Farm to Table Camp Tickles Taste Buds of Teens

Rising 7th and 8th graders had a unique and delicious opportunity to hone their culinary skills over the summer thanks to the leadership of Brattleboro Area Middle School (BAMS) teacher Marissa Fuoroli. During the first week of July, 31 students participated in a Farm to Table-themed camp, offered for free to all BAMS students. They began the week with more straightforward projects like fruit smoothies, homemade pizza, and cinnamon rolls. For the final day of the camp, they worked together to make a 3-course meal featuring a chilled creamy cucumber soup, a main course of ratatouille, and a chocolate chia seed pudding with raspberry sauce for dessert. Guest teachers from Edible Brattleboro and Food Connects supported this culminating feast. These extra hands made making multiple dishes at once much easier for Brattleboro Enrichment Activities for Middle School (BEAMS) program staff. 

As preparation for the cooking, students discussed the various ingredients in the recipes and decided which ingredients could be locally grown. 

“Has anyone ever grown cucumbers in their garden or seen them growing in the school garden?” 

“YES!”

“What about lemons?” 

Some students were unsure and thought that perhaps lemons could be grown in Vermont, while others were reasonably confident that lemons needed a warmer climate to thrive. This discussion invited a deeper conversation about the different conditions plants need to grow.

When it came time for cooking, students worked in pairs to peel, chop, and measure the ingredients and follow the recipe. The result was a feast for the whole group, served on the lawn in front of the school. 

““At the end of the smoothie-making day, (my son) proudly told me that his smoothie came out very tasty, and he is making smoothies at home for himself now.””

— Jenny Conathan, Parent

Students left the camp feeling more confident in the kitchen. In fact, Jenny Conathan, mother of rising 7th-grader Liam Conathan-Leach, said, ”In the past, Liam was reluctant to make his own smoothies and always asked me to make them. At the end of the smoothie-making day, he proudly told me that his smoothie came out very tasty, and he is making smoothies at home for himself now.”  When asked for his secret smoothie recipe, Liam replied, “I like to keep it very simple, with bananas, strawberries, and orange juice.” Yum!

Food Explorers

This spring, Food Connects and Edible Brattleboro partnered up to run a Food Explorers program at The Boys & Girls Club of Brattleboro. The group was small but mighty, and Food Connects staff had a lot of fun getting to know the club kids and building stronger relationships with the amazing folks at Edible Brattleboro. 

Let’s start with some background on The Boys & Girls Club Flat Street location. Inside the inconspicuous doors is a huge, welcoming space. There are hanging plants, plenty of foosball and air hockey tables, a place to play basketball, a stage, and even an indoor skate park. Upstairs is a tech room and space to play creative games like Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons. Trust us when we tell you, this place has something special for every child! This location is open to middle and high schoolers from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM, Monday through Friday during the school year, with differing summer hours, and serves as a safe place for kids to learn, grow and have fun. 

In late winter, Food Connects staff gathered with Boys & Girls Club staff to brainstorm ways the two organizations could work together. Excitement filled the air as the idea for the Food Explorers program began to take shape. Soon, Edible Brattleboro, a local organization that works to address food insecurity by building and caring for help-yourself gardens, also joined in, and Food Explorers was born.  

Thanks to Edible Brattleboro's generous donation, we built a grow cart together, started seeds using said grow cart, and planted them in the help-yourself garden at Turning Point Recovery Center. Our Farm to School Manager, Sadie Hunter, joined the kids seven times between May and June to engage them in food and gardening activities. Participating in a growing cycle this way was very rewarding, and we hope these plants will be enjoyed by many all summer long. 

Some of the other activities that we did together the past few months include an activity around light and seeds, a science experiment examining starches, and seed starting in many different ways. 

We hope that we can all continue working together to bring local, yummy food (and engaging Farm to School learning) to our community!

Reflection: Summer 2019 Garden Program

Green Street School Garden Coordinator, Tara Gordon, spent her summer working for Food Connects to care for school gardens at 5 area elementary schools in the towns of Brattleboro, Guilford, and Vernon. This summer garden program was made possible in part thanks to a grant from Rise Vermont. Here are a few highlights from Tara’s summer in the gardens:

Teachers from Academy School met with Tara in the spring to orient her to the garden and show her some of the crops they were growing. This included popcorn seedlings donated by Wild Carrot Farm that needed to be hand-pollinated. Throughout the summer, Tara connected with families on the playground while she was working in the garden. School staff helped with watering and harvesting. Funding for school gardens and the supplies needed can be difficult, but Tara reached out to the Brattleboro community and they did not disappoint. She was able to get a bale of straw donated for mulching, needed to combat the weeds and help the garden flourish. Teachers and students are looking forward to harvesting from their beautifully tended garden this fall!

Green Street School had families and neighbors who helped in the garden throughout the summer. The harvest was bountiful over the summer and extra produce was shared with school staff and neighbors. Tara was able to process and save some produce for school year classroom activities as well. Green Street has an ongoing relationship with Yalla Vermont growing and harvesting cilantro, parsley, and calendula for the Yalla kitchen. Because of Tara’s and the Green Street School community’s work this project continued throughout the summer. Tara also tended heirloom peas as part of a project in collaboration with the Brattleboro Words Project. These peas are an early variety which was grown in Brattleboro in the late 1700’s, and seeds from this year’s harvest will be available next year through a seed saving project in collaboration with Brooks Memorial Library!

Guilford Central School has well-established gardens and a great core group of active families who came to the garden throughout the summer to garden and harvest with Tara. Surplus produce from the school garden was brought to the Guilford General Store a couple of times and the school garden was highlighted on the General Store’s menu! Guilford Central School’s Farm to School Coordinator, Sarah Rosow, was a great partner for Tara, with many garden systems already in place, including a well organized tool shed and a clear plan for summer planting.  In addition to her work in the garden, Tara was also able to process some calendula and basil for Sarah to use this fall with her students.

Oak Grove School invited Tara to work in the garden with some classes in the spring to seed and plant, and learn about weeds. The Brattleboro Town School District summer school was based at Oak Grove this year, which allowed Tara to work with students and teachers regularly in the summer. Neighbors also showed support for the garden—in particular, a nice neighbor just across the street donated a bale of hay for mulch. The bulk of the food grown in Oak Grove’s garden will be harvested by students this fall and each class will cook a dish for the annual harvest dinner in October.

At Vernon Elementary School, the river bed soil is very rich and the plants flourished. The primary goal for the garden in Vernon this year was to provide families a space to grow and harvest over the summer, and crops were planted with summer harvesting in mind. Several families worked with Tara throughout the summer, and extra produce was brought to the Vernon pool to share with the community. Next year, this group hopes to have a Vernon School Garden Booth at their 4th of July town festival.

Community building was an essential of Tara’s work this summer. Tara created Facebook groups for each school garden as a tool to reach parents during the summer, and she made colorful flyers to spread the word about her weekly school garden parties.  She also made connections with Edible Brattleboro, a local college student, and several high school students who used community service hours to help her tend these gardens. Many hands made the work a little lighter!

It was incredibly helpful to the schools to have someone care for their gardens and build community in the gardens over the summer, and Food Connects is pleased that we were able to offer this program for the third year in a row. Many thanks to Tara for her hard work tending gardens and building summer garden communities at each school, and a big thank you to Rise Vermont for helping to fund this important and valuable work!

Photos By: Tara Gordon