Tomatoes to Market: The First Day of School Show And Tell .

The next two weeks are going to be a whirlwind of activity at Sunlight And Rainwater Farm.  We had some trouble getting our tomatoes to the market, but it was only our first full year.  We know what we are up against and have established a routine that we hope to duplicate for years to come.  We are working out the kinks.

Tomorrow will be our first day of school, Thursday, August 10.  Though for many of the staff here, it has been a while since we have been in the third grade as students.  Last year we spent a lot of time making connections in the community and figuring out how to make things work.  This year, it will be a bit easier... we hope.

We are going to go into those classrooms and try to convince a class of 9 year olds that the garden has something to offer them.  We are going to try to convince their parents that this course has something to offer them.  We are going to try to convince the staff that this system can be educational.  We have some tricks up our sleeves.

We have 100 students and their parents who learned with us last year.  We talked with 15 of those students over the summer, had them help during all the really cool parts with Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and they were able to help us come up with a plan.  Children learn better when they are involved in the teaching, we have found.

 As we blogged earlier, we have opted to have a monthly theme for our students to think about while working on their project.

This month's theme is sustainability and longevity.  Our whole program focuses on longevity and each class of students gets to reach out to the next class.

Show and Tell
In keeping with that, we have more tricks up our sleeve in the form of plants.  Last school year and over the summer, our students decided to take some chances and experiment.  They were excited and grew whatever they could get into the ground.  This meant some trials and errors but many awesome returns.

This time last year we were working on compost piles.  We are surrounded by Mexican and Asian restaurants and a lot of the things we were getting from their compost donations started to sprout in the warmth of the compost piles.  Ginger, mint, avocados and more began to spring up.  So tomorrow, we are going in with volunteers plants that have sprouted up in the compost pile and have now grown!

The pineapple tops have taken root and the avocados are getting taller.  The trick is getting the kids to
understand that they will not bear fruit for a couple of years perhaps but putting them in the mindset that the payoff won't be for years.  They are part of building something that will go on long after they leave and becoming part of a community where they are connected.

So yes, we are going to grow things that give them a sense of accomplishment, but one of the main things we want to give them is a sense of the future and the past as well as the connectivity of things.  We want to give them living time capsules and things they can look back on when they graduate college and say, "I planted that."

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