anywhere near the bees, they appreciate them very much and understand the good that they do. From afar, some students call the bees their cousins, recounting tales of having worked with them, pollinating and protecting the queen (they're now retired). The bumble bee we saw today was deemed their grandmother. Some students traipsed through the garden, curious to find out the name of each plant (again), pushing aside leaves to find the ceramic signs or asking us. While one student munched down on raw dill with delight, another spat it out, still smiling. One student asked to wear my sunglasses. I gave them with the condition that she pass them on in a few moments and that she tell the person she gives them to to pass them on in a few moments, and so on. We were so proud to see how well they shared! After choosing out leaves from the native plants, the students made leaf rubbings with colored pencils and crayons. Because we were all so well behaved today, we got treated to cucumber slices! Some students diligently picked out the seeds (without being asked, mind you) one by one to lay out in the sun and save. We also took out the sidewalk chalk to draw garden related pictures (and names and hop-scotch).
We've recently learned that students respond beautifully to song, especially the "put it in the compost" riff.
Weave Peace and Plant Seeds,
Joanisa Tenreiro

Happy Wednesday!

2011-04-20T21:16:00.000-04:00

Today was a miraculously beautiful day out in the Peace Patch! The day began with routine maintenance but then launched into a great debate over the best Florida Native plants! Our classes today learned about the Florida Friendly or native plants that we have planted alongside our vegetable beds and sunflowers. These plants are important to our ecosystem here in Florida and they provide many incentives for birds and butterflies. Many are flowering plants that once in bloom radiate under the Florida sunshine and still others are soon to be vibrantly full of berries! The list began at the Weeping Holly which is a white colored tree with small leaves and soon to have tons of red berries, Jamaican Caper which has also small leaves is a smaller plant with flowers about to open, Simpson's Stopper which has notably thick waxy leaves for water retention which is a great trait of Florida natives. The rest of the plants, Cocoa Plum was interesting for its berries, Beauty berry had as one student pointed out mint like leaves, Christmas berry looks like a Christmas tree, fire bush is red and finally coral honeysuckle vine.

Our students had a blast learning about the different plants but they insisted upon visiting the garden as well. The garden has become greener and greener everyday! As a treat for our first class we cut up a green and a yellow cucumber and gave pieces to the students after they had finished their drawings. The students were asked to trace the leaves with colored pencils to note the differences among them and to point out specific characteristics of the different plants. This lesson was a great success on a great Wednesday! In addition to the cucumbers we were able to harvest a huge yellow squash, some gigantic okra and nasturtiums which go great on a salad! Everyone was loving the green in the garden today and I especially enjoyed the enthusiasm from our students who make our project possible.

Have a great week!
Christina Pucci