‘The Place Where Kids Sprout’

ERIN COUGHLIN, who came up with the name “Harriet’s Haven,” Baylei Coombs, who designed the hands holding a seedling, and Alexis Guptill, who came up with the slogan, “The Place Where Kids Sprout,” pose beside a new sign donated by Chris R. Johns, owner of Sunset Signs in Brunswick and parent of a student at Harriet Beecher Stowe School in Brunswick, for the new community garden at the school.

BRUNSWICK

Students, teachers, faculty, parents and members of the community have come together to create school gardens at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary School.

Coordinated by parent Sarah Wolpow, the garden project has been under way for a few months and several milestones have been achieved.

Volunteers with donated materials installed the gardens.

Students took part in a contest to name the garden and the winner is “Harriet’s Haven — The Place Where Kids Sprout.”

Volunteers initially planted greens for an early harvest. They also planned to plant heirloom tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, wheat, oats, corn, squash, pumpkins, morning glory, scarlet runners, and sunflowers before the end of the school year. Families have volunteered to tend the gardens during the summer, coordinated by Master Gardener Debbie Atwood.

Recently, students and teachers harvested the first crop of greens for a lunchtime tasting. On May 30, an overcast morning, a few secondthird fourth- and fifthgraders arrived at the school’s garden to harvest their crops.

Each class picked the greens that they had planted, composted the roots, and washed and spun the greens, preparing them for tasting during lunch the same day.

After an hour-and-a-half of harvesting, students collected six large containers of mixed greens, including red and green leaf lettuce, rainbow chard, bok choy, tatsoi and kale.

As each grade entered the cafeteria for lunch that day, they were invited to sample the mixed greens served at each table.

“The harvest and tasting was a great success, if judged by the positive, hungry responses of the kids,” a release from Atwood states.

“I know my own child ate more salad that day for lunch than he would have tried at home,” a parent said.

“It was a wonderful experience for the class and many mentioned how this was the first time they’ve ever planted and harvested anything,” a teacher said. “It was an amazing learning opportunity. It is very hopeful to see something so sustainable and community minded starting to take seed at HBS.”

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