Eat Local School Garden Project

The volunteers of Eat Local built and planted two garden beds at Robert Erskine Elementary School during the week of May 19th. Amy Jolin organized a partnership with the Erskine PTO and City Green, Inc., to purchase the wood and soil for the beds. The volunteers built two raised beds of 12 feet long. Sixty kindergarteners helped fill them by carrying buckets of soil to the raised bed. The children were delighted with the activity. The day was followed the next week with a planting activity in which the kindergarteners planted lettuce starts. After the plants have a few weeks of growth, the classes will hold a salad feast in the classroom.

The volunteers of Eat Local also met with the third grade class at Robert Erskine. They began by increasing the plants in an established butterfly garden. The following week, they learned about semidwarf, disease resistant apple trees just before planting two such trees in the school grounds. The class brainstormed the advantages to dwarfing rootstock for fruit bearing trees. They discussed the marketing advantages of perfectly formed apples. Many realized for the first time that pitted and imperfect apples get made into applesauce.

The second graders got in on the action as well with a lesson in planting beans. Mrs. Fiore’s class started their own bean sprouts when they made personal greenhouses with Ziploc plastic bags, wet paper towels, and dried beans. Then they tasted bean sprouts. (“These are delicious!”) Finally, the class planted four rows of peas and bush beans in the school garden beds. The students were engaged and interested in the process of changing common beans into plants that will grow into bean plants.

The team at Eat Local would like to thank the teachers, staff, and PTO members for their support in incorporating ideas of healthy food and horticulture into the curriculum. Together, our children will learn the importance of healthy foods for our bodies and for our world.

Ms. Odgers' Third Grade Class hard at work in the Butterfly Garden.

Ms. Odgers' Joined in on the Digging!

Robert Erskine Kindergarteners Helping with the Dirt.