Cote Brillante School Garden is located in North Saint Louis, the part of the town where most folks ‘south’ of Delmar choose not to go. A year and a half ago, I decided to challenge myself and started looking after this school garden. It has been a meaningful and also a very safe experience for my three young children and me. This spring a second grade and after school garden club did a lot of planting at the garden and loved every minute of it. We are asking for your help this summer to keep this garden alive by watering and weeding. The food grown here is donated to the neighborhood families and the neighborhood food pantry over the summer.
This garden is also on the Gateway Greening’s Youth Garden Tour this spring. Here is a link to sign up for the tour. This would be a great way to check out the garden. If you are interested please contact me and I would love nothing more than to show you around this garden.
If you would like to help with Cote Brillante Garden this summer, click here to sign up.
Category: Gateway Greening Blog
Introducing Dig It STL
School’s out for the summer! What do school garden educators do over the summer, you ask? Well, this year we’re happy to report we’ll be running our pilot youth employment program, Dig It STL! 12 amazing young people, 2 crew leaders, and the education staff will all be working our tails off for 8 weeks, STARTING NEXT WEEK!, for the benefit of our community’s food projects. Dig It youth will be working with school gardens, senior gardens, City Seeds, and Bell Community Garden. They’ll be learning leadership skills, cooking, teaching kids, pulling weeds, getting a crash course in agriculture, and going on field trips, all while earning money (for a lot of them, it’s their first job!). It’s going to be sweaty, dirty, and inspiring. We just can’t wait to get started.
Wanna check it out? Dig It youth will be working at Bell Garden during normal volunteer hours from 9-12 every Saturday for the next 8 weeks. Come on down and get to know the newest additions to the Gateway Greening family.
Evaluation
It’s the end of the school year! How is your garden program doing? Is it living up to the expectations of both the students and the teachers in your program? Are you teaching everything you set out to teach? One way to find out is to allow teachers and students to self-evaluate their time in the garden. To help you out, we’ve put up an example of our Teacher End of the Year Evaluation and our Student Pre and Post Test that we use with 2nd and 3rd graders. We encourage you to use them as springboards to make your own tools.
If you are looking for a less writing-based evaluation tool, you can always take video of students answering your evaluation questions verbally. It’s also possible to use an outside evaluator to observe your program and rate it using any number of different tools. This tool can help you understand more about evaluation for environmental programs, and walks you through the process of creating a plan for your own program.
Kids Put Their Chefs Hats On!
When the lettuce is starting to form heads, and the chive flowers are purple and poofy, we know it’s time to enjoy the fruits of our hard work! Here’s how we make salad with PK-2nd grade at Clay.
Supplies:
- tub or bucket for washing dishes
- tub or bucket for rinsing lettuce
- sponge(s)
- dish soap (biodegradable)
- clean, potable water (not from your rain barrels)
- low table for washing station
- low table for tearing-up and dressing-making stations
- reusable bowls or plates and forks for all students
- olive oil
- lemons, sliced in half (enough for every student to have half)
- salt
- pepper
- several large bowls and colanders
- non-latex gloves
- hand sanitizer
1. Set up wash station, ‘processing’ station, and eating stations ahead of time.
2. Give every student a squirt of hand sanitizer and tell them it’s time to make a salad! Have them follow you to the bed of lettuce. They will want to grab the outside of the leaf and rip pieces off– show them how to follow the leaf all the way to the stem and pull off whole leaves. Instruct everyone to pick a certain number of leaves (for PK and K we do 3, and 1 and 2 we do 5, because they tend to eat more). They will be grossed out by the bugs crawling on the leaves.
3. Once a few kids have the full amount of leaves, have them follow you to the wash station and show them how to rinse off their leaves in water. Then show them where the processing station is.
4. At the processing station, show them how to rip up the pieces of lettuce into bite sizes in the colanders. When colanders get full, give them one more rinse, and dump them into regular bowls. When kids finish tearing up lettuce, give them half a lemon to squeeze into an empty bowl. Tell them not to lick the lemon before they squeeze it (it will happen).
5. Send kids who are finished back to the garden to pick various edible flowers– we always have chive flowers and a few brassica flowers this time of year, and if we’re in short supply, i have the kids pick dandelions to put in. You can also have kids pick anything else that might be ready– radishes, baby turnips, beet greens, peas, herbs– to throw into the salad as well.
6. You or another adult can mix olive oil, salt, and pepper into the lemon juice, and pour it over the salad that now has various accoutrements thrown in. Mix well. Then, have students all sit down. Have one student hand out forks and another hand out plates or bowls. One student can hold the salad bowl, and another can put on gloves and hand out just a little bit of salad to each student, to try. Enjoy!
