GROWING COMMUNITY

One of the most important things about a community garden is the "Community". Over the past few weeks I have been able to work with the grade 9 and 10 foods class on site at the garden. I believe that working with the youth is one of the most valuable things we could do and allowing them opportunities for hands on learning. I had this idea that sparked in my head, what if we get these youth working in the garden and harvesting food in which they can prepare and cook for the elders at the Community Support Center. Luckily for me the foods teacher is so amazing she was excited and willing. So the class came on down and we divided them into groups. Some kids harvested the veggies and got right down and dirty pulling potatoes out of the earth. Others worked hard at painting the fence with our natural paint stain. I showed a small group how to transplant some of the herbs into pots so we can move them into our grazing beds. While others worked hard digging dirt and raking it out so we could put in a nice pathway. Thanks to one of the students who was in charge of pick axing duties, he helped till some of the beds and put down seeds for a winter cover crop. There was a moment where the only sounds you could hear were my favorite kind of sounds... The sounds of garden work!! Tools clinking, dirt moving. The kids were great they were hard at work and enjoying themselves. They started asking me questions about why we were planting covers for the beds? What were the seeds I was using? asking me to identify plants for them, their interest was captured. We were taste testing flowers and greens and having fun while getting the job done. They left with a large harvest of veggies to cook up for the elders meal and a sense of accomplishment, and I left feeling inspired. The following week the grade nines and tens worked on prepping the food from the harvest and the smaller class of elevens and twelves went down to the support center and cooked the food there for the meal. It was incredible, there was salmon which was donated, potato salad, steamed greens, wild picked blueberry muffins and more. What a success!! the students were taught the day before by a respected elder how to properly prepare food for elders and the mind frame you should be in while doing it. The elders seemed to really enjoy it, there were smiles all over the place and a great sense of pride in the youth!