Somerville Farm to School Project

In Ms. Diana Taremi’s Art Club it’s all about line, form, color and composition. More than a dozen middle school students started on several projects on Monday afternoons; creating art both for themselves and making projects to beautify the school. Their first assignment: Georgia O’Keefe-style painting on large canvases for the first floor hallway. The bright, lush flower canvasses are still works in progress.   The students are also creating flower tile mosaics that will be set in cement and used as stepping stones in the school’s kitchen garden. Ms.Emily Bhargava, a mosaic artist from Somerville, donated her time and bags and boxes of materials; tiles from large to small to the art club for the project. On a recent afternoon, Ms. Bhargava spent an afternoon at Art Club teaching Ms. Taremi and the students how to assemble the mosaics. First the students painted large pictures of flowers. They covered these with plastic wrap to protect them; then layered mesh on...

It's October and that means Farm to School Month! We have a busy month of real food activities planned from Salad Bar Day coming up on Thursday, October 8 to School Garden week. We kicked off our celebration with our annual Corn Shucking event. Three thousand ears of corn were shucked during an intense 30 minute time frame. Corn was sourced through our produce vendor, Russo's and grown at Taveres Farm in South Dartmouth, MA. With hands and husks flying, students, staff, community partners and parents all helped to get the job done quickly. At the Capuano Early Childhood Center, our youngest students took their jobs very seriously. Some peeling on piece at a time. Over at the Brown School, the chilly weather didn't deter the volunteers and students from shucking outside.   Even our leaders, Superintendent Mary Skipper and Assistant Superintendent Vince McKay lent a hand at the East Somerville Community School. At ...

Our fall gardening season is off and running! The Brown School had a fantastic harvest party during the first week back.  Eighty students participated in the event (two 3rd grade classes, one 4th grade class, and one 5th grade class).     The students picked carrots, cucumbers, arugula, basil, and tomatoes and got to taste them straight from the garden (after some washing of course).  They loved it and had lots of greats answers when we talked about seeds, the plant lifecycle, and what vegetables need to grow.   Content provided by Shawn Szturma, Brown School Garden Steward and Parent.

One of my favorite things about summer and fall is the food! Not just eating the food but visiting local places where food is grown and sold. My family and I spend countless hours shopping at farmers' markets, listening to music on farms, picking our own fruits and vegetables and meeting up with friends at food events and festivals. If you're wondering how to improve your family's connection to real food and the people who grow and produce it, here are a few tips. Left to right: Strawberry picking at Verrill Farm , Buying veggies at the SomervilleMobile Market, Attending the SomerStrEATS event   Visit a farm! See goats, chickens, sheep, cows and pigs! Learn about the fruits and vegetables that grow in and around Somerville! Chat with a farmer! Listen to live music! Pick your own food directly from the farm! For lists of farms and farmers' markets visit the MDAR (Massachusetts Department of Agriculture) and Mass Farmers' Markets websites. ...

"They have learned so much!" That's what one of the Transition to Kindergarten teachers said to me as I left her classroom for the last time. I had been visiting 6 different classrooms once a week for the past four weeks to teach the students about the plant parts we eat and what plants need to grow. Another teacher quipped, "I didn't know which plant parts I was eating until I went to college. It's great that they are learning about it now." That was our goal: to get students thinking about where food comes from and to get teachers thinking about how to incorporate food literacy into their lessons. Our first day started with Sunbutter and seed collections. Chef Guy Koppe from Project Bread led the kids in preparing Sunbutter, using this recipe. The students watch toasted sunflower seeds transform into creamy Sunbutter right before their eyes.    Preparing and tasting sunbutter   After reading Seeds, seeds, seeds! by Nancy Elizabeth Wal...

If you are anything like me, you associate cranberries with winter holidays - think cranberry sauce and turkey!  But after meeting with Cindy Rhodes, owner of Cape Cod Select with her husband Matt,  I learned that cranberries can be used in all seasons! And for both sweet and savory dishes! The cranberry harvesting season begins in a few short weeks. Grab the fresh ones while you can! For a year round treat, you can find Cape Cod Select berries in the freezer section of your grocery store. Naturally tart berries are a perfect pairing for sweeter meats such as pork and turkey. Coupled with fruit such as mangoes and bananas they make a delicious smoothie. After a recent visit to Cape Cod Select cranberry bog as part of my Boston Local Food Festival guest blogger stint, I challenged myself to develop a few savory recipes using cranberries. For the first recipe I paired cranberries with thyme to create a topping for focaccia tiles.   Using this recipe ...

School's out, but that doesn't mean an end to the fun lunches you enjoyed at school. Healthy, delicious and FREE meals will be served throughout the summer at various Somerville locations--a great way to reunite with your friends and share a meal together. Both breakfast and lunch will be available to everyone ages 18 years and younger.  Please see the f lier --in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Haitian Creole--for a list of locations and dates. Bring your brothers, sisters, cousins and friends for breakfast and lunch! The Somerville Public Schools is participating in the Summer Food Service Program. Meals will be provided to all children 18 years old and younger without charge and are the same for all children regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability, and there will be no discrimination in the course of the meal service. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination against its customers, employees, and applicants for emp...

Who likes Fish & Chips?   That's the question we posed to students at the Winter Hill Community Innovation School this past Wednesday.  Technically, we were wondering if they liked Baked Sole with a side of Sweet Potato Fries. It turns out that many of the students LOVED the fish and chips!  Over fifty percent of the students tried it. As they tried it, we gave them stickers to reward their bravery of trying a new food! They were also asked if they liked the fish and would eat it again. Eighty-one percent of the students surveyed would eat the fish again!   They also enjoyed sweet potatoes (not local), apples (sourced regionally from New York) and strawberries (sourced locally from Natick, MA). This special lunch was a Local Harvest Day pilot at the Winter Hill Community Innovation School. It marks the first time that Sea to School was a focus of school lunch here in Somerville. We hope to expand this program into other scho...

Last night we hosted our first benefit night at Flatbread Pizza in Somerville. We were overwhelmed by the community's support and thrilled to meet so many new supporters of the Farm to School Project! Thank you to the entire staff at Flatbread Pizza and those individuals and businesses who generously donated to our raffle! Boston Red Sox Tickets via John Welch Cambridge Naturals Gift Basket Midsummer Night's Green Farm Gift Box Flatbread Pizza hat and t-shirts Gift Certificates from Sarma Restaurant , O2 Yoga , 3 Little Figs , Bloc 11 / Diesel / Forge , Dave's Fresh Pasta , Flatbread Pizza , La Brasa , Magpie Gifts , Mahoney's Garden Center , and Porter Square Books . Thank you to everyone who supports our mission of empowering mindful eaters! Content provided by Karyn Novakowski, PEP Nutrition Education Coordinator, Somerville Farm to School Project Director.