Vegetable Starts Make it to the Community

Hundreds of veggie starts made it out to the community in early June thanks to Sarah Rosow (Guilford’s Farm to School Coordinator), Lilac Ridge Farm, and VT Hemp! 

It started early on a Wednesday morning, with Sarah distributing 6-packs of kale starts donated by Lilac Ridge Farm. Amanda Thurber of Lilac Ridge donates plants to Guilford Central School garden every spring. This year she had an abundance of kale plants and wanted to donate them. Sarah worked with her and Ali West (Brattleboro Town Food Service Director, Fresh Picks Cafe) to figure out how to distribute them. 10 trays/80 six-packs/640 plants ended up getting distributed to Guilford families with their normal school meal delivery. Families who don't get lunch delivered were invited to pick up plants from school.  

Paraeducator Sandy Cutting delivers kale plants and lunch to Guilford Pre-K student Leah Hurst.

Kale ready to be loaded onto buses for delivery to Guilford residents.

Amanda and Lilac Ridge Farm also had cabbage and tomato plants to donate and hope to do another distribution later in the month. Sarah shared planting instructions through the school’s Facebook page and in the school newsletter and plans to share recipes later. Anyone who wants to support Lilac Ridge Farm can buy plants or produce at their farmstand on Ames Hill Road.

Isaac Freitas-Eagan of Guilford, and Amanda Thurber, co-owner of Lilac Ridge Farm of West Brattleboro, prepare to send off 10 trays of kale plants to Guilford families.

In the afternoon, Jon and Harley from VT Hemp set-up shop in the Brattleboro Union High School parking lot to distribute a variety of veggie starts to the community. Community members, school gardeners, and various organizations stopped by to pick up the starts for the season! VT Hemp hopes to continue this program in the future with more veggie starts to come.

Veggie starts from VT Hemp.

There’s a lot of gardening happening this summer. Want to get involved but don’t have space? Looking for advice from an experienced garden? Join Tara Gordon at one of Food Connects many open garden hours. It’s free for children and parents and art activities will accompany each session. Sign up ahead of time to reserve your spot!

#growingresilienceVT #vtvegout

Growing Resilience in Brattleboro

Food Connects is excited to be a part of Brattleboro’s new Growing Resilience campaign! Because Brattleboro’s interest in gardening is sky-high in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have worked to create this campaign to unite us in a shared story. We have collectively-organized tangible gardening support in the form of education, materials, and locations to empower the community’s desire to grow food. To learn more about the campaign, check out GrowingResilience.info. 

We’ll be offering activities throughout the summer through Food Connects’ Summer Garden Program. Learn from Tara Gordon, help care for the school’s gardens, and take home some crops when ready to harvest! For hours, locations, and sign-up information, check out our summer garden program information.

#GrowingResilienceVT

Reenvisioning the Oak Grove School Garden

Tara in the new garden, standing in the heirloom pea patch with Aronia bushes in the foreground.

Big things are happening in the garden at Oak Grove School! As part of a larger project to reimagine the playground, with a focus of creating more opportunities for students to engage in nature-based play, the former garden area will transform into an orchard. An underutilized sunny space adjacent to the playground is now a new, larger garden space for the school community. 

The new garden features a perennial hedge of edible Aronia berries, an entry arbor for vining plants like watermelons and cucumbers, and new beds planted with greens, tomatoes, carrots, beets, beans, peas, flowers, and herbs. Oak Grove’s garden coordinator, Tara Gordon, spent the spring designing and planting at the school. In addition to the orchard and garden, she also updated perennial beds in front of the school with native plants and edibles. Her next project is to create a mushroom garden in another underused space on the north side of the building. 

The new garden with cattle panel garden archway.

The entire school community took part in the design process. Facilities manager, Greg Frost, worked closely with Tara on the project and will install a handwashing station in the garden to make it easier to garden with students in the summer garden program while following COVID-19 health and safety protocols for school gardens.

Planting the Seeds of Success—The Keene Sentinel

We know how important school gardens are for students’ learning and well-being. Our Summer Garden Coordinator, Tara Gordon, and Farm to School Program Manager, Conor Floyd, were recently highlighted in a great Keene Sentinel article on the importance of school gardens and how they can be brought home during COVID-19.