woodsearth

Intern Courtney Mayszak planting tomatoes.

It’s been a fabulous Spring. Rain and sunshine, seedlings and composted manure. Field trips – with TST Boces special needs teens who also helped care for our seedlings in their greenhouse; 55 fifth-graders from a “buddy” program with Enfield and Cayuga Heights Elementaries; New Roots Charter School students during their Farm-to-School intensives. GIAC teens working almost every Friday since February.

An acre is almost full with plantings. Two of our summer interns began a couple of weeks ago, and teens from Youth Employment Services will begin in July.

TST Boces Career and Tech Center student planting in the field

Now, it’s harvest season again! This year we have so much growing that we’re harvesting Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. This week, 75 pounds of fresh, organic produce from our fields made its way into school food!

Thanks to the Learning Web preteens who planted peas in the snow in March, we were able to bring 8 1/2 quarts of sugar snap peas to the Fresh Fruits and Veggies Snack Program at BJM Elementary for their last week of snack. We also brought them kale, spinach, tatsoi, pac choi and basil which were used in snacks and the Healthy Meal Assembly Program.

Seventy-five pounds of organic produce for school lunches and snacks

Thirty pounds of fresh, organic lettuce (about 1/4 of the lettuce used in salad bars for the 8 elementary schools and 2 middle schools) were used in the Ithaca City Schools lunch program this week along with a case of purple pac choi. The central kitchen delivered them to each school in the district on Tuesday. More next week, with kale!

Our tatsoi being chopped for Healthy Meal Assembly at BJM Elementary in June

Fridays from 4-7pm we’re at the Newfield Farmers’ Market selling our produce along with bread, apple, craft, skin product, jewelry, maple syrup and other vendors. Come check it out! Just 6 miles south of Wegmans down Rt. 13.

A hard-working community gardener in April

To top it all off, our community gardeners are creating beautiful gardens this year! Gardener and mother of two Jessica Woodhouse says, “We’re having fun! It’s a beautiful spot and you’ve put together a really nice setup for gardeners.” More photos coming!

We are also piloting a School Food Hub with Regional Access this summer and fall… Look out for more on that soon!

Check out this 13-minute podcast on WHCU radio here – an interview in June with Wood’s Earth director Audrey Baker and Ithaca City Schools lunch director Denise Agati about growing, sourcing, and using fresh local produce in school food!

Check out this article in the Cornell Chronicle! “Wood’s Earth digs deep to bring local foods to schools” by Susan Kelley

“Ithaca-area children soon will be eating organic greens, winter squash and green beans grown just a few miles away in their school lunches.

Fresh, local food is making its way into area school lunch programs with the help of Wood’s Earth Living Classroom, which cultivates community involvement in growing and sourcing school food…”

Teens in the GIAC Conservation Corps green jobs training program came out to Wood’s Earth last Friday to begin building a larger, enclosed shed for the site. They helped design the shed from the start, and even shopped for the lumber.

Last week, they build the floor. Lance taught them all sorts of useful building basics. While explaining why we would need to excavate and level the site, rather than build the shed on a slope, Lance advised, “a building’s weight is a part of it’s structure.” How wise!

When we were finishing up, one of the students said, “I liked today, because we made a lot of progress. You can see what we’ve done. It makes me feel like a man.”

Teens from the Greater Ithaca Activities Conservation Corps, a green jobs training program, learned design and building concepts with our Operations Manager Lance Ebel at the Finger Lakes ReUse Center last week. After considering the uses of the shed (storage, shelter, outdoor classroom space), we chose dimensions, and then discussed construction
and design.
We made a list of materials, and then went shopping in the lumber room!

The teens learned how to understand lumber dimensions and why we need different widths, depth and lengths. They all helped haul and load the lumber,

and Brianna and Jada kept the accounts and calculated prices with our nonprofit discount… which included a useful lesson on calculating 10% and 20%!

Next week, we’ll start to build the shed!
Stay tuned.

Click Here to join The Food for Thought Challenge!
60 days to raise $2,500! (ends March 15)

Your donation supports local kids growing organic food for their school district!

Click here to order your plot online! Payment plans available.

Want to grow your own food, without worrying about  droughts or deer pressure?
Want to share resources on beautiful, accessible land, among supportive community?

Click here to get a plot in 2013!
10% early worm discount now available

Wood’s Earth caters to gardeners of all ages and levels of experience. We offer drip irrigation, a perimeter deer fence, amendments, tools, educational workshop opportunities, community support, and much more.

When you grow with us, you support our not-for-profit programming with local youth groups who grow food for the school district on-site.

Coming Soon: online plot rentals