And . . . We're BACK! The 2014 Edition

Three years later, I am reviving this blog from the very beginnings of the Somers School Garden in Somers, Montana, to share with the world how our garden is doing in the summer of 2014! My name is Zoe Tucker, and I'm the current FoodCorps Service Member serving in Somers and Lakeside as well as in Bigfork and Cayuse Prairie Schools. I've been teaching in classrooms, assisting with procuring local food for the cafeterias, and engaging kids in the garden this whole school year (check out the Montana FoodCorps blog here), but now that it is summer in Somers again, it seemed like the time to start posting some pictures. . . 

Like this one of third graders at Lakeside Elementary dissecting some dirt earlier this spring!

Anyway, some high points of the year: at Somers Middle School, we had a small but faithful Garden Club crew who met after school to plant seeds, transplant starts, weed, generally tend the garden, and come up with ideas for how to make the garden more popular among the other students. We will resume that next fall and hopefully it can grow a little each year! Led by Robin Vogler, our intrepid Food Service Director, held our annual Montana Food Day in October to showcase local Montana produce across the menu, and tried out a few new recipes and items such as Montana lentil hummus and local beets, both of which went over pretty well with the middle schoolers. At Lakeside Elementary, we continued serving snacks through the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, highlighting many delicious local products including apples, butternut squash, radishes, and even kale for National Kale Day. We also continued to cultivate our hydroponic greenhouse at Somers, which we use primarily to grow head lettuce for the school salad bar. Nice, eh?

         

    

















In May, we had a wonderful work day featuring the folks from Montana Conservation Corps--our ever-faithful helpers in the garden--and the awesome youth from the Center for Restorative Youth Justice. This was the BEFORE, A.K.A. the Land of Quackgrass:

The worst of it--it's hard to look at:

But our devoted volunteers really went at those vicious rhizomes, and here is AFTER:

Note the brand-new three-bin compost system next to the school, the newly transplanted broccoli on the right, and a significantly reduced population of quackgrass. . . We hope.

Thanks, MCC and CRYJ! You all rock. Now, our broccoli, kale, cabbage, tomatoes, pumpkins, onions, garlic, tomatillos and sunflowers are on their way to success. More pictures coming soon!

Feel free to contact me with questions, comments, or ideas at zoe.tucker@foodcorps.org.

First Year Garden Yield

Winter has come to Somers, Montana and although some plants are hanging in there, Robin Vogler (Food Services Director and Nutrition teacher) sent us the harvest totals:

120 pounds of zucchini-not counting a random few
114 pounds of pumpkins
23 pounds of buttercup squash
53 pounds of hubbard squash
15 pounds of potatoes- these were Delicious, served them oven roasted, olive oil & sea salt-YUMM for our Montana Harvest Menu Day
19 pounds of carrots-although very few of these were edible-strange deformed and bitter-unfortuneately
Broccoli is still alive
Cabbage- no yield,but nice foliage :)
5 pounds lettuce varieties
Onions/garlic still in the ground

We are SO excited about how much this garden produced, especially since none of our plants were able to get into the ground until July!  And we know the garden will get better every year. 
Thanks to everyone that helped to make the garden possible and have continued to sustain it!

New Pictures and News Stories

School is back in session, and although we (Tory and Jean) are back on our respective home coasts, the garden is still growing, so much the beds can barely contain it! Robin and her Nutrition students harvested zucchinis and green onions the other day for a class project, and she took some photos of the garden growth (more photos below).

In addition to being a Blog of the Month for Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, the garden has also been getting some nice local recognition, in the West Shore News, and as part of a story about the Montana Foodcorps in the Missoulian.

There are two amazing women that we need to thank for their roles in this project, and we’re so glad that they are featured in these stories: Robin Vogler, our site supervisor and the Food Services Director and Wellness Program Coordinator for the Somers/Lakeside School District, and Crissie McMullan, a founder of Montana Foodcorps. Both bring so much energy and passion to their work, and it was such an honor to be able to work with both of them for a summer. In Robin’s five years at the Somers Middle School she has transformed the school food service from reheated processed food to made-from-scratch, healthy food that the kids love. For more details on Robin’s amazing work, check out the piece she wrote for Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. She buys produce from local farmers, but she wanted to reduce the food mileage even more and grow food right on campus. So she asked Crissie McMullan at Montana Foodcorps for volunteers to make the garden happen, and we were lucky enough to get selected. Crissie started Montana Foodcorps after the work she was doing to get local food into the University of Montana was so inspiring that people kept asking her to come to their community to get local food into their schools. And Crissie is amazing but can only be in one place at one time so she created Foodcorps to send volunteers to those communities. Montana Foodcorps is now a model for the National Foodcorps program, which is currently in 10 states. For more information, check out Crissie's Montana Foodcorps blog.

Finally, here are more new pictures of the garden! A white pumpkin looks like it will be ready for Halloween (below), the zucchini and potato towers are looking great (middle) and the chard is getting huge (far below)!

Our End of Service

Exciting news: our blog has been chosen as a Blog of the Month by Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution! We are so honored, Jamie is such an inspiration. We can't believe that a blog we started mostly so that our moms could stay updated on the progress of our garden is being recognized by one of our idols!

Today is our last day of service and the ending is bittersweet. We're glad we've accomplished all that we have and excited about what's next, but it's tough to leave this beautiful place! Below is a picture of the raised beds, the plants are beginning to spill out of them! Below left are our potato towers with lots of potatoes leafing out the sides. Below right is a sunflower in the courtyard.

Potluck Success!

Last night we had our potluck dinner at the school. Unfortunately it stormed so we moved the dinner into the cafeteria, but we were glad to be out of the rain! We had lots of great food and company and would like to thank all who attended and brought a yummy dish. If you weren't able to make it, be sure to stop by and see the garden sometime soon, the plants get bigger every day!

Our term of service ends Saturday and we'd like to thank everyone here for their help and support. This has been an incredible experience and definitely one that we'll never forget.

Courtyard and Ripe Tomatoes

Although the tomatoes above may not look ripe, they are a yellow variety we got from Terrapin Farms and are perfectly ripe! We picked them today and they were delicious! We also picked another zucchini, and more will be ready next week.

Also today we finished clearing out the grass and weeds from the courtyard beds. Much of it is now empty, but it gives us room to put new plants in. The bed below left has delphinium, mint, chamomile, tulips and forget-me-nots. The bed below right has corn, sunflowers, and lilies. We're glad to be done with the big tasks and so excited about how much the plants are growing!

Potluck and Our First Zucchini!

As our term of service wraps up, we would like to thank everyone who has made this project possible and extend an invitation to our Garden Potluck at the Somers School on Wednesday, August 10, 7-9pm!
Come see how much the garden has grown, eat delicious food and spend time with friends and neighbors. Please bring a dish to share with the group and feel free to bring your family and friends!

Speaking of how much the garden has grown, we picked the first zucchini today (below, right)! Just a week ago it was tiny, but the hot weather gave it a growth spurt. Our potato tower (below, left) has also grown significantly, the potatoes are leafing out on all sides. Our bed of broccoli, cauliflower and onions (below, center) is doing well and hopefully will start producing soon!