October declared Farm to School month
By JOYCE COMINGORE
To quote James Farmer, an author and editor-at-large for the Southern Living Magazine, “I’ve said it once and I’ll keep repeating it: ‘Fall is a Southerner’s reward for surviving summer.” We’ve had a foretaste of our victory this week cooler weather. It may go as quickly as it appeared, but we know it will be back.
The time has come to lay out our garden for production. At Trafalgar Middle School, there are nice, neat rows once again being filled by peppers, tomatoes, sweet peas and coming attractions stored up in seedlings. The hot summer was filled by pulling up healthy spent plants for the compost piles, three of them, making magic, organic peat soil. They’ve been watered, turned, fed and now utilized. The rows had been covered by clear plastic all summer to keep down weeds and solarize the soil from left-over diseases. What a time saver when it came time to do our rows of produce again.
Pulling up the rows of plastic, exposing our well marked rows for planting. No terrible weeds to pull, ready to put down composted soil, renew and redo our efforts. We’re back in the saddle again with a better idea of where we are going than we did a year ago. There may have been failures, but not really – just learning experiences.
On Wednesday, Oct. 1, Trafalgar held an Environmen-tal Education Garden In-Service Workshop, co-hosted by ECHO and IFAS Master Gardeners. Invitations were sent to all schools for teachers to register, telling them, “Methods of campus vegetable gardening will be highlighted during this workshop. The school manages a large vegetable garden and registers its student in an exploratory class for gardening.”
Yes! Al Piotter now has a class during school session, not an after school affair at the students’ whim. This middle school math teacher is helping students learn to prepare the soil, transplant, identify several vegetables, plant the seeds, etc. This all helps with science, math and social studies. The school recognized the value of students relating to gardening that couldn’t have happened a year ago.
A crowd of around 50 people showed up with questions from those having their gardens on school properties to restart or those wanting to start their own school garden.
Joelle Hammes, an environmental education helping teacher from the Lee County School System, and Al started the session. Roy Beckford from County Extension, Judith Peltier and I spoke on how the Extension can help them; Allison Campbell from ECHO gave ideas and resources; the Trafalgar community volunteer extraordinaire Tom Andrighetti talked about his garden at his daughter’s home up North, that he and his grandchildren planted, explaining how to organize your garden.
Topics covering how to reach out and get help, grants, community help, resources to contact, how to find mulch and water, were explained. Many questions were asked about starting up a garden; the student survey that must be filed after a grant, information about how the grant was used, all were addressed. A tour of the school grounds brought everyone out to the gardens for a “hands on” experience. There were many questions asked and answers given, solved or suggestions to try.
Little green worms on vine plants appeared to be the biggest problem. Soapy washes or Dipel seem to be the best organic solution because Bacillus thuringiensis is an organic pesticide for caterpillars. They must consume it. It will wash off in rains, so an application sometimes needs to be repeated.
Urban and community farming are becoming very chic. People want healthy food. Grants are available for areas considered a food desert with no nearby grocery stores easily accessible. Lee County has several community gardens: Pine Manor just celebrated its new community garden opening, Suncoast Estates has had its going for several years and so have Dunbar and Lehigh.
There is now a program nationwide promoting Farm to Schools. The whole month of October is Farm to Schools month, dedicated to generating interest and engaging a whole community in school programs. The National Farm to School Network was organized in 2007, pushing for the creation of a Farm to School month. The House Resolution 1655 passed by Congress in 2010 made the annual celebration a reality. Then they pushed for school grants as a means of improving children’s nutrition and educating children about the origins of food.
In 2011, Florida passed Statute 570.981, placing the program under the Department of Education, requiring them to work with the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services in providing guidance, outreach and training about the benefits of fresh food products available in-state. Ta-da – Extension is now involved with the school system.
Since the start of Farm to School Grant Program in the fiscal year of 2013, USDA has awarded grants to 139 projects in 46 states and District of Columbia, serving 16,200 schools and 4.55 million students. The theory is, students that experience tending a school garden are more likely to make healthy choices in their cafeteria, with an appreciation for farmers.
My son-in-law who is married to my school teacher daughter at Trafalgar, and his son, work Trafalgar gardens nearly every Saturday morning, and has again started up his own garden at home. All those broccoli seeds I retrieved from last year’s broccoli at the school, I gave to him because Al has found an expert in broccoli and doesn’t need them. It is a small patch in the lot next door. Healthy fresh food is available at home for them.
Linger awhile in thanking a tree for taking away carbon dioxide and giving us oxygen. Remember, 10 minutes relaxing under a tree gives you an energy boost.
Joyce Comingore is a Master Gardener, hibiscus enthusiast and member of the Garden Club of Cape Coral.