If you've ever wondered where the inspiration for my edible balcony comes from it's from Alice Waters Edible School Programme in the United States. The first edible schoolyard was set up in Berkeley California in a school near where Alice would do her morning run. Apparently she would look at the two acres of overgrown weedy asphalt and daydream that one day it could be transformed into a productive farm and an invaluable teaching tool for a generation of kids who couldn't tell a cabbage from a lettuce. Fourteen years ago that dream became a reality and with funding from the Alice Waters Foundation the asphalt was dug up, the soil reconditioned and an Edible Schoolyard was born at Martin Luther King Middle School.
Walking through the school garden this week gave me hope that the next generation is going to have a better connection to the land and the food they eat that will help counter our society's growing problems with climate change, obesity and our addiction to tasteless fast food!
some big legacy to live up to
basketball courts at Martin Luther King Middle School, Berkeley, California
climbing bean A-frame tipee
winter salad leaves
bok choy with hand-painted sign
not sure what this sign alludes to!
Gardener extraordinaire Mr Geoff
hanging haystacks innoculated with oyster mushroom spores
chicken run
tasty egg layer
strawberry seedlings ready to be planted
the greenhouse protects the seedlings during winter months
lavender bushes attract bees and pollinating insects
glorious colours even in winter
Alice's food philosophy is painted on the kitchen wall
the kitchen where the kids get to cook and eat what they grow
aprons hanging on pegs
school-grown peppers
heirloom pumpkins
some messages never change
Cool! What a great idea
ReplyDeleteI love the philosophy of these kitchen garden schools. I wonder how the understandings that are being learned from the kitchen garden activities & philosophy are being utilised in the curriculum areas? One hopes that the students are being taught to be critically reflective to gain 'the bigger picture' understandings of what they are doing and why they are doing it and who benefits and who doesn't.
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