Kick-Off

The Green  LIONS Garden Group started their second year on Monday with some returning members and lots of new faces. We celebrated the first week of Fall by planting our Fall garden. Farmer John Wilson of New Earth Farm, http://www.newearthfarm.org/New_Earth_Farm/Welcome.html, came out again to volunteer his knowledge, time and help to plant our three garden beds with kale, cabbage, broccoli, tat soi, lettuces, radishes and kohlrabi.

We have exciting plans for our group this year with lots of fun lessons, crafts and projects. We have an interesting line-up of speakers coming to teach and entertain the students. Our meeting agenda plans are posted on the right under GLGG Files to see what we have planned for the year.

We were once again awarded a grant from the Education Foundation, http://www.vbschools.com/volunteers/educ_found/index.asp, and thanks to their generosity, and the generosity of our school's PTA, and many helpful school and community volunteers we have plans to expand the garden with 3-4 more garden beds, edible bushes, fruit trees and much more. We are especially excited to learn we can incorporate some of our garden produce into the school cafeteria for more students to sample!

We are often asked how we decided to develop this program. This program was born from a group of like-minded parents who saw the importance of teaching students about the importance of taking care of their environment, and the benefits to themselves and the planet in supporting local growers and producers. Pam Warhurst, cofounder of Incredible Edible Todmorden, a local food partnership that encourages community engagement through local growing, gave an inspiring TED talk on their program and how to incorporate it on the levels of community, learning and business. She and her colleagues transformed their town with edible growing spaces in the most unlikely of places and unified the community.You can view this fascinating 13-minute TED talk here. http://www.ted.com/talks/pam_warhurst_how_we_can_eat_our_landscapes.html?quote=1818

Warhurst states that "the one unifying language that cuts across culture, age, and income and that helps people themselves see things differently, see spaces differently, think about resources differently, and interact differently...appears to be food...It's time for us to take personal responsibility and invest in more kindness to each other and the environment." She also proclaims "please let us say to every school, create a sense of purpose around the importance of the environment, local food and soil. Put that at the heart of your school culture and you will create a different generation."

Potatoes & Portables

The Green LIONS Garden Group held its final meeting for this school year on Monday. We welcomed Clay Dills from Dills Architects to speak with the kids about the many ways his company uses environmentally-friendly methods in its design and building. He involved the kids in a lively discussion about the way we all use electricity and water and how we could do a better job in their conservation. He showed the students many examples of using this conservation mentality in harnassing solar power to supplement energy in schools, collecting rain barrel water to heat floors, and light sensitve lighting that shuts off when natural daylight is sufficient. The students received a valuable lesson in how they can practice simple ways to conserve their own energy output at home.

Mr. Dills also shared an exciting new project with our group that his company is developing; a green roof, solar-powered classroom portable that he hopes to be on school campuses soon. This project is an impressive culmination of the energy conservation practices mentioned above into a miniature, but no less powerful model. The green roof will provide insulation for heating and cooling and will be watered by collected and pumped rain water. The portables will be built from sustainable materials and he hopes they can be completely supported by solar power. Very exciting!

We ended our meeting with a potato harvest digging up a huge pile of Yukon Gold and Fingerling potatoes for all the students to share with their families. We also harvested Rainbow Carrots, and the last of our radishes and sugar snap peas to share all around. The garden bid a bittersweet fairwell to its caretakers of the past months and now awaits a summer cover crop of buckwheat until we return in the Fall.

We can't thank our parent and teacher volunteers enough for the help and support you've given us this year. And thank you to our speakers and community volunteers. This has truly been a community garden program and all the support we received from everyone involved was vital. The Green LIONS Garden Group students, teachers and parents want to wish all our readers a happy and fun summer. Get out there and grow something, visit a farmers' market, ride your bikes places and enjoy our beautiful outdoors! See you back here in the Fall.

Nature Summons Us

With warm days, plenty of Spring rain and TLC our garden called to us to harvest most of its bounty earlier than planned. We harvested lettuces, arugula, mizuna, tat soi, kale, strawberries, sugar snap peas, and sorrel from our garden for our Harvest Tasting. We left the potatoes, beets and carrots to grow a little longer.

We also harvested huge turnips to donate along with extra mizuna, tat soi and lettuce to Potter's House, a food bank down at the oceanfront, so the students could share their hard work with others and learn about giving back to the community. Our LIONS garden has truly been a community effort so it is only natural for the garden to give back in return.

Parents, teachers, school administrators, school staff members and students came together to celebrate the students' hard work at our Harvest Tasting. Linkhorn parent and First Colonial High School teacher, Andrea Stanley, brought the First Colonial catering teacher, Liz Bueller, and catering students to help prepare the meal on site so the Green LIONS Garden Group students could observe cooking techniques. Linkhorn parent and owner of Roostflowers, Becky Devlin, donated beautiful organically grown flower bouquets for our dining tables. Wherever we needed extra vegetables, fruits, or other food items for our menu we sought out local sources when available. We bought extra produce from  New Earth Farm  and  Cullipher Farm  and bought bread from Baker's Crust.

