The fascinating world of the Orca K-8 school garden!

The middle school garden & science enrichment class hosted their first monthly green team meeting. All classrooms in the school sent a student representative to the meeting to discuss the changes in the culture of recycling here at Orca. Our goal is to not only improve our recycling skills, but to really move towards being a zero waste school. Middle schoolers are leading this charge with great leadership and positivity. They will be going into every classroom on Thursdays to check if the recycling bin is being used properly. Will classes get a green check or a red check, hmmmm, only time will tell. Classrooms will also have friendly monthly competitions to see which class has the most success. November’s challenge is to separate garbage and recycling! We will keep you updated on the progress of this really cool intiative!

Two 4/5 classes came out to the garden and had an absolute blast tearing out dead plants and chopping everything down. As we prepare for what we think is probably going to be a freezing Winter, we are getting the garden ready. These classes got to be part of an activity that showcases the natural evolution of seasons. To some it seemed violent to be tearing, breaking, cracking, and basically destroying the garden. But this experience was a great first hand encounter with how Northwest gardens do basically hibernate and go to sleep in the Winter. We are using our 3 stage compost bins so we can turn all this garden waste into yummy compost! Sustainability! No students complained of being bored, all were engaged, and it couldn’t have happened on a more beautiful sunny November day.

Our first Harvest Festival in our new garden (last year nothing was growing yet). Even in the cold and rain, we were able to have a blast bringing everyone together to celebrate the Harvest time- one of the oldest celebrations on the planet. The cider press was turning out fresh apple cider all day. We had classrooms bring their own potluck foods and eat an abundance of amazing and fresh homecooked foods. We had face painting, pumpkin painting, arts and crafts, and more. Although we were forced to move the event inside, the rain didn’t seem to dampen anyone’s spirits.

Many students brought their own plates and utensils. We were aiming for a zero waste event, but this is really hard with over 500 students. We did compost probably over 100 pounds of leftover food and apples. We also had compostable plates and utensils.

Thank you so much to all the volunteers. And especially the middle school students! These amazing young people took an incredible leadership role and really shined and made the event special!

Beautiful day, beautiful kids, beautiful garden- perfection. A visit to the Hillman City p-patch and Orca’s plot there today. They got to pull up their own carrots and eat them for snack! Delicious!

Another beautiful Fall day here in Hillman City. We ventured with Supaydah’s class to visit the p-patch and harvest the last of the carrots there. About 15 kids said it was the first time they had ever picked a carrot from the ground- that’s a beautiful thing! The next day, the carrots were washed and delivered to the class for snack time. Delicious.

The first step in winterizing the garden was to collect the last of the green tomatoes and tear those plants out. Our soil needs a rest after producing some of the most incredible tomato plants we have ever seen. It was a jungle of organic goodness! Melanie’s class had a blast collecting and pulling! Tearing up a garden for Winter is almost as much fun as growing the food…

For all their hard work, they were allowed to take home a giant tomato to share with their family. Although we here at the Orca Garden are not reward centered, we appreciate hard work and believe harvesting does have it’s rewards.

Mmm, the relaxing smell of lavender. The Pre-K was able to fill little cotton teabags with lavender from the Orca P-patch, to place somewhere in their home. Maybe a pillow or a dresser drawer? They all walked away sufficiently relaxed and at peace…

It’s harvest time and we have a ton of green tomatoes. Fry ‘em up!! Two 1/2 classes got to taste a classic southern recipe of fried goodness. They wrote the recipes down and even got to take a green tomato home to try out with their family. We at the Orca Garden do not encourage the eating of fried foods all the time. HOWEVER- we thought a little fried food from Orca tomatoes that travelled twenty feet to be eaten, would be a delicious lesson. They were a hit with the students!

Third grade is growing seeds as part of the science curriculum in the classroom. Out here in the greenhouse, we are taking things a step further and having kids plant seeds of plants they can eat! Students have grown and transplanted rainbow chard and collard greens, hardy fall crops that can add some love to your dinner plate. They are tracking their growth weekly with scientific drawings when they visit the greenhouse. Melanie’s class took some plants home today.

Anthony teamed up with Jeff for an incredible activity in Jeff’s 6th grade math/science class. The goal was to track the approximate amount of miles that your breakfast took to get to your breakfast table. Think of all the ingredients in your bowl of Lucky Charms (or Wheetabix)- can we possibly come up with an estimation of the miles travelled? Yes and no. Though it is almost impossible to track this path, the 6th grade used their math skills to do the best any human can in determining an answer to this difficult question. Some student,s breakfasts travelled 10,000 miles- all for a bowl of cereal and cinnamon toast. From farm to factory to store to home, the relationships between the partners in delivering your food to you is super complex. This compexity makes for an amazing lesson in food security, sustainability, and just plain mathematics. Students were then asked if there were negative effects to the distance food travelled. Their answers were very insightful and inspired us very much.