Stories from the Garden

Thanksgiving is knocking at the door, but before we let it in and sit down to dinner, we at Big Green Memphis would like to take a moment to share some of the things we are thankful for this season – to sow our own seeds of gratitude, if you will. 

Two weeks ago (when the weather was still unseasonably cold) we invited our Learning Garden teachers, parents, and administrators to join us at Wiseacre Brewing Company for a Big Green Thanksgiving event. Sheltered under a semi-heated tent and twinkling string lights, we played a rousing game of garden trivia, ate delicious food provided by Hog Wild Catering, and honored some outstanding teachers, parents, principals, and community partners.

Here’s a recap of our 2019 Learning Garden Champions:

Ben Townsend, Shelby County School’s Farm Manager, has worked with the Big Green Memphis team extensively to connect our work in the garden with SCS Food and Nutrition Services. Farmer Ben can often be found next to his shiny new mobile kitchen, serving up something tasty, new, and healthy to students.

Peabody Elementary parent Emily Holmes serves as the schools garden team lead. She works independently to coordinate teachers and students, leads garden work days herself, involves parents and community members through the PTO, and maintains four additional in-ground beds.

Richland Elementary dedicated their garden to Anna Pechak, a teacher who lost her battle to cancer, but loved nothing more than to be out working in the garden. In her name, Garden Team Lead Lorelai Esterman has infused Richland’s garden with unmatched energy and care. We wish Mrs. Esterman the best in her upcoming retirement.

Snowden Elementary actively engages many members of their community in their garden efforts. Though their water source is quite far from the garden, teachers, students, administrators, parents, and community members have come together to grow an abundant garden for the school and greater community.

Tasha Jones from Coordinated School Health is an incredible garden advocate andpartner here in Memphis. Tasha is known by our team as someone who shows up to schools with energy and enthusiasm, no matter if the task is a fun garden planting or a difficult garden clean out.

The Compost Fairy has partnered with Big Green to compost our organic garden waste. If you’ve seen us, or even helped us, put weeds and plants of past seasons in a big brown bag – that garden waste went directly to the Compost Fairy!

Vollentine Elementary’s garden is a hub of creativity and growth. Under the care of Garden Team Lead and art teacher Katie Lepo, Vollentine’s garden is a place of beauty, inspiration, and hard work. 

Westside Middle’s garden laid dormant for several seasons, but under the supervision of new Principal Peterson, the garden has seen new life and #realfood has become an important and valued part of their school culture.

To our 2019 Learning Garden Champions – we are so grateful for your partnership, dedication, and hard work. Thank you for helping us make our vision of #realfood for everyone more of a reality in Memphis schools.

Beyond our Big Green Thanksgiving event, we are grateful for our teachers and students who have weathered this tricky fall season with resilience and good humor. This season Memphis has endured scorching heat quickly followed by a hard and bitter freeze. Many of our gardens have been seriously stunted by the extreme weather. So, thank you to all our determined and diligent garden workers. You have given it your best, but sometimes all you can do is hunker down and wait for a better season. 

It’s just about time to open that door and let Thanksgiving in! With deep gratitude and hope for better seasons: Happy Thanksgiving, Memphis!

 

“We are serving what we grow in the garden at lunchtime. There was a lot of resistance from the lunchroom staff and even adults trying the salad from our garden. So having it there provided an opportunity for kids to be exposed to different types of foods. They’d never tried chard or kale. The thing is, they liked it, they just had never been exposed to it.” – Katina Makris

“[My students] are never going to have a school experience that is like other kids. The garden is the one equalizer for every student…It’s the one place where they can all have equal access. In the [Learning Garden], there’s no social dynamic. It’s not ‘we’re the leaders and you’re the followers,’ it’s everybody is equal. Everybody is in it in the same way…When they find love in the garden, that’s important for them because that may be the only time they are happy the whole day.” – Special Education Teacher/Garden Team Lead, Los Angeles

“Our Learning Garden really transformed that area. It used to be just a gate and a bunch of kids waiting behind a chain link fence to get picked up. You put in the garden and it becomes a community where we’re meeting the parents in the garden; families are sitting together. There are people out there. It really changed a side of the culture of [our school] and it’s well loved by a lot of people.”   – 5th Grade Teacher and Principal, Colorado

Being able to garden is therapeutic. Even if you don’t realize it, you’re helping something breathe life into itself. You’re seeing something grow from a seed into a flower or fruit or herbs. Being able to repeatedly see something grow, it felt like an accomplishment.

