Category Archives: School garden

We started digging in the dirt at Myers Middle School in the fall of 2009. We have introduced hundreds and hundreds of kids to the tastes of fresh picked vegetables since then. We have created countless opportunities for hands-on teaching and learning in our afterschool Garden Club, in classrooms, with high school students working at summer jobs and more. We have gotten some of our produce out into the community, on the shelves of the Honest Weight Food Co-op and Cardona’s Market.

Still, we would love for so many more of our friends – those we know and those we have not yet met – to see what we have been up to lately. Won’t you please join us for an Evening in an EnchantedGarden on Wednesday Sept. 21, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. We will be offering garden tours and tastes and demonstrations. We’ll have music and a bit too eat!

We would love it as well if you would help us spread the word by sending the attached flier to your e-mail friends and a link to our Facebook event to your Facebook friends. https://www.facebook.com/events/1684769585179863/We are behind the school building, at 100 Elbel Court. With just a bit of luck, we’ll still have tomatoes on the vine. Hope to see you there.

— Bill Stoneman

A flashpoint of sorts in Michelle Obama’s push for healthy school lunches is a requirement since 2012 that schools make daily offerings of fruits and vegetables. The fine print plays out differently from one circumstance to another, but it mostly requires students to take fruits and vegetables on their trays. But then, as you might guess, huge portions of that healthy food go straight into the trash.

So one indignant camp scoffs at the requirements, formally issued by the U.S. Continue reading →

What exactly drives us to build gardens at Albany schools and then lead kids out to them? Why would we bother with those time-consuming fundraising initiatives, like Boxtops for Education, and those time-consuming chores in the garden, like weeding and watering? What is the big deal about growing some of our own lettuce and tomatoes, when it’s so cheap in the supermarket?

For one thing, people who know something about where their food comes from are likely to make healthier choices about what they eat. And kids who help grow lettuce and tomatoes are so much more likely to taste them. We regularly see kids try greens right after proclaiming that they “never eat anything that grows in dirt.”

These explanations, however, just begin to get at the good that can come from Continue reading →

The days are getting longer. Pitchers and catchers have reported for spring training. And the tastes of freshly picked peas, lettuce, zucchini, tomatoes and so much more will soon be on your table  — if you start planning your garden now with High Mowing Organic Seeds. Better yet, you can contribute to school gardening in Albany as you plan that garden by buying seeds from the Vegetable Project, which receives a portion of all sales. Continue reading →

We are pleased to note reaching a pair of milestones in the life of the Vegetable Project: We have incorporated, formally establishing our status under New York state law as a nonprofit organization. And the Internal Revenue Service has recognized our qualification for tax-exempt status.

In simplest terms, this means that you can now deduct contributions to the Vegetable Project from taxable income. Thus, we ask you to consider supporting our efforts financially. And we’re making it easy. Just click on the donate button at https://vegetableproject.org and put your contribution on your credit card.

Tax-exempt – or 501c3 – status should also make it easier to pursue grant Continue reading →