Photo Update

We've had a great season of growing food, growing kids, and growing community at the University Place Elementary school garden! This fall, 13 classes at UP joined us for bi-weekly educational activities in the garden. Pre-K through 5th graders helped plant and tend the raised garden beds at their new school, while learning about the garden ecosystem around them. The garden was a beautiful addition to the school, and produced quite a lot of food for such a small space! The UP Farm Stand started up on October 27th and continued every week until Dec. 15th. Produce was harvested from both the original UP garden site in Forest Lake and the raised beds. Parents, school staff, and the surrounding community came out to purchase a bounty of fresh vegetables - collard greens, mustard greens, swiss chard, head lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, cilantro, dill, spinach, salad mix, and bok choy.

We'll take a short break for the holiday season and return for another year of garden education in 2012! Stay tune for more updates!

EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH

Students go on a "card hike" in the garden, making and recording observations and tasting when asked!

5th graders visit the collards patch and make observations about the insects eating the leaves.

3rd graders from Ms. Keene's class check out the bok choy.

PreK kids go on an ABC hunt in the garden.  H is for hose!

4th graders from Ms. Whitsey's class work together to prepare bok choy slaw from ingredients from the garden!

3rd graders from Ms. Burnette's class grind sesame seeds, grate carrots, and make a dressing for the bok choy slaw.

3rd graders from Ms. Burnette's class use the box grater to tackle the carrots!

4th graders from Ms. Whitsey's class eating the final product!

For their final garden lesson, students engaged in a heated game of garden jeopardy. 

UA students from the Honors College Food and Community class play Jeopardy with the 3rd graders.

SALAD DAYS

Our supplementary program "Salad Days" was a great success! We visited 9 classrooms and served students a fresh salad made with garden produce, while demonstrating food preparation techniques and talking about healthy eating.  Here, Kindergarten students enjoy their garden snack!

"Salad Days" with the 2nd graders from Ms. Peoples' class.

UP FARM STAND

This season, 3rd graders from Ms. Burnette's class were our farm stand leaders. They helped record transactions, make change, bag produce, and recruit customers to the stand. 

3rd graders help bag produce for a waiting customer.

Lettuce, bok choy, swiss chard, oh my!

Root crops abound!

Fresh broccoli heads for sale!

Lettuce, broccoli, mustards, radishes, chard, and the season's first cabbage!

Farm stand in action! UA student looks on.

Enterprising 3rd graders recruiting customers!