Vegetable Project

We took a dozen students out to our garden at Myers Middle School on Wednesday to harvest collards, kale, Swiss chard, a few tomatoes, a couple of peppers, cucumbers, beans, some lettuce, basil, scallions and generally whatever could be found on this early October day. And the students returned quickly to their five family and consumer science (home economics) classes, where classmates and teacher Larry Drew set up for cleaning and preparing for cooking on Friday – and a bit of tasting at the same time.

This, we suspect, made learning feel especially meaningful for one class period of one day for most of about 90 students. This surely was experiential teaching and learning. We gave students close-up attention, which we know is valuable. And this is what we have in mind when we talk about harnessing the power of exposure to nature. Students appeared engaged both outdoors and back in the classroom.

Will reading and math scores rise next week as a result? Of course not. Can initiatives like Wednesday’s contribute to positive outcomes? Well, with research linking soaking up fresh air, real smells and the sight living plants to wellbeing piling up by the month, we think the answer is yes, over time, and probably especially so among students who have the fewest opportunities to relax in backyards, visit parks nearby or vacation at the seashore or in the mountains.

Did it take much to pull this off? Sort of: caring for a garden since the days warmed up last spring, building a team of both volunteers and very-part-time employees, cultivating relationships with community partners like Albany Medical College and the Honest Weight Food Coop, searching high and low for volunteers to help out with watering and bringing the same 90 students out the garden three weeks earlier to touch and taste everything we could offer.

And was it worth the effort? Or maybe rephrase, did we see a suitable return on investment? These are more difficult question to answer. The Vegetable Project can plant seeds in the thinking about meeting kids’ needs, but cannot alone cannot turn exposure to nature into broad-based, long-term, meaningful support for child and adolescent development. Maybe school districts can. Surely the prospects would be better if the state Education Department signaled some interest. Perhaps the thinkers in teacher preparatory programs could have some influence, if they thought we had a good idea here.

The day was certainly a wonderful one for all the adults involved. And as suggested a couple of paragraphs up from here, students appeared engaged, which feels like an important marker.

–Bill Stoneman

We missed the photographic opportunity of the season the other day. Hours before capturing the beauty of two dozen sunflowers at our Albany High School garden on Tuesday, Sept. 17, scores upon scores of bees were buzzing around the giant yellow flowers pictured here. They must have finished their meals. We did not see many again after that glorious moment.

So, here’s how we want to ensure that we maximize the value of the moment 12 months from now: We would like to invite Albany High living environment teachers and environmental science teachers and, well, every other teacher who thinks this sounds worthwhile, to bring classes out to see and experience what we see and experience. And while we don’t want to sound like salespeople in this world who promise more than they can possibly deliver, we are pretty sure that substantial numbers of students will be transfixed, entranced and captivated in a way that doesn’t happen inside classrooms. Teaching opportunities – about plant life cycles or pollination of adaptation or interdependence – will abound. And with that experience, some of the hardest-to-reach students will be eager to learn.

Teachers will get a glimpse at what we mean when we talk about harnessing the power of exposure to nature.

But here is the catch: We need to hear from teachers who are interested well before mid-September 2025. We need to head into spring with some sense of how many classes with how many students we might host. We need to think about actually intentionally planting seeds, rather than hoping that seeds dropped by this year’s plants will produce what we need. We want to think about how we can support teachers in making this an amazing moment. We need to think about resources we might want to organize and perhaps offer. We need to plan how we can all move quickly when we see the moment developing.

And how can teachers reach us? Well, the best bet is to stop and say hello when we are out in the garden by the North Main Avenue entrance to school grounds. But please also drop an email to [email protected] or text 518-728-6799.

–Bill Stoneman

And why? Well, to contribute to our programs that create hands-on learning opportunities for Albany kids. And also, for all the pleasures in the world that come from planting bulbs or making them gifts for friends.

The Vegetable Project builds teaching and learning around doing and touching and tasting and experiencing – all year long. In July and early August, it’s mainly in partnership with Albany’s Summer Youth Employment Program, an initiative that provides 14-to-18-year-olds with 100 Continue reading →

We launched a pilot project on Tuesday, June 12, to explore the feasibility of scaling up some composting efforts in schools where we work by collecting fruit and vegetable scraps from student lunches. And wouldn’t you know, the Biden administration announced a new strategy the very next day for keeping edible food out of landfills.

Did word of our initiative reach Washington on the day it was Continue reading →

–Bill Stoneman

Imagine a middle school where teachers can offer classes a change of scenery, and especially a change that will bolster seriously valuable contact with nature. And imagine a school where a greenhouse, with space for visiting classes to work, is warm enough in January to nurture slow growth of leafy green vegetables. Where a fruit tree orchard beckons. And where bird, mammal and insect habitat transform Continue reading →

–Bill Stoneman

Myers Middle School students scooped seeds from freshly plucked tomatoes last fall as we began another year of our afterschool Garden Club at the school. We followed instructions to ferment the seeds, dry them and then store them. Then, months later, a certain Vegetable Project volunteer dropped a handful of those seeds in a small container of potting mix and sat tight for nine days. Then, voila! Twenty or so tiny tomato plants pictured here.

It is so easy to germinate tomato seeds that this is almost cheating. But we have here the faint Continue reading →