2017 Season Wrap-Up

We've now finished up a bountiful eighth season with Growing Food Growing Health! Every year bring new challenges, like nematodes, and learning opportunities, like Growing Growers Workshops. We've gotten better at using our low tunnels to grow crops like cabbage and butternut squash. These protected tunnels let us start crops earlier and offer some protection from damaging insects. This year we learned how to trap Japanese Beetles, make pretty good compost, and utilize cover crops to improve our soil. We've changed the look of the garden at West with three large raised beds near the main entry, and hand-made, hand-painted wooden signs throughout that make the garden more welcoming and educational for visitors. 

We've also worked hard this last year to bring the garden inside to the students with weekly sampling at West Middle School. Students get to taste everything from fresh raspberries with yogurt, to homemade applesauce, to butternut squash burritos - all prepared with produce grown right outside their classroom window. We have weekly Garden Club, which this year will run through most of the winter months as well as the fall and spring.

We do this work with the help of amazing Student Gardeners, dedicated staff, and our extended community. A HUGE thank you to all of you who supported us and volunteered this last season - you're helping us to grow minds as well as vegetables. 

We'll be back in no time - keep checking in for upcoming work days!