-Real Food Lab Student, Memphis

88 students at Ole A. Thorp Elementary participating in Thorp’s Summer Funstitute program harvested pea shoots, kale, spinach, lettuce, radishes, and turnips this summer. The two students in the picture prepped the produce and every student got to make a salad the following day and taste test different salad dressings. One of the school’s administrators said, “Our kids had such a fun time with your group! Our salads were incredibly successful. We made 3 massive bowls of salad – red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and ranch. The kids ate every bit of salad we prepared! The turnips were also a huge hit, with kids trying them and then asking for more.”

– Marla Guggenheimer, Garden Educator

The superstar of Caldwell-Guthrie’s Learning Garden was a young man named Laterius, a fifth grade student at the school who was the main person in change of watering and taking care of the garden during their fall season.

Laterius watered the garden every day.  “I hook the hoses to the connectors and wait about 25 minutes to come back out. Then I feel the inside of the soil and it’s watered. Like two or three weeks ago I had to top water it.”

Laterius is very dedicated to taking care of the garden. While all the other students were excited to not be in school for Thanksgiving Break, Laterius was more interested in making sure the garden was still taken care of. “I was here Thanksgiving Break. From Tuesday to Friday I came up here in the morning and watered.”

Laterius enjoys working in the garden and is very proud of everything that is growing. He is most proud of the garlic, lettuce, and dill “because they grew the fastest.” He had not eaten most of the vegetables that were growing in the garden, but he was definitely excited to try some new things. When asked what he was most excited to try, Laterius said, “Some radishes because my grandma said they’re good.”

Laterius harvested some arugula, and helped the kindergarteners harvest a half of a pound of kale and a pound of collard greens. Thanks to the hard work and dedication from this amazing young man, Caldwell-Guthrie’s Learning Garden continues to grow and had a very productive fall season!

Christ Methodist Day school kicked-off their Learning Garden on October 10^th, 2017. The school was super excited and decorated their garden with painted rocks and garden stick markers to celebrate the kick-off.

Head of School, Dr. Bryan Williams, expressed how the students were curious and excited about their growing garden. “The kids have loved being involved in it,” said Dr. Williams. “They really enjoyed watching the process of it over the last few weeks.”

Different leadership teams are in charge of watering the garden every day. Dr. Williams would help to set up the hoses for the students. “They were on me if I forgot to get out here and get the hose set up,” he said.

The students took responsibility for their garden. Everyone was on board, even the youngest members of the school. “After school, the little kids, 2 and 4-year-olds, have been out here picking in the beds and I thought they were messing with all the plants. Then I found out they were plucking the acorns out of the garden,” said Dr. Williams.

The Kitchen Community crew returned on November 17th to help the school with their first harvest. There were a few radishes, Swiss chard, dill, kale, and plenty of greens ready to harvest.

The school was excited to use what they harvested in this year’s Thanksgiving Sharing Feast. Every year the Junior Kindergarteners make a stew and put on a feast for students, teachers, and parents. The students helped to prepare their harvest for the feast by first washing and cutting their vegetables.

Mrs. Jane Danahoe, Director of Communications, helped the students prepare their Thanksgiving Sharing Feast as well. “We had tastings of goat cheese with fresh dill and crackers, as well as greens for the teachers,” she said.

The arugula and lettuce from their Learning Garden was used in a delicious salad.

Christ Methodist Day School was thrilled to be able to enjoy their garden’s first harvest at their Thanksgiving Sharing Feast and they are super excited to continue to enjoy everything their Learning Garden has to offer.

The Learning Garden at Highland Oaks Elementary School was full of enthusiasm from day one. They kicked-off their Learning Garden on October 20^th, 2017, and month later they were harvesting arugula, Swiss chard, and collard greens. The students were excited to harvest the vegetables that they had been patiently watching to grow.

Fifth grade students from Mr. Cottrell’s class were the first to harvest some arugula.  Out of the 26 students in the class, none of them said that they were familiar with arugula. Erika, another Garden Educator, described the taste of the leafy green vegetable to be like a “spicy lettuce.” The students were then encouraged to try arugula for themselves to determine how they thought it tasted. Most students said that it was not spicy at all. When asked if they liked it and would try it again, most of the students raised their hands and said they would but probably in a salad with some ranch dressing.

