Category Archives: Uncategorized

Okay, there’s nothing Biblical about the plagues in our gardens in recent weeks. But a succession of troubles makes it tempting to wonder if we’re being punished for something. Plants have disappeared, have been uprooted and show signs that garden visitors think we’re sharing!

So we have been scrambling to configure means of keeping pests out. But before we spend too much time wringing hands and lamenting our bad fortune, it’s worth mentioning that some of the probable explanation actually reflects a positive development from an educational point of view.

A small measure of wildlife has returned to the space where Myers Middle Continue reading →

If our science teacher friends, especially at Myers Middle School in Albany, could stand a classroom lesson suggestion from the Vegetable Project folks, it would be to get classes outside, find your way to the milkweed plants in the accompanying picture, share with students the story of the amazing annual monarch butterfly journey and create a project around documenting Monarch sightings. Maybe even offer extra credit for collaborating with the Vegetable Project to put a variety of flowering plants Continue reading →

With a mission that includes harnessing the power of exposure to nature, the Vegetable Project proposes to develop an outdoor classroom at Stephen and Harriet Myers Middle School in Albany. We work with teachers to bring classes outside from time to time. We hold up scholarly research as we come across it that explains how exposure to nature contributes to wellbeing. And of course, we encourage kids – gently – to experience working their hands in soil and to experience the taste of freshly harvested produce.

At a time when school buildings are closed and students and educators are Continue reading →

There is a lesson in the overstuffed three-inch container in the accompanying photograph. It may not fulfill any of the official New York State Education Department learning standards or make an appearance in official state curriculum. It’s next to impossible to imagine squeezing anything about it into a standardized test. And still, we would submit that the lesson is among the most important that we can share with our students.

Of course the lesson, like all the hands-on learning opportunities the Continue reading →

Long-time friends of the Vegetable Project know we get a kick out of sharing the art (ha!) of growing pea shoots with everyone we meet. It’s the closest thing we know of to instant gratification in the world of growing edibles. Start seeds today and you’ll be pinching stems and popping them in your mouth in 10 or 12 days. And they’re delicious.

So please indulge us as we revisit the subject: In this time of social isolation, we Continue reading →

Christine Smith, who leads the Seadleaf community garden organization in Lexington, Ky., wrote last week, “In times of fear and confusion, the only thing that makes sense to me is to get outside and garden.”

Of course, she’s not the only one to express such a sentiment. Seed companies across the country say they’re overwhelmed with business. So clearly droves of people have similar ideas as the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread. Smith, however, is particularly eloquent in explaining Continue reading →

The head of an English elementary school started a garden to teach kids about where their food comes from. But the garden quickly assumed a much larger role.

“Gardening has become a central part of the curriculum,” writes Tim Baker, headteacher at Charlton Manor Primary School in London in a blog titled How a School Garden has Transformed the way we Teach, published by The Guardian. “A recent creative writing task on buried Continue reading →

It’s National Spinach Day today, at least according to email that we received this morning from the John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds company. And though the day does not have the official status of, let’s say, Memorial Day, or the cultural import of religious holidays, it does offer a small opportunity to reflect on great concerns of the day.

If there’s any rationale behind someone deciding that we should pause a Continue reading →

The coronavirus outbreak raises a question that 21^st century Americans haven’t thought much about: Can we take well-stocked supermarket shelves for granted? One friend in Cobleskill reported this morning that pickings are slim in his Schoharie County community. Another, Scott Kellogg, the education director of the amazing Radix Ecological Sustainability Center in Albany’s South End, wrote yesterday that it would be “prudent for us to scale up local food production as much as possible,” given great uncertainty of what the months ahead will bring.

We don’t know the extent of stress that current circumstances are putting Continue reading →

The coolest things the Vegetable Project does are probably also the most powerful things it does: We get kids who are convinced they do not like vegetables to give them a try. And we foster a sense of connection between field and table that is foreign to so many kids and adults these days.

So what’s the big deal about these? Students, so many of whom are skittish about trying so many things, food-related or otherwise, tend to say, “Okay,” when we offer. Well, actually, they often first say, “No way am putting Continue reading →