Edible Gardens & Environment

PSGC began its work on food systems literacy by funding, establishing and maintaining Edible Gardens at all six schools in the Princeton Public Schools district. Our next step was to fund Edible Gardens stewards/instructors to make each garden unique to its students and to foster curricular connections and to connect children to the natural systems that support all life.

Select a school from the drop-down menu to see edible garden activity there.

Fall 2011

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This fall, Littlebrook welcomed Lesley Bush to its garden team as Garden Educator.  Lesley is a former science teacher and master gardener and will be teaching garden lessons to each class in the school five times over the course of the year.  In her lessons this fall, each grade started work on its Grade Garden Project for the year, and participated in the school-wide harvest of fall crops.

Another highlight this fall was preparing fresh-from-the-garden veggies right in the classroom using a new cooking cart, which was donated by PSGC through its Garden State on Your Plate grant.  First graders made a rubbed kale salad, with celery and nasturtiums, for the welcome back family picnic.  Kindergarteners made a pear sauce from our prolific pear tree.  Fourth graders cooked up butternut squash from the three sisters bed.  And fifth graders tasted roasted eggplant dip, made from our own eggplants by LB mom and chef, Jen Carson.

The kids brought in the remaining crops just before this year’s fall freeze and they were displayed at a Harvest Table at the pancake breakfast on October 29.  Families and staff in attendance got to bring home a bag of fresh LB-grown veggies!

 

 

November 2011

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Raised bedLast month, in recognition of Farm-to-School month, the Community Park PTO held its first-ever “Help Our Garden Grow” Day. It was an overwhelming success, as more than 20 families around the community showed up to volunteer. As they soaked in the sunshine, these parents and students installed two new gorgeous raised beds, cleaned and mulched existing beds, expanded two gardens in the back of the school, painted rain barrels, decorated and hung new signs in each garden, planted several new shrubs and trees, and repaired garden furniture. Mr. Emmons, the school’s science teacher, was delighted with the improvements. As a result of these accomplishments and the CP community’s hard work, he was able to jump into winter garden preparation with his students in late October.

HerbsWe look forward to seeing winter crops harvested as well as attending a 2nd “Help Our Garden Grow” Day in the spring (date TBD).

September 2011

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LettuceClean up has begun for fall plantings! The salsa garden was fruitful, and the salsa that was canned over the summer from all the produce will be given out at Johnson Park’s Fall Picnic.

TomatoesThe school’s garden club is continuing to grow as many crops as it can, and even has plans to start a Cooking Club. Stay tuned for updates.

Growing power at PHS

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Edible Gardens at Princeton High School were created in 2011, with a community garden-raising. More than 75 community members turned out to build and fill a collection of 13 raised beds on a sunny November afternoon. The Edible Garden beds were host to Matt Wilkinson, who taught a PE class with a garden theme, and also by Paula Jakelow, horticulture teacher. 

Anna Rose Gable, ESL teacher and PSGC Edible Gardens coordinator, is overseeing the return of the Edible Gardens.

Littlebrook July 2011 Update

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Littlebrook students wrapped up their gardening year with great enthusiasm:

  • Graduating fifth graders not only finished installation of a native shade perennial bed in the courtyard with gifts from D&R Greenway Trust and local botanist Aura Starr, but also they ventured out to the school’s nature trail and labeled the natives they found in order to highlight and preserve them.
  • The fourth grade planted the traditional Native American planting mounds they had constructed and are looking forward to harvesting popcorn, cranbury beans and acorn squash in the fall.
  • Third graders harvested great quantities of lemon balm, which was made into ice cream by the bent spoon and served at Colonial Day.
  • The second grade observed the progress of their improvements to the pollinator beds and enjoyed a guest gardening class from Dorothy Mullen.
  • First graders reveled in the profusion of blooms on the annuals taking over from the bulbs in their gorgeous new bed and also raised over $300 for the garden through selling greeting cards featuring their garden-based art work.
  • Kindergarten students continued to tend and taste our vegetable garden and brought home a final harvest including garlic, lettuce, kale, spinach, peas, broccoli, parsley, basil, chives and more on the next to last day of school.

A team of 18 different families will be helping keep the garden growing over the summer and getting it ready for the students’ return in September! 

