Area students to highlight growing veggies in festival

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May 22, 2012

Area students to highlight growing veggies in festival

By JIM AUSTIN The Cooperstown Crier The Daily Star Tue May 22, 2012, 09:45 AM EDT

Wednesday will be a day for gardening in Cooperstown. It is the date of the annual Spring Festival at the elementary school's Kid Garden and the start of a new initiative to involve the whole family in gardening called Growing Community.

Students at all levels of the elementary school have been busy this spring starting seedlings, Kid Garden Coordinator Kristen Griger said this week. The students don't have a greenhouse, so they fill the pots and plant the seeds at school and they are cared for in the greenhouse at Carefree Gardens.

Some of the herbs, flowers and vegetable plants will go into the garden with the remainder for sale to the public during the Spring Festival. Some of the vegetables people can choose from are tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, Swiss chard and butternut squash. Herbs such as basil oregano cilantro, mint and chamomile will be on sale along with sunflowers, morning glories, nasturtiums and calendula.

"We started a lot of extra seedlings -- that's where we make our money," Griger said. "We had 100 percent participation (from the students). It's been pretty consistent since we started five years ago."

Griger said students will soon be eating lettuce from the garden on a regular basis after all the rain that has fallen in the last few of days. A lot of lettuce is picked at the beginning of the week and served to the students in the cafeteria.

"We're hoping to get more fresh food used for lunch," she said.

Some crops will mature and be harvested in the summer when the students are not in class. For instance, cucumbers get made into dill pickles and each class will get a jar of its own in the fall. Griger said they also time some plantings -- like green beans -- so the vegetables will be ready for harvest when students return to school.

Kid Garden is grown organically, Griger said. No chemical herbicides or pesticides are used and they depend on well-rotted manure for fertilizer.

Griger said the students have also been working with staff from the Farmers Museum. Last year they learned about growing and harvesting a Native American Three Sisters Garden.

Spring Festival also features a youth gardening workshop from 3 to 4 p.m. for all families. Griger said pre-registration is required to make certain there will be enough supplies. Email her at kristenmgriger@gmail.com to register.

Origins Café will be at the festival selling healthy paninis and smoothies.

The Spring Festival is from 2:30 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 23, at the elementary school on Walnut Street.

A new initiative will be unveiled during the festival -- Growing Community -- a group of people committed to growing food locally, sharing knowledge, eating healthily, and through these three things, building community, according to Ellen Pope, a member of group's steering committee.

Pope said she and others were inspired by Roger Doiron's Kitchen Garden International movement as well as by the success of Cooperstown's Kid Garden. The founders of Growing Community hope to inspire others to try their hand at growing more food at home, and to share the bounty with friends and neighbors.

"We want to encourage people to grow food in any capacity, Griger, another member of the steering committee, said. "Edibles can be decorative also."

Other members of Growing Community's steering committee include Rebecca Weil, Sarah White, Emily Riesenfeld and Kristen Leonard.

Growing Community will be officially launched at the Spring Festival. Volunteers will be on hand with demonstration raised beds handcrafted by the Hanford Mills Museum, and residents who want to test their green thumbs can pick up tips and seedlings, and even a ready-to-assemble raised bed.

"All are welcome in Growing Community -- veteran kitchen gardeners as well as beginners looking to start with just one plant," said Pope.

Harvest Share boxes, also handcrafted by Hanford Mills Museum and painted with the Growing Community logo, will be available for purchase as well. Growing Community gardeners can put excess garden bounty in the boxes on their doorsteps for neighbors to help themselves, Pope said.

Several downtown merchants are also joining in with edible window boxes which will feature herbs and edible flowers to show residents and visitors alike that edible plantings can also be beautiful.

To learn more about Growing Community, attend Cooperstown Kid Garden's Spring Festival on Wednesday, May 23, or email growingcommunity@yahoo.com.