I only give students seconds if they have completely finished their plates. As you eat, you can talk about the different things students did to take care of the lettuce and other salad ingredients.
7. If you are using reusable dishes, have students toss their leftovers into the compost pile, and go back to the wash station with a tub of soapy water to wash their dishes. (you will want to re-wash them after they have gone back inside, but it is good practice for them).
Getting’ Dirty
Here’s a short and sweet lesson on soil and composting! This can be adapted well from 2nd grade all the way through high school, depending on how much students already know.
Start with the Earth Apple activity, which sets some great context for how little topsoil we have on Earth that we can actually grow food in. Then, ask students what they already know about the process of decomposition. Most students in upper elementary school will be familiar with the terms ‘producers’ (plants), ‘consumers’ (animals), and ‘decomposers’ (fungus, bacteria, invertebrates!). Explain that composting is just intentionally applying the natural process of decomposition to create soil more quickly from your food and garden scraps. Sing the ‘Compost Cake’ song from the Banana Slug String Band with younger students, to drive the point home. For older students, have them make short skits about how compost is created– it is hilarious to watch them pile on top of each other to simulate the compost pile.
Now that they know everything there is to know about compost, have students venture to your compost pile and use this worksheet to examine which organisms they are able to find. They are sure to find some truly creepy crawly bugs and gain a new appreciation for the ecosystem of living things in soil.
For a boost in student engagement for an older class, introduce the idea of composting toilets! Host a debate– should we or shouldn’t we close the loop and start recycling our own waste to make soil? Actually, we wouldn’t be starting that practice– here’s a great article on the awesome ‘night soil’ dispersal systems the Chinese developed thousands of years ago.
-Ms. Carolyn, Educator
Earth Day at Clay
We celebrated Earth Day at Clay this week by learning about trees. In the words of one of our students, “Trees help keep the earth clean!”
We learned how to figure out how old a tree is by counting the rings in a stump, and we made leaf rubbings with different types of tree leaves. When I demonstrated how to make a leaf rubbing, all the kids ooohed and aaaahed as the leaf ‘magically’ appeared on the page.
We finished it off by planting a few trees around the garden. It takes a group of kids under 8 a loooong time to dig a hole for a tree– we had to stop and admire every worm.
-Ms. Carolyn, Gateway Greening Educator
A Letter to Gateway Greening from Mallinckrodt Academy
Gateway Greening…
Mallinckrodt Academy would like to express how happy we are to have a partnership with Gateway Greening. Our outdoor garden space is an extension of the classroom where students and teachers have the opportunity to explore nature through all the four seasons and have a great time doing so.
This school year we’ve started some new initiatives and our outdoor garden space fits in beautifully. We’ve also had a number of environmental activities that work well with our outdoor space. KidsGROW, a Fontbonne University led program, brought in volunteers who created hands-on activities to help students understand the importance of a healthy diet. We have also created an after school garden club were students have an opportunity to learn about several different components of Earth Science. It is also very common to see our students, teachers, and parent volunteers outside enjoying our space. 
None of these activities/programs would be possible without our number one fan, parent, and Gateway Greening Educator, Mrs. Punita Patel. She is incredible! She has created a wonderful and positive buzz within our school and has provided tremendous support to our Mallinckrodt team. Gateway Greening has been a wonderful addition to our school community.
-DeAndre Thomas, Principal
My Plate, Our Garden: National Nutrition Month at Gateway Greening
March is national nutrition month, and this year’s theme is “Bite into a Healthy Lifestyle.” How do Gateway Greening and community gardens support healthy lifestyles? One bite at a time!
The USDA’s My Plate campaign recommends making half our plate fruits and vegetables. Using fruits and vegetables from our gardens to color our plates is one way to ensure that we are packing a nutrient rich punch into every bite. Produce from our gardens is naturally low in sodium, fat, and cholesterol and high in vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Eating local produce not only makes our plates colorful but adds texture and flavor because local produce is seasonal produce—meaning it is picked right at the peak of freshness!
Check out these tips to help you bite into more fruits and vegetables:
Boost your breakfast by adding fruit in your cereal or fresh vegetables to omelets or eggs
Use fresh, crisp vegetables instead of salty olives and pickles on sandwiches and salads
Redefine chips by baking thin slices of sweet potatoes or pieces of kale as a side dish to sandwiches and burgers
Add shredded vegetables such as carrots or zucchini to main dishes such as pasta
Add chopped vegetables such as peppers or mushrooms to main dishes such as tacos and quesadillas
Double the vegetables in recipes such as soups, casseroles and pizzas
Incorporating other plant based foods such as nuts, seeds, and whole grains into your diet can provide an excellent source of healthy fats and fiber, and may help lower the risk of heart disease. Try adding a plant-based food from your garden to each meal this month as we celebrate National Nutrition Month.