– Contributed by Amy Mayer

July 2011

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The Johnson Park garden is a courtyard garden, seen by all who enter the school’s main entrance. The Garden Club, JP’s garden program, is held twice a week during recess hours – children are invited to visit the garden during that time.

The garden’s main focus this spring was the JP Salsa Project, in which each grade was responsible for growing seedlings for a different ingredient to be used in salsa. The seedlings were grown indoors beginning in February, and transplanted in the spring. Two varieties of tomatoes along with jalapeno peppers, cilantro and spring onions were planted and are currently thriving in the garden. The produce will be harvested over the summer, made into salsa and then canned. Students and their families will get a chance to taste their final product at the school’s fall picnic.

Another highlight from this spring was the kindergarten project: The youngest students in the school planted rose geraniums and harvested the leaves for the bent spoon. At the end of the school year, they enjoyed an ice cream party in the garden. For more on this exciting project:

Princeton Patch: Kindergartners team-up with the Bent Spoon to make ice cream
Town Topics coverage

Also growing in the Johnson Park garden this summer are pole beans, swiss chard, carrots, peas, pumpkins, squash, lettuce, radishes, corn, strawberries, watermelon, potatoes, sunflowers and various herbs. Parent volunteers are tending the garden two or three times a week. Food that is harvested is being preserved – frozen, dried or canned – for the fall picnic.

— Contibuted by Tory Hamilton, Elizabeth White and Tina van der Scharr

July 2011

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The outdoor classroom – and edible gardens – at Community Park took a giant leap forward in June with the expansion of the fenced area, courtesy of Judy Wilson, Princeton Regional Schools superintendent.

Now, the picnic tables are beneath the shade of a tree and there is grassy area for doing cartwheels or stretching a beach towel out for looking up at the sky. And the gardens can expand as desired.

John Emmons, science teacher who also once worked in a greenhouse, is taking the lead in both the edible and ornamental garden beds. Edible: two varieties of Swiss chard, sugar snap peas, English peas, lettuces, broccoli raab, red cabbage and kohlrabi. “Whatever cool-weather crops I could find, I got.” said Mr. Emmons. Ornamental: sweet peas and California poppies.

Janet Thomas is working with Mr. Emmons to create a Japanese-inspired shade garden in a Zen style. As part of this work, the two will re-locate the spring bulbs. Ms.Thomas will also use the Zen garden to further her students’ understanding of Chiura Obata, the Japanese-American artists who painted Yosemite Valley.

Curricular links

If edible gardens can continue to expand, Mr. Emmons hopes to plant representative Japanese, Asian, Hispanic, Mediterranean, Native American and Italian gardens, among others. This expands on the existing work of Adam Blejwas, who has grown tomatillos and other ingredients for his classroom salsa-making lesson that he has taught the 4th graders. Ms. Thomas will use the new Zen garden to tie in with her classroom study of feature maps. Japanese gardens re-create geographical features, she said, using mosses and ferns – with gravel as the sea, and rocks as mountains.

Obstacles to participation

“We’re at the beginning,” said Mr. Emmons of the outdoor classrooms. “First, you build it and they will come.” His goal, he said, is to help teachers and administrators see that it’s a wonderful space, and that the students will enjoy outdoor classes even more than sitting inside. “I want to encourage teachers to develop their own uses for the gardens, and encourage them to get out there more. I want them to say, “Wow, this is nice!”

CP edible gardens area grows

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The outdoor classroom – and edible gardens – at Community Park Elementary School took a giant leap forward recently, with the expansion of the fenced area, courtesy of Judy Wilson, Princeton Regional Schools superintendent.

Now, the picnic tables are beneath the shade of a tree and there is grassy area for doing cartwheels or stretching a beach towel out for looking up at the sky. And the gardens can expand as desired.

Congressman celebrates Farm to School at CP

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Congressman Rush Holt's visit to Community Park Elementary School was a delicious way to celebrate the passage of the child nutrition reauthorization bill and Mr. Holt's farm to school funding within that legislation.

With that modest beginning, our lawmakers have begun to reconnect our nation's children to the land, the farmers, chefs, the local economy – and to their own palates. Now, it's up to teachers, administrators, parents and community members across the country to apply for those funds and build their own programs that teach academic subjects, critical thinking skills, and a vocabulary of flavor beyond "awesome," "really good" and "nasty."