Bradley International Elementary

Garden Leader: Lee McClure – alethea_mcclure@yahoo.com

Bradley is beginning an after-school garden club for 4th and 5th graders this February, which will include gardening, cooking and science lessons. Additionally, the garden is used for art classes, and produce is sold at a Youth Farmers’ Market. A May Day celebration is planned.

We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon entirely outside this past Wednesday. Our fresh compost was delivered earlier that day, so the kids worked on hauling compost over to our garden plots. They also pulled weeds, turned our onsite compost piles, and discovered what survived the winter (if only we filmed Cole pulling a carrot from the ground! It was priceless!) Every single one of them WORKED HARD with enthusiasm–if only they could funnel that energy to homework and chores!!

Our garden growth focus was on “stems”. We talked about the stems we eat: asparagus, rhubarb and celery in particular. Our tasting was “Ants on a Log”. We enjoyed celery and peanut butter with their choice of dried cranberries, pecan toasted granola, and roasted pepita and sunflower seeds for our toppings. (Other fun choices are cream cheese, hummus, dark chocolate chips, fresh or dried fruit, different nuts, crumbled feta cheese.) I love this snack for many reasons. One, it is very economical, and transports easily wrapped in wax paper. The kids had a lot of fun with multiple topping options. I rely on bulk food bins to get lots of different toppings without having to spend a lot of money on a large bag of a single item. The second reason I love it is that you can load up on really good protein and fiber, without adding a lot sugar or heavily processed items. Add in that most kids can assemble it by themselves with minimal mess–it’s a true winner, at least in our house!!