Summer 2013: The Lawrenceville School
Spring 2013: Ethel A. Jacobsen Elementary School
Winter 2013: Princeton Day School
Fall 2012: The Urban Farm at Lafayette Learning Center
Chose from above to read more.
Summer 2013: The Lawrenceville School
Grades 9-12, Lawrenceville, NJ
The Lawrenceville School Grows Campus Farm, Tipping Hat to Agricultural Roots
From the August 13, 2013 Lawrenceville Ledger Article by staff writer, Lea Kahn
In a throwback to its earliest days, The Lawrenceville School has resurrected its farm - only now, in a tip of the hat to the school colors, that farm is known as the Big Red Farm.
When The Lawrenceville School opened its doors in 1810, the school was self-sufficient and raised food for the students on its own farm. By the early 1900s, there was even a dairy farm on the site of today’s Lawrence Township Community Garden plot, which belongs to the school.
But as the years went by, The Lawrenceville School dropped farming and began to rely on food service companies to feed the students. The school held onto the land and leased it to farmers, who raised crops on the land.
Fast forward to 2013, and students at The Lawrenceville School are again feasting on the produce raised on the school’s farm. And township residents, too, may share in the bounty by patronizing the Big Red Farmstand, which is open twice a week.
The Big Red Farmstand, which is at the end of a gravel driveway next to the Lawrence Township Community Garden on Main Street - Route 206, is open Wednesday and Saturday from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. It offers seasonal food, ranging from basil to zucchini - and flowers, too.
School officials have set aside 15 acres off Route 206, near the Lawrence Township Community Garden, for the Big Red Farm. Only 1.5 acres is in production now, but there are plans to double that number in 2014, said Jake Morrow, who tends the farm. His wife, Emma Morrow, is the farm manager.
Read the full article here.
Spring 2013: Ethel A. Jacobsen Elementary School
Pre-K3-6, Surf City, NJ
DEAR SANDY - YOU JUST CAN’T SAY “NO” TO A SCHOOL GARDEN!
By: Bianca Aniski, School Nurse
As one of many supporters and lovers of the Ethel Jacobsen Schoolyard Gardens on Long Beach Island, all I could think was, “Not again; not another hurricane to coincide with another bountiful harvest from the EJ Garden.”
The Garden Team knew the drill all too well: bring in anything that would morph into a projectile, as well as anything that might float away and hope for the best. With her arrival and departure in late August of 2011, Hurricane Irene would be intolerant of the school garden’s bounty but we were undaunted by her fury. Irene was a simple matter of having the students replant cold tolerant seed. However, this 2012 Hurricane would be “a horse of a different color” with hardship being dealt far and wide.
Sandy wreaked total havoc with the fence perimeter, lifted two of our nine raised planting boxes completely out of the ground, floated out all of our salt hay mulch and left our Fall Harvest of cool weather veggies either yellow, shriveled and salty or missing in action. The Rain Gardens experienced an “overflow” event (with anticipation we await the Rain Garden perennials to emerge). The remains of the tangled fence enclosure trapped all kinds of vegetative debris along with a variety of plastics. The two survivor beds wound up being our recently planted garlic beds, which were part of a Farm 2 School / “Monster Mash” taste testing, Halloween celebration. It was a combination event to “keep the vampires away,” extol the goodness of glorious garlic smashed potatoes and planting time for our hardy, cross-cultural and sustainable crop of garlic.
As the School’s Garden Coordinator, Hurricane Sandy was a very somber, sobering event and while it was well understood that a Garden Coordinator handles the day-in and day-out needs of a school yard garden 365 days a year, this occasion was well beyond my skills and the Garden Team’s abilities on many levels.
But have no fear, this cheerless story has a rainbow of “after the storm” sunshine, as the “powers that be” sent us a gaggle of “Gardening Angels” to the rescue. We received volunteers from Monsignor Donavan High School to rake up and dispose of debris that filled a dumpster. Next, the planting beds were reset by our custodial staff as the Ethel Jacobsen School Family replaced the fence and with the wave of a magic wand, we were ready for action.
The third week of March found Pre-K3 to Grade 2 planting asparagus, strawberries, spinach, radishes, mesclun greens, two kinds of peas and pansies. These plants and seeds were donated by our Board of Education and by a handful of Stockton College Garden Interns. Building on this momentum, we were able to successfully secure three completed projects from Donors Choose. These projects include a weather station, hoop houses and germination kits.
To see what we’ve been up to after the visit paid by Sandy, please explore the EJ Gardens when visiting Long Beach Island either in person or virtually at: www.DiggingInTheDirt.org.
Despite this being the second hurricane that has made an effort to wipe us out, we have not given up on school gardens but admittedly proclaim - it is a REAL challenge! In closing, rest assured, the garlic lives on… as “Jersey Strong!”
Winter 2013: Princeton Day School
Pre-K - 12, Princeton, NJ
New Jersey Farm to School Network had the pleasure of visiting Princeton Day School’s garden recently and wishes to share the wonderful pictures of this inspirational garden in winter. From an outdoor teaching kitchen with running water, to chickens, bees and a planned greenhouse, the garden grows each year with the help of the entire school community.
