Several young children are gathered under the broad leaves and bright, heavy blossoms of a sunflower house enjoying the shade. They are making nature art with found objects, while a few more cluster together over a huge mound of composted soil, digging and looking for worms. In another part of the garden, children nibble edible herbs and flowers like mint and dahlias as butterflies flit from bloom to bloom in the afternoon sun. A group of children giggle while juices from ripe cherry tomatoes drip down their chins. The resident toad watches quietly from a shady corner, and occasionally, a luna moth perches on a colorful blossom and rests its wings.
The garden tended by Nora Harrington and her students at Winston Prouty’s Early Learning Center is teaming with life. “We have a little ecosystem going on. The kids are part of it and I am part of it,” says Nora. Together, they have designed a safe space for small children to explore and learn about the world around them. During the 2 seasons that Nora has worked as the garden coordinator, she has developed a program that values experiential learning and emergent curriculum, engaging her young students (ages 2-5) in every part of the process. From choosing what to grow to sprouting seedlings indoors, students help with transplanting and tending the garden all the way through harvesting, cooking, and eating the bounty.
In addition to growing vegetables, Nora features edible flowers and perennials in the garden. “I think it’s important to have flowers in an ECE garden. It’s about creating space as well as encouraging them to taste food. A big part of the experience is noticing what plants, animals, and insects do. Down the line this has an impact on what kids eat. For a lot of the kids, a big part of the experience is to be in a really pretty space that they made themselves, and I appreciate that I get to be in that space too.”
Nora grew up in Washington DC and wasn’t exposed to gardening or farming in her youth. After she moved to Vermont as an adult, she developed a fascination with soil and began growing plants in her home. As her green thumb blossomed, she started gardening outside. In her work as an early childhood educator, Nora was exposed to the benefits of gardening with young children when she worked in home childcare settings with gardens and farm animals. When she applied for a position at Winston Prouty, part of what drew her was their active Farm to School program and school garden. When an opening appeared for a garden coordinator, Nora was eager to apply.
Nora says that tasting foods in the garden is key. “I think the really fun part about eating vegetables in the garden for kids is that there is no pressure and they are much more likely to try something in the garden than if you bring it back into the classroom and cut it up and put it on a plate.” Cultivating a tasting garden for young children means “being conscious of not putting things in the garden that would be unsafe to munch on,” so priority is given to vegetables that can be eaten raw and edible flowers and herbs. Nora says that cherry tomatoes were a huge hit last season, as were cucumbers, carrots, and green beans. Her students particularly love mint, a perennial herb that grows in the same spot each year, and allows them to develop confidence knowing and identifying it.
The students haven’t developed a taste yet for radishes or turnips, and Nora understands. “I was a really picky eater as a kid. I didn’t like vegetables very much. I remember trying carrots when I was younger and not liking them. I tried a carrot at age 23 that my partner grew on the farm they worked at and I thought ‘Wow, this is one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. Why haven’t I tried this before? Maybe I have only had bad carrots?’
Nora continues, “The context where you are eating matters so much. Eating something that you grew yourself, I think it does actually taste better, but the whole emotional experience of it makes it SO much better. Even adults can put pressure on themselves to eat healthy and in the context where you are growing your own food that aspect of it isn’t part of the equation. It’s just fun to think, ‘I did this! Look at this cool thing I grew.’ I want kids to have that experience. I think if I had that experience earlier I would have been more open to trying new foods. Now I like to eat everything!”
If a student refuses to taste something, there is no pressure to do so, and they have other options. “They can smell it, touch it, look at it, or just pick flowers if they want to. It’s totally fine. They are so young. Just knowing that a food exists and understanding where it comes from might make them more open to trying it one day. Not all kids are going to want to eat kale, and I wouldn’t have eaten kale either when I was that age, but I probably would have put a flower petal in my mouth just to see what it tastes like, out of curiosity.”
The garden is currently blanketed in snow, however, the remains of the sunflower house stand as a reminder of the rich outdoor learning experiences in the garden that will come again this spring. In the classroom, one reminder of the fall’s harvest is still in daily use, dried cobs of brilliant glass gem corn that are a prop in the play kitchen. This corn, the seeds of which were donated by the family of a student, gave hours of enjoyment in various stages, from playing among the stalks in the garden to the sensory experience of exploring the silk and husks to the many uses in the classroom during pretend play. As spring approaches, Nora is eager to start looking at seeds with her students and decide together what colors and flavors they will cultivate in their outdoor classroom this year.