After watching Mr. Cottrell’s fifth grade class, Mrs. Lawler’s  Kindergarten class also wanted to try the arugula. Mrs. Lawler said 17 out of her 22 students liked the arugula. A third grade class was able to harvest and taste the arugula as well. One third grade student reported back and said, “thumbs up, it’s cool.”

The students entered the garden not knowing what arugula was, and left the garden wanting to try it again! It is amazing to see students excited about vegetables. Learning Gardens do more than teach students about gardening and plants, they also allow students to experience and try things that they have not had the opportunity to try before. Students are more likely to try vegetables after they have grown them or have learned about them in their school’s garden. The garden gets students and teachers excited about fresh fruits and vegetables. This excitement then spreads into their homes, creating a culture of excitement around fresh foods, healthy eating, and knowledge behind the foods we eat.

 

“I wanted a garden to show people how much potential we have at this school.”

A little over a year ago, Julency Myrtil’s father was diagnosed with diabetes. This got the Shelby County high school senior thinking more and more about the importance of a healthy diet.  Her school, Bolton High School, is located in a food desert where access to real food is limited for many of the people in her area.  While most people might take notice of issues like these and try to make small, positive changes in their own lives, Julency Myrtil isn’t most people.  Instead of simply eating better herself, she developed a plan to bring real food back to her school and her community.

Julency decided to spearhead a project to bring a garden to Bolton with the hopes of being able to grow enough produce to donate to families in need. Setting her sights on big change, Julency not only filled out Bolton’s Learning Garden application herself, she also pursued grants to build out robust growing opportunities at the school.  She received one grant to build several traditional outdoor beds on school grounds, another to restore Bolton’s old greenhouse – once a part of a now defunct agricultural program, and yet another to bring that agricultural program back to life.

“I really love this school,” she told Big Green. “I wanted to do something to show that Bolton High School is a great school with a lot of potential, one with a welcoming family and strong students with high ambitions.”

Admittedly, Julency harbored some early reservations about the project.  She’d noticed that most of her fellow students didn’t think much of a nutritious diet – and she thinks she knows why, “they think because they’re young, it doesn’t matter what they eat.”  But in the end, her efforts did not go unnoticed – neither by her schoolmates nor by the local news, who recently ran a story on her project.

“When I first started this project,” Julency confessed, “I had some doubts. I didn’t know if my peers would like my idea. But my peers really like it and all of us have put a lot of effort into the garden. Eating healthy has benefits whether you’re young or old. Having a garden shows that eating healthy is beautiful.”

Julency’s hard work has already paid off.  She described being delighted to discover a Learning Garden bursting with produce after her fall break, allowing her to make her first donation of fresh veggies through Bolton’s school food drive.

“We first had a greenhouse garden and three outside garden beds, and the plants were growing very slowly.  So, to see how the plants in the Learning Garden grew so fast was like – wow.  Since the Learning Garden plants had grown very quickly we were able to donate to families. And that’s my ultimate goal.  That was an amazing feeling to have that goal accomplished.”

Working on this project has taught her new skills that she plans to use in the future. She believes she learned how to manage her time, how to work with organizations and different interest groups, and, importantly, how to ask for help.

What’s next for her?  Julency plans to go to college and may pursue a degree in marketing and management – or maybe agricultural engineering – or maybe nutrition.  The good news is she has plenty of time to decide what she wants to do and is sure to receive glowing recommendations from her teachers and counselors, many of whom have who have sung her praises to Big Green.  When she graduates, she’ll be leaving Bolton with a rich garden legacy and a strong community she helped bring together.

“I did the project out of love. At first it started small but with the help of my teachers and especially my counselors it turned out really big.  I wasn’t expecting it.  It’s like a dream come true.”

Thank you, Julency, for being an incredible student leader in your school community!  We feel so lucky to have champions like you caring for your Learning Garden!

To find out how you can support real food communities near you and around the country, please visit www.BigGreen.org/give.

As Thanksgiving quickly approaches, the Memphis office is reflecting on all we are thankful for this fall season! With 13 new schools kicked off (we’re now up to 98 Learning Gardens in the city – sometimes even we can’t believe it!) we relied more than ever on our wonderful Garden Teams with a bit of experience under their belts to plant gardens on their own! At our Fall Planting & Watering Workshops, teachers from all over the city gathered to hone their skills and pick up our seed pails, courtesy of Johnny’s Selected Seeds. As Erika, Karen, Liz and Marie rushed around in the meantime to help newer schools plant their gardens, sprouts were popping up from Frayser to Ridgeway, Germantown to Whitehaven, Cordova to Midtown. We can’t thank our hardworking teachers enough for taking on the extra responsibility, and harvesting the rewards, of a garden at their school!

