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
Comments Off on A better way to encourage healthy eating at school
Posted in School garden, Teaching, Uncategorized
We spend so much of our energy growing peas and carrots and all sorts of other plants that we neglect at times to talk about a broader mission: to do our part in g
rowing healthy children. Working in schools where academic outcomes are often discouraging, we suspect that healthy, nurturing relationships with adults and educators can make a positive difference.
This thought about relationships, maybe call it mentoring, and perhaps the idea Continue reading
Comments Off on A path through the garden to academic success
Posted in Compost, Four-season growing, Planting, Teaching
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 wee
ding 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
Comments Off on Why a garden? Why the Vegetable Project?
Posted in School garden, Teaching, Uncategorized
We are moving ever so gingerly toward composting fruit and vegetable scraps at Albany High. In time, this could be one of the best things we do.
Decomposition is aided by a mix of nitrogen-rich “green materials,” such as fresh fruit scraps, and carbon-rich “brown” materials, such as dried plant stalks.
How, you wonder, could deadly dull composting ever compare to plucking beans and peas from the vine and popping them right in your mouth? How could it possibly compare with getting kids who say they don’t eat greens to try them and to then to declare that they truly like them? How could it provide the satisfaction of a fall harvest?
Well, we see the initiative as a route to engaging students in conversation about environmental challenges and the role that individuals can play in meeting these challenges. Composting can trim use of fossil fuel-dependent fertilizers. It can save landfill space. And it Continue reading
Comments Off on Cautiously starting to compost at Albany High
Posted in Compost, School garden, Science, Soil, Teaching, Uncategorized
At Myers Middle School.
A big challenge in school gardening in this part of the world is winter. Children are at their desks, but the soil is frozen. Thus, we are please to report great help that the Whole Kids Foundation is offering us to build a workaround.
As part of an annual school gardening Continue reading
Comments Off on Whole Kids funding new greenhouse at Myers
Posted in Four-season growing, Greenhouses, Planting, School garden, Uncategorized
We told you a week ago that you can plan your garden around High Mowing Organic Seeds and support the Vegetable Project at the same time. We have gone one step better alre
ady.
We are now offering an online path to buying seeds in addition to the old-fashioned paper order forms and checks path. A wide variety of individual packs of seeds are available Continue reading
Comments Off on Think spring with High Mowing Organic Seeds
Posted in School garden, Uncategorized
The grounds around Buckingham Pond, maybe a mile and a half from Albany High School, aren’t kept as tidy as we once expected our public parks to be. And with good reason, as explained on the sign in the first accompanying photograph. All the sculpting and groomi
ng and lawn-mowing we subject hill and dale to in parks and office campuses and at golf courses and schoolyards destroy habitat that plants and animals depend on. And diverse populations of flora and fauna actually are good for the health of our communities and maybe even the sustainability of life on this planet.
So here’s a thought: If Albany’s Department of General Services can take the long Continue reading
Comments Off on Undeveloping school grounds to teach about nature
Posted in Science, Teaching, Uncategorized
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
Comments Off on Think spring with High Mowing Organic Seeds
Posted in School garden, Teaching, Uncategorized
Cover crops are catching on in grain-growing regions. So considerable is the trend that the New York Times reported on it in a front-page story in Sunday’s business section. Kinda surprising that the article didn’t mention that we have been dabbling with cover crops at Myers Middle School and Albany High School. 
But it still serves as a helpful reminder that this is a subject worth considering for a moment.
So first, what the heck are cover crops? In short, cover crops are plants whose purpose on the farm has more to do with protecting Continue reading
Comments Off on Science opportunities in new look at old practice
Posted in School garden, Science, Soil, Teaching, Uncategorized
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
Posted in School garden, Teaching, Uncategorized
Strut your stuff in a stylish Vegetable Project T-shirt for $15. It's a great way to show you support creating hands-on learning opportunities for Albany kids.