Somerville Farm to School Project

It's been a weather roller coaster this year! We've had hot days then cold days, rainy then dry--all proving a challenge for our plantings. Even so, over the past couple of weeks many of the schools were able to harvest and eat fresh veggies right from their gardens!  Groundwork Somerville hosted "Salad Days" at Argenziano and East, while parent volunteers at Brown hosted an end of the year Harvest Party with a variety of leafy greens! Meanwhile, the Farm to School Project worked with elementary schoolers at Brown, Winter Hill, and Kennedy School to start their gardens. 5th Graders at Kennedy learned how to use basic permaculture principals to plan a garden, and explored ways we can improve and replenish soil. 2nd graders became experts in cherry tomato varieties thanks to Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds  who generously donated over 75 different seeds!! 1st graders continued their study of "Sylvia's Spinach" by learning how to plant spinach seeds, ...

We continue our celebration of National Nutrition Month with taste tests in our elementary schools around the city. Last week over 300 students at the East Somerville Community School tried our Vegetable Yogurt Dip . Eighty percent of them liked it and would eat it again!     Content provided by Karyn Novakowski, PEP Nutrition Education Coordinator.

This week at the East Somerville Community School we tasted the difference between the green and very tart Granny Smith apple and the red and very sweet Fuji apple. Twenty-nine percent (183 out of 666) students participated in the taste test.   In yet another close race, the Fuji apple came out on top with fifty-six percent of the students choosing it over the Granny Smith which received forty-four percent of the votes. Content and photos provided by Lauren Mancini, FNS Director and Charlotte Stephenson, Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Grant Coordinator.

Last week students in the 4th grade at the East Somerville Community School tasted baba ganoush with peppers and zucchini slices. Baba ganoush is an eggplant puree made with garlic, tahini and lemon juice. The eggplant and garlic were harvest from the East Somerville Community School's garden, planted and tended by students, teachers and parents during the spring and summer. If you would like to make baba ganoush with roasted garlic for you family, you can try our recipe ! Serve with veggie slices or pita bread. Baba ganoush with peppers and zucchini! We are happy to report that 94% of the students tried the baba ganoush and 68% of them said they would eat it again! We are so proud of them for trying new foods.    Some of the students shared their thoughts about the baba ganoush. Our personal favorite is "taste's AMAZING! I want to eat it all day, it smells good too! The pepper is the best!"         Thank you to the 4th grade te...

Have you heard of hyper-local food? It's a trendy food movement where restaurants, supermarkets or other food businesses cultivate their own food on site. By definition, doesn't that mean a school garden could be considered hyper-local? We think so! Tomorrow students from the 4th grade classrooms at the East Somerville Community School will be eating hyper-local eggplant and garlic grown just down the hall from their classrooms. Both items came from the East Somerville Community School's garden. You can see the garlic in the photos below. The eggplant had just been transplanted and are too small to see. The garlic was harvested in July and the eggplant was picked yesterday! Garlic growing in the front right beds, June 2014. Garlic plant with scape (the little curly q at the top of the plant), June 2014 The students will be tasting baba ganoush, made from eggplant and garlic, with green bell pepper and zucchini slices. For this recipe we used ...

Some of our partners were recently featured in the news for all of their amazing Urban Agriculture work! Groundwork Somerville was featured on  Somerville Neighborhood News  in a piece on city kids becoming community farms. The City of Somerville was featured in Landscape Architecture Magazine . Click the link or the images to read the full article. The Somerville Farm to School Project is proud to be working with both of these amazing groups.

Students at Argenziano, East Somerville Community School and Winter Hill Community Innovation School tasted ripe, fresh picked strawberries, organic oranges, crunchy celery as well as many other fresh fruits and vegetables this school year as part of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP).  All students at the three schools were offered a fresh fruit or vegetable as a midmorning snack Monday through Friday.  Students gushed with enthusiasm about the program and voraciously consumed the fresh fruits and vegetables on a daily basis!   We are excited to announce that the FFVP will be continued at Argenziano, ESCS and WHCIS during the 2014-2015 school year!   The goals of the FFVP are to establish lifelong healthy eating habits and to fight childhood obesity since it promotes healthy eating habits among students by introducing a variety of produce on a regular basis, giving students an opportunity to try fruit...