Summer Gardening: Week 1

This past week the Vestal Community Garden held its first week of summer gardening camp. Students learned and reviewed gardening basics ranging from how to plant seeds to how to harvest and properly wash garden produce. Each student planned and planted his or her own garden plot and we look forward to a late fall harvest from the newly planted beds. Over the course of the week, students tasted varieties of lettuce, snap peas, radishes, onions, strawberries, and broccoli. It is so exciting to see kids eager to eat fresh fruits and vegetables. With the help of the OSU Nutrition Extension Program, we were also able to make "Popeye Power Smoothies" using spinach and kale from the garden.


Not only are students learning and growing in the garden, they are also helping with maintenance over the summer- weeding, watering and harvesting from the school garden beds. We look forward to the next week of camp which will focus on soil and compost.

Super Salad Eaters

Vestal students have been enjoying garden fresh salads to celebrate the end of the school year. It was a unique experience for students and teachers to eat fresh lettuce that they grew and prepared themselves. Many of our students are super salad eaters, asking for second and third helpings of fresh healthy veggies.



Our salads included all six parts of the plant: seeds, roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruit. Take a look at the recipe below:

Six Plant Part Salad (courtesy of OSU Nutrition Extension)
Serves 4

Salad:
1 Head of Romaine Lettuce
1 Bunch of Broccoli
1 Apple
1 Carrot
2 Ribs of Celery
1/4 cup Sunflower Seeds

Dressing:
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons honey
1 Tablespoon dijon mustard

Direcitons: Wash and chop all vegetables into bite size pieces. Mix dressing in a small jar or container. Toss all vegetables and dressing in a large bowl. Sprinkle with sunflower seeds. Enjoy!

Garden Get Together This Saturday!

Our final event of the school year is our
Garden Get Together this Saturday June 11th from 10 am- 12 pm.
Enjoy time in the garden and meet Vestal families and community gardeners.
There will be an art project for kids and you may bring a snack to share.
We hope to see you there!

Thank you to the fantastic community gardeners who helped out at the work party last Saturday. We spread the remaining wood chips, cleared out the unofficial compost pile, and weeded the native plant hedgerow. We could not have accomplished this without your hard work and dedication to the garden. Thanks again!