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Students in Jacquet Middle School After School Garden Club Get a Taste of Their Locally Grown Crops
Students in the J. Martin Jacquet Middle School Garden Club have spent several months learning firsthand how food goes from garden to table. With help from science teacher Ms. Lillie Ries and some urban farmer friends of the school, students grew fall crops last semester such as spinach and purple lettuce.
They recently got to taste the fruits of their cold-weather labor. As they tended their crops, students learned that while fall crops can withstand cold temperatures, only their hardiest plants survived local temperatures that fluctuated between warm and freezing the last two months.
To give their spring seedlings a fighting chance against Texas weather, club members constructed a greenhouse near the garden. Students personally experienced temperature changes inside and outside the greenhouse. They had rich discussions about how the climate changed inside the greenhouse and the impact the greenhouse will have on their next set of crops. They also designed and planned where to place the seedlings as they grow. Students have now decided which crops to grow this spring and some have started growing plants from kitchen scraps.
In conjunction with the garden, the after school program will participate in the Common Threads “Cooking for Life” program after spring break. The program provides food preparation and cooking lessons primarily using fruits and vegetables that might be readily available to the students. Students will be given cookbooks that contain recipes that are budget conscious, contain unprocessed ingredients and contain fresh ingredients.
By growing their own garden and participating in “Cooking for Life,” the club’s goals are to gain a deeper understanding of where their food comes from and to grow enough vegetables to create their own recipes.
-FWISD-
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