As the season progressed, tiny sprouts were growing into real food that was shared with each school community. Mustard greens and arugula did particularly well this season, and while lettuce seemed to be struggling to grow quite as fast, we have had rave reviews about fresh and crisp salads!

Our seedlings got a bit damaged when the remains of Hurricane Harvey blew through the area in early September. Farmer Jack, who grows our seedlings for us locally, wanted to give them a bit of time to strengthen again before we distributed them to schools. Everyone was super patient as we got our delivery in late September and commenced the immense task of delivering seedling flats with kale, collard greens, Swiss chard, and dill to almost 75 schools!

After Fall Break, we hosted our Fall Harvesting & Eating Workshops, where we had teachers prepare some of our classroom-friendly recipes! For those of us, including myself, who are often wondering “what on earth should I do with all these radishes?!” – don’t worry, we’ve all thought it! – the Radish Slaw (page 8) was a surprisingly delicious delight – even if you aren’t generally a big radish fan. The second recipe is great for using beets raw, which is often a necessity if you are trying to make snacks in the classroom! Beet Ravioli (page 18) is a tasty way for kids to explore beets, which are often a new food for students. The third tasty recipe we made was the Snap Pea, Herb & Cheese Baguette (page 23). Recipes such as the Beet Ravioli or Snap Pea Baguettes that call for cream cheese can be turned dairy-free by substituting hummus – a great way to demonstrate a vegan recipe, or accommodate any classroom allergies!

We’ve gotten some questions this season about how to get students excited, or sometimes even willing, to try a new food. A good way to encourage students to try a recipe (other than having them help grow, harvest and make it themselves, of course!) is to incorporate an activity that lets them rank what they tried and describe the food in more detail. This Tasting Tour Activity is the perfect template to structure a classroom tasting with students. Of course, not every student will love every veggie, but encouraging them to try new things is an exercise all on its own. As fall marches on towards winter and you continue to harvest, keep this in mind when coming up with creative ways to engage students with real food!

That’s all for now. The Big Green Memphis team will be taking over the organization Instagram story the Wednesday before Thanksgiving with some fun recipes, so follow us at @thekitchencommunity and keep an eye out for fun food inspiration!

Today, we are pleased to turn our blog over to guest poster and passionate Memphis teacher, Kyle Kuusisto, of Maxine Smith STEAM Academy.  Maxine Smith, a Big Green Learning Garden school, has been named one of America’s Healthiest Schools by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. America’s Healthiest Schools are identified as those “which are positively impacting kids’ health and lifelong success” and that “primarily [serve] students from neighborhoods with high-poverty and high-obesity rates.”  Read on to learn why Mr. Kuusisto is so proud (and rightfully so!) of his school’s real food accomplishments.

***

As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “it is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.” There is no greater asset than health. From the time we are born to our final years, health impacts nearly every part of our existence. That’s why it is so important that we teach children healthy habits from an early age.

At my school, Maxine Smith STEAM Academy in Memphis, we seek to do just that by providing an environment that is safe and nurturing, and one that cultivates the whole child. As a result, we were one of more than 300 schools nationwide to be named to the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s 2017 list of America’s Healthiest Schools. We were one of only 10 schools to receive the highest level of recognition—the National Healthy Schools Gold Award!

To receive the Gold Award, schools are required to implement at least four “Farm to School” initiatives that bring locally or regionally grown produce into school cafeterias and include activities related to gardening, cooking, and agriculture.

It’s so critical to expose kids to “real food” because it engages all their senses and fills the gap between historically rural, agrarian cultures to present-day cultures, whereby many people live in urban areas that rely heavily on industry and technology to produce food. At Maxine Smith, we’re committed to ensuring our students have the opportunity to not only learn about where their food comes from, but to learn how real food can fuel their bodies and minds for success in school and in life.

Our work with Big Green was instrumental in becoming one of America’s Healthiest Schools. From planning and installing our Learning Garden to working with our local liaison Marie Dennan to plan and maintain year-round gardens, we’ve learned so much about how to bring this valuable educational opportunity to our students and staff.