Visit the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ website, www.eatright.org for more tips on biting into plant based foods. Happy Eating!
-Aspen Mittler, Gateway Greening Fall 2014 Intern
Creating New Roots, Harvesting More than Vegetables
Picture a well-kept garden. Clean walking paths guide you through the flourishing plots of colorful fruits and vegetables growing weed free. This is something you expect from experienced gardeners, right?
Think again! It’s run by Gateway Greening’s City Seeds Program and it’s one of the best urban gardens I’ve ever seen. It doesn’t hurt that there’s a beautiful view of the Arch too! Interning with them this past fall I’ve had the opportunity to set aside the clinical aspect most dietetic interns focus on and create new roots, where I’ve harvested more than vegetables.
The last few weeks at Gateway Greening have been such a great learning experience! Never did I imagine that while completing my dietetic internship I would be planting trees, harvesting vegetables, and turning compost, but I wouldn’t change it for the world! Gateway Greening’s goal is simple: to provide St. Louis with a fun, safe, and educational environment for people to learn… and that’s just the experience I got!
Coming to Gateway Greening with little gardening or agriculture experience, I’m surprised they trusted me with a shovel and shears, but on my first day they had me step right in and get my hands dirty. I truly believe in the Chinese Proverb, “involve me and I’ll understand,” and because Gateway Greening practices this proverb, I was able to green my thumb and create new roots of knowledge for my future career.
We are much more willing to try new foods when we are involved in the process, so using this opportunity to teach job skills and nutrition from the ground up only makes sense. Not everyone has the privilege of knowing the life cycle of a sweet potato or how to plant and harvest squash, so utilizing urban areas to accomplish these goals in my eyes is very beneficial.
Gardens offer opportunities for fun and physical activity while serving as an important educational tool to help others understand how healthy food is produced. It also provides an experiential learning setting, especially one in which we have direct, hands-on experience and can build new knowledge, skills, and values.
While I came in with a nutrition background knowing little about plants and vegetation, I can now say I have a better understanding of sustainable urban gardening and have learned proper gardening techniques that I will last a lifetime. What a fun and meaningful experience!
Megan Haeberlin
Fontbonne University Dietetic Intern
Planting Seeds, Harvesting Experiences: Dietetic Interns at the Farm
As Fontbonne Dietetic Interns at Gateway Greening we are leaving behind traditional internship rotations and putting on our gloves –gardening gloves— to better understand the effects of sustainable food on a community.
Immersive training is an integral part of becoming a dietitian. But at Gateway Greening we dietetic interns aren’t just getting our feet wet, we are getting outside and getting our hands dirty, and we don’t miss the office.
What do dietitians and urban agriculture have in common? Food, and collaborating in the name of food is something we are always interested in.
Dietitians are focused on helping others become the healthiest version of themselves, beginning with their diet. As dietitians in training we focus a lot on the biochemical and medical nutrition therapy aspects of food. Our time at Gateway Greening helped us look at nutrition from a more personal light. From gardening to creating recipes, we were able to focus on the level of nutrition most people relate to–nutrition from the ground up.
Spending time with the professionals at Gateway Greening also helped us to better understand the solutions available to health barriers in urban settings and how to overcome them as a community. By putting our hands in the dirt and our faces in the sun (or rain) we were able to learn about the importance of having a connection to the food you eat, and how city farmers are working hard to minimize urban hunger while maximizing community partnership.
The result? A new crop of dietitians. Dietitians that not only know how to educate on healthy food choices but ones who understand the roots of healthy food and the hard work that goes into growing them.
It’s not easy being green- but it sure is rewarding. Not only did we learn about sustainable food sources but we now better understand our part in the urban food supply and how to educate others on it—and that’s some serious green power.
Perhaps one of the most valuable lessons we will learn during our time as dietetic interns is that the seeds you plant you eventually harvest. We sure are thankful for the meaningful seeds Gateway Greening helped us plant during our time here. Thanks Gateway Greening for taking on Fontbonne Dietetic Interns and for allowing us to be a small part of your big impact. Now good luck keeping us out of the gardens!
-Aspen Mittler, Fontbonne Dietetic Intern