Our menu included:
Spring Salad: Mixed LIONS Garden lettuces and mizuna, homemade organic pickled carrots, LIONS Garden sugar snap peas
LIONS Garden Kale Chips
Crash Hot Potatoes: Mix of New Earth Farm and Cullipher Farm potatoes, olive oil, local rosemary
Roasted Carrots and Beets: Mix of LIONS Garden beets and Cullipher Farm beets, olive oil, local rosemary
Spring Frittata: New Earth Farm eggs, Polyface Farm Italian Sausage, LIONS Garden sorrel, local shiitake mushrooms, New Earth Farm onions, mixed cheeses
Arugula Salad: LIONS Garden arugula and sorrel, LIONS Garden lettuces, cannellini beans, New Earth Farm onions, capers, balsamic vinaigrette
Spring Greens Bruschetta: Mix of LIONS Garden kale and beet greens, New Earth Farm garlic tops, homemade organic chicken stock, Baker's Crust baguette, grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Asian-Inspired Noodle Stir Fry: LIONS Garden tat soi, local shiitake mushrooms, New Earth Farm garlic tops, organic carrots, tamari soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, organic udon and soba noodles
Strawberry Pie and Fresh Whipped Organic Cream: made with LIONS Garden and New Earth Farm strawberries
Green LIONS Garden Group made LIONS Garden Strawberry and Local Honey Freezer Jam and Baker's Crust Bread

Everyone had a wonderful time trying new tastes and celebrating the students' hard work. Studies show that when a child grows his or her own food, learns about food systems and takes part in the family decisions of food choices, he or she is more likely to eat fresh fruits and vegetables and to try new healthier dishes. This Harvest Tasting was living proof of these findings! Students and guests went back for seconds and thirds and even got to take home extra lettuce from the garden to share with their families.

May Mashing & Mixing

The Green LIONS Garden Group has had a busy Spring tending to the LIONS Garden. After making worm tea with our vermicomposting bin to sprinkle on our garden beds, our vegetables and strawberries have shifted into high gear in their growing and producing. The spike in temperatures and welcome rain also helped of course. The garden is growing so fast we may have to reschedule our Harvest Tasting for sooner than planned. Not a bad problem to have though!

For a little insurance we added some friendly ladybugs to our plants to snack on any unwelcome bugs. Students had a great time examining and making friends with the garden guardians.

It has been such a treat searching through the strawberry plants for that pop of red. During watering duties this past week parent representatives picked so many ripe strawberries we decided to make freezer jam with the students to save for our Harvest Tasting. We sweetened the jam with local honey and organic white grape juice. What a delicious way to preserve and enjoy our strawberry harvest. Preserving food is also a wonderful lesson in self-sufficiency for the kids.

In anticipation of Summer students enjoyed a fun science lesson in mixing their very own homemade bug spray. We filled amber glass bottles with 3 and 1/2 ounces of witch hazel, and 1/2 teaspoon each of lemongrass, eucalyptus, and citronella essential oils. Our school courtyard was especially fragrant as the students sampled their new bug repellent scent.

We look forward to harvesting a successful crop of 14 varieties of vegetables and fruits very soon! Stay tuned for a sooner Harvest Tasting to be announced.

From Smoothies to Seeds

Our last two Green LIONS Garden Group meetings have been action packed. At our meeting in late March we made smoothies with the last of our garden Swiss chard blended with frozen organic strawberries, frozen organic bananas, organic local apple juice and pineapple juice. The cups (biodegradable of course) were emptied and seconds were requested by many.

Adding mild raw greens to fruit smoothies is a wonderful and delicious way to sneak an extra vitamin boost into our diets. We are in the season of green right now! Local markets, like Stoneys and Heritage Natural Market, and especially the local farms are loaded up with greens of all types to eat raw or cooked. It is easy to load up on these greens while they’re in season now, lightly cook them and freeze them for later when they aren’t as available.

Students also made anemometers to take home to measure and track changes in wind and to measure wind velocity. We found the template and instructions through Action Pack magazine, an e-zine filled with wonderful crafts and activities for kids, http://action-pack.com/ . They were able to measure wind velocity through a few easy steps. First the revolutions per minute (RPM) were calculated by using a timer to count how many times a marked cup passes in one minute. Next, the circumference of the circle made by the rotating paper cones was determined by measuring the radius, doubling it to get the diameter and then multiplying that by pi (3.14). Students were also directed to a site for help in this, http://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/geometry-plane/circle.php . Finally by multiplying the RPMs by the circumference, wind velocity in centimeters by minute is found.

The seeds we planted at the beginning of March are all sprouting. The potato plants are especially large, and the sugar snap vines are climbing our trellis. Please stop by the garden to see all the new growth.

We have all three beds planted now thanks again to Farmer John Wilson from New Earth Farm. As he did in the Fall he came back again at our last meeting to donate his time to help our students plant varieties of lettuce, arugula, tat soi, mizuna, sorrel and two types of kale. We even planted plants around our garden sign; thornless blackberry, bay leaf, lavender and rosemary. Our perennial strawberry plants are already producing ripe, red strawberries to sample.

We drained the rain barrel to water our new seedlings and made worm tea from our vermicompost bin to sprinkle on all the new plants. We hope to feast on our harvest before school is out and even donate some of our vegetables to help those in need.

Spring is a wondrous time to see plants grow and transform. Our students can document this in their garden journals to study the science concept of “changes over time”.

Have a wonderful Earth Day this weekend! Remember, even small steps make a huge impact on the health of our planet and ourselves.