The results of these efforts have been nothing short of amazing. We utilize the Garden Bites curriculum to teach students how to make healthy, nutritious food with our harvests. We take advantage of the serenity of the garden to host mindfulness, yoga and meditation exercises that relax our students. Academically, students are learning the science of gardening and gaining a deeper sense of how ecosystems affect us as a community.

Every child deserves a healthy school. It’s important for parents, teachers and community members to be advocates for the health of their kids. Together, we have the power to create a healthier next generation of kids. My advice for leaders looking to improve the health of their school is to engage as many stakeholders and supporters as possible. You cannot do it alone! From the expertise of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s school health experts to the support of Big Green’s local staff, we’re grateful for the encouragement and resources we received to meet (and exceed!) our health and wellness goals.

Are you a health champion ready to guide your school in becoming one of America’s Healthiest Schools? Sign up and get started on your journey, today!

 

Our favorite time of year has finally arrived – Spring! As temperatures rise and last season’s garlic starts peeking out from the soil, we know the time has come for garden builds and planting days, for schedules filled with class after class of children poking, prodding, smelling, tasting, and exploring their Learning Garden.

Now is also the time when our Garden Educators start getting some adorable displays of gratitude from the classes they work with. These thank you letters steal our hearts whenever they make their way into our offices, and we think it’s time we shared some with you!

Click here to view a collection of Riverwood Elementary School thank you letters sent to our Memphis team last year.  We can’t wait to see what beautiful garden artwork this year holds!

This Mardi Gras, we let the good times roll for the first annual Memphis Garden Gala! The inaugural theme was Mardis Gras Masquerade with Memphians appearing at the Fedex Event Center in their New Orleans finest.

Cocktail hour featured the Mighty Souls Brass Band, creative cocktails, and an amazing array of guests competing to win the honor of best mask. As the sun set over Patriot Lake, cocktail hour segued into dinner with a second line parade lead by the band and comprised of guests brandishing handkerchiefs, tambourines, beads, and umbrellas.

Five of Memphis’ finest chefs, Steven Howell of Char, David Krog of Interim, Dennis Phelps of The Kitchen Bistro, Patrick Reilly of The Majestic Grille, and Tricia Woodman of Simply Delicious, came together for this event to create a delicious New Orleans inspired meal.

The food was topped only by the attendees’ incredible generosity, helping Big Green raise $130,000 that night for Learning Gardens in Memphis schools!

A huge thank you to our sponsors, Orion Federal Credit Union, Southeastern Asset Management,  BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, Semmes Murphey, Mark Parker – UBS Financial, 4Memphis, West Tennessee Crown Distributing Co, directFX, and Wiseacre Brewing Co.

On Monday, February 20th, 50 principals, teachers, and administrators from Shelby County Schools, Achievement School District, and Jubilee Catholic Schools gathered in at the Memphis Teaching & Learning Academy to attend an appreciation breakfast co-hosted by Shelby County Schools and Big Green.

The convening of principals and Garden Team leaders from schools with Learning Gardens over a year old was the first of its kind for the Memphis region. Five schools were selected from a pool of 51 to recognize them for outstanding achievement in garden education utilizing their Big Green Learning Garden. Kingsbury Elementary School, Treadwell Middle School, and Raleigh-Egypt Middle-High School from Shelby County Schools; Aspire Coleman Elementary from Achievement School District; and St. Joseph Elementary from Jubilee Catholic Schools were selected to receive school-wide awards as well as Garden Champion awards to individual Garden Team Leads.

At the event, teachers and principals met with garden champions from other schools and worked together to create their own dream Learning Garden design as an opening activity. They also had the chance to share challenges and successes in their gardens and hear from Shelby County STEM Manager Dedric McGee about the importance of connecting classroom learning to hands-on application in the garden. He also emphasized the importance of integrating the Learning Garden into the culture at each school – from an administrative level, encouraging and allowing teachers to take their students outside, and for teachers currently utilizing the garden to reach out to those who aren’t yet involved.

The opportunity for teachers and principals from schools across the city to gather under the unifying banner of being Learning Garden schools in the city was a great opportunity for them to meet and collaborate with their peers and see the wide-reaching impact that Learning Gardens are having on Memphis!

Image: Lynn Reed and Anne Phillips from Idlewild Elementary School and Principal Bo Griffin and Dr. Josefina Goodwin from Raleigh-Egypt High School work together to create their version of a dream spring Learning Garden during the opening activity!