No, this is not a Native American teepee

Last week Cooking in the Community practicum set up an addition to our garden! We added 5 bamboo sticks to create a trellis for our plants. The trellis is used for creating shape and structure to a plant that couldn't maintain the shape on the ground. With this we can grow tomatoes, herbs, and even things like flowers. This adds different levels to the garden so it gives it a little more appeal! Hopefully we start seeing some things growing soon!

                        ~alondra

A First Grade Class Tours Our Garden

New Life!

We planted lettuce seeds about 2 inches deep.  It took approximately 1 week after we planted this to see new life.  This is exciting! We got the seeds from Johnny's Seeds.

- Austin

How Does Your Garden Grow?

This is a baby cabbage starter plant that was donated to our practicum from Ace Hardware in Cornelius. They donated 2 flats of different types of lettuce.  We planted the plants by digging a 3-inch hole in the ground, then taking the plant out of its package and broke up the roots. Then we watered the plant. We also planted seeds as well as the starters. We will have to wait and see the plants!

Chefs Move to School Program

Friday's Reflection

Our Friday trip to the Bradford Store,

Learned about dirt and a whole lot more.

Microbes keep the dirt healthy, alive,

Makes you feel good don't need no pesticides.

"T" picked broccoli right off the plant, 

It tasted so good we bought more with our grant.

His food is organic and very nutritious,

Sucrose makes it sweeter and very yummalicious.

Uncle Scott's Root beer tastes amazing,

We shared it on the porch, just a lazin'.

Cows in the pasture, chickens in the pen,

Dogs free roamin' horses around the bend.

Sustainable gardening is our goal,

 To end world hunger and fill their bowl.

We made the Headlines!

Gardening class teaches farm-to-table lessons

Posted on 16 March 2011.

Executive Chef Bradley Labarre slices a plantain for students to taste. (Christina Ritchie Rogers / CorneliusNews.net)

By CHRISTINA RITCHIE ROGERS
CorneliusNews.net

DAVIDSON – Eighth graders in Community School of Davidson‘s cooking enrichment class have expanded their classroom to include an “edible garden” behind the school to grow lettuce, sweet potatoes, collard greens and other foods.

The students planned the garden as part of this semester’s practicum, a community-based enrichment class, which meets Fridays. And they’re working with a county dietitian as well as the chef from the Galway Hooker Pub.

“I actually didn’t expect to be doing gardening,” eighth-grader Hartley LeRoy said. He chose the practicum because he wanted to learn about cooking, he said, but has since discovered a true interest in and love for gardening. “I’d love to have a garden at home,” he said. “It brings the community together, and you can make great food.”

The school received a $500 UnitedHealth Heroes grant from Youth Services America (YSA) to start the garden.

LOCAL CHEF LENDS A HAND, AND UTENSILS

“It’s important that students this age make good choices in eating and preparation,” Mecklenburg County Health Department Dietitian Allison Mignery said. She works with the schools as part of “Chefs Move to Schools,” a health initiative run through the U.S. Department of Agriculture started by First Lady Michelle Obama. It calls on chefs across the country to get involved working with teachers, parents, school nutritionists and administrators to help educate children about nutrition.

Ms. Mignery facilitated a partnership between the Community School and Chef Bradley Labarre, executive chef at the Galway Hooker Pub in Cornelius. Chef Labarre visits the class once or twice a month and teaches the students the basics of cooking with healthy foods, like using olive oil instead of other oils because it has healthy omega 3 fats.

Eighth-grader Hartley LeRoy points to the newly-mulched garden beds outside Community School of Davidson in which students will plant vegetables. (Christina Ritchie Rogers / CorneliusNews.net)

Chef Labarre grew up in New Hampshire eating foods that were harvested and prepared locally, and is very excited to help students with the edible garden. He got involved with Chefs Move to Schools because he wanted to share his knowledge and his passion for healthy, seasonal food with students. “If the kids get educated, then so can the parents, and it goes from there,” Chef Labarre said.

In working with the students, Chef Labarre learned something about himself too. “I learned that I have more passion for this job and this industry than I even realized,” he said.

Even after working a full week, he still wakes up looking forward to going to school Friday mornings, Chef Labarre said. “Working in an intimate setting with the students, I get to really see the impact of what I’m doing,” he said. “I get to give back on a whole other level.”

The garden is tilled, mulched, and treated with an eco-friendly fertilizer, Hartley explained. Last week, students added a layer of topsoil, and are preparing to plant seeds in the coming weeks.

RELATED LINKS
More about Chefs Move to Schools on the USDA.gov website.

If you’re a chef who wants to participate (PDF), CLICK HERE»

To sign up your school, CLICK HERE»

Sheet Mulching

Lasagna Layering Method

Katie explains layering the garden

In this video I am explaining the process of layering the garden, or "lasagna gardening". In lasagna gardening you layer the garden with newspaper, hay, good soil, and many organic nutrients. This helps the plant grow with lots of nutrients, and without the interruption of grass or weeds. The first step in lasagna gardening is to rid the soil of any grass/weeds. Then you lay down 6 pieces of newspaper together and use the hose to wet the newspaper down. After that, you put down a layer of nutrients and hay. Then repeat those steps until you have enough layering. The last step is to put a layer of soil over the newspaper. It may seem hard, but you can make a garden anywhere! 

Soil Amending

T. McCleod from the Bradford Store and organic gardener extraordinaire assisted us in soil amending by adding:

Calcuim carbonate - to stabilize
Phosphate -
sea salt to feed micro nutrients
liquid potassium

Just like a volcanic eruption, these residues help to re-mineralize the soil.

We added eco-boost that contain worm castings (poop) and amino acids

When our society uses chemical fertilizers, it literal kills the dirt of good microbes - the soil then becomes dead and cannot support production. We pledge to use organic materials.

THANKS TO THE CHEFS MOVE TO SCHOOL PROGRAM

Ms.Mary Jane and Ms. Kim helping out

The Soil Arrives