15 Jun
I’ve written a guest post for Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution website today — a piece called “Finding Garden Solutions in Durham, N.C.” Here’s an excerpt for you… I had spent the early-morning hours uprooting and tossing into the compost heap dozens of perfectly healthy lettuce plants from my daughters’ elementary school garden in Durham, […]
25 Apr
The Sit Spot is an age-old practice of going to one spot in nature on a regular basis over a long period of time and making observations of what happens around you. Classrooms at George Watts Montessori have been doing it: The benefit is that kids become more skilled at observing. They may notice the shape […]
28 Feb
You’ve heard of “farm to fork,” right? Think of this season’s garden as a “seed-to-snack” project. Students at George Watts Montessori started planting seeds last week, and they’ll keep going until school gets out. By April, students should be able to start picking from the school’s edible garden to make their own classroom snacks. Imagine […]
9 Jun
Our friends down the road at EK Powe hosted a Radish Day last week, which turned out really well by all accounts. For the entire school day, the fearless Jen Minnelli, chair of the PTA’s Slow Food committee, stationed herself at a “Taste Table” with tortilla chips, radish salsa and vegetable dip. And as kids […]
8 Jun
Today we held our final food-in-the-garden event of the school year at George Watts, and what a finale it was. On the menu: grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato and basil, and green smoothies. More on that in minute. First, I must thank Becca Wright, our school nutritionist, and the team of volunteers who worked in […]
We were lucky to have Duke student Morgan Carney with us last semester. Morgan did a photojournalism project (http://wondersofwatts.com/grow-watts-grow/) on our school’s garden-and-cooking project for a class she takes at Duke University. Her professor, Susie Post Rust, is a George Watts parent. The end result speaks for itself.
Two-bean kale soup. Brussels sprouts with caramelized shallots. Sweet potatoes with cinnamon pepita seeds. Gingerbread with skillet apples. That’s what was on the menu for the Harvest Mini-Feast at George Watts Montessori. And pre-K through 5th grade students cooked it ALL.
I remember that when I was in middle school, my Home Ec teacher taught me to change a diaper. She also taught me how to sew an apron using a sewing machine. I’m pretty sure there were no boys in that class. It all sounds so terribly old-fashioned and sexist now, really. But in that class, I also learned how to cook.
This is a story about the amazing ripple effect that a single person can have. Last year, a parent (not me!) of a Primary student in Ms. Baker’s class offered to help out by taking the students outside to the Edible Garden every week. The plan grew: The parent decided she may as well plan a string of lessons for the students to do outside. This is what the garden looked like on one of her volunteer days.
I just created a presentation about the evolution of our school garden at George Watts Montessori. (I can’t wait to tell you why I was doing that, but that will have to wait for another post.) To show what we’ve accomplished, I delved into the 5 biggest ways the garden has contributed to the students’ health and academics.
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