Garden educator, Pam Flory and Sustainability Coordinator, Liz Cutler, work to collaborate across the school, especially with the school feeding program run by Flik Food Service Director Brian Mochnal.
The PDS garden was voted as one of the top 20 gardens in last year’s School Garden of the Year Award and will surely be a contender in this next contest coming up this spring.
According to Liz, the PDS garden space is multifaceted in its uses:
Connections to the Cafeteria
All the food that doesn’t get consumed in the context of garden classes gets harvested by students and brought to the cafeteria where it is used in school lunches. The chefs regularly go out to the garden to harvest herbs on their own and are in regular consultation with the Garden Manager (Pam Flory) about what is about to be harvested so they can plan their menus. When garden food is used in the cafeteria, it is highlighted with signage so people know they are eating totally organic food that has zero miles to table. The chefs also work with the students to teach them how to cook the food for the annual Harvest Dinner. The kitchen workers compost all their peelings and food prep compost type waste.
Environmental Stewardship (reducing, reusing, recycling and composting etc)
All of our students learn about composting starting in PreK and every person composts at every meal. Also the Prek-4 students have compost buckets in their classrooms that they take out to the compost in the garden and there is a compost area near the playground where students can throw their compostables during recess. In terms of recycling, the new classroom is being made as sustainably as possible from wood that is locally harvested and milled. The garden classroom furniture is being designed and built by students using, in part, wood that was saved and harvested from trees that fell during Hurricane Irene. All the wood chips and leaf mulch the school creates from our regular grounds clean ups goes into the compost as brown matter.
Health and Nutrition Education
The garden teacher teaches about how brightly colored vegetables are higher in nutrition. The students sample all vegetable and herbs in garden. They had a salad party in the lower school to celebrate and eat all the greens. At the harvest dinner the high school students do a teaching for all the parents on why local food is healthier for your body (and the environment). We are working with the new “Color your plate” pyramid for nutrition. The school’s website posts recipes from the harvest dinner made from our garden food so parents can make the dishes at home. We also have “Healthy Me, Healthy Planet” Tuesdays, where every Tuesday we promote eating low on the food chain and eating a “Mediterranean diet.”
Hats off to everyone who works to make this program an example of best practices in school gardens.
FALL 2012: The Urban Farm at Lafayette Learning Center
Pre-K - 12, Morristown, NJ
Lafayette Learning Center is a unique school that houses Morris School District’s Pre-K program on the ground floor and the Morris District Board of Education office on the second. The school grounds have been transformed over the past three years by an area non-profit, Grow It Green Morristown, into an on-site community teaching farm. We learned about Lafayette Learning Center when they entered our “School Garden of the Year Award” and knew that their story needed to be told.
The Urban Farm at Lafayette
Grow It Green Morristown, which was founded by three Morristown residents, Carolle Huber, Myra Bowie McCready and Samantha Rothman, was founded on the idea that Morristown is a three square mile town that is economically and racially diverse and physically divided by a river, a train and Route 287. To begin, their goal was to get people to interact with one another across all of these divides by creating a community garden on Early Street. The garden hosts 50 families with a wait-list of over 60 families with hopes to expand in the future. They began working with the Morris District in 2009 to create The Urban Farm at Lafayette, a half-acre teaching garden which brings in students from all of the district’s schools to participate in programs, volunteering and school garden education. One of the sustainable features of this program is the in-district busing, which is much cheaper than busing costs for out of district field trips. The program has children participating from 9 different school buildings within the Morris School District, as well as a regional public charter school, a local private school and multiple area colleges. Just last spring, 55 class visits were held at The Urban Farm in a three month period.
Farmer Shaun with the kids
Farm Manager and Educator Shaun Ananko has been with Lafayette Learning Center for two seasons and works with teachers in the district to find curriculum that works in the garden. In addition to standard core curricula, the garden is offered to teachers to provide space for music lessons, plays and art classes. When asked what his role at the Center was, Shaun said he “helps teach students and stewards the farm on creating healthy soils and building a community around food”.
Farmer Shaun in a teaching moment
Samantha Rothman, one of the founders, said that they “use agriculture as a means to build community” and that they have a long-term commitment to the site. From the outset, Grow It Green Morristown made a promise to the school district that if the program failed, they would put the school yard back the way they found it when they broke ground.
Some of the programs include 2nd and 3rd graders picking over 100 pounds of produce that makes its way to the Morristown High School cafeteria. The “Pick a Snack” program offers teachers a one day-a-week minimum rotation with Farmer Shaun. Students go through the garden to see the changes that have ocurred since their last visit and they get to leave with a big bag of veggies. According to Samantha Rothman, “You would have thought that broccoli was made out of chocolate!”
Would you like to receive the New Jersey School Garden Report four times a year? CLICK HERE to subscribe.
CLICK HERE to return to the newsletter