Hey – Camp’s over!

The last day of garden camp at South Habersham has come and gone.

            Miss Ann told us how to use a chart that says when to plant something and the number of days until you can harvest it. The corn we planted will be ready in September, the beans in August and the squash that we planted this week, in August or September. The yellow squash that they transplanted before camp is ready to pick. In fact some of it has developed a black rot. We won’t be eating that!

The sky was full of grey clouds and it seemed like it would rain any minute. It did rain, but not until the last 20 minutes of last period after lunch. Whew!

Miss Carol brought in a big pot of carnivorous plants. There was a snail on one of them. It was kind of yeucky and fascinating to watch, all at the same time!

We weeded, of course, and planted the last of the 3 sisters, the squash. These vegetables will be ready when we are back in school. Will we get to see them, harvest them, eat them?

Speaking of eating. We picked a really big zucchini last week and in Ms. Dorsey’s class we baked zucchini bread. Wow! It was really good, but it seemed funny baking with a vegetable.

I’ll miss getting to visit the garden each week, seeing what is new, weeding, and looking for creatures. I hope it is still here when school starts again and that I’ll get to work in it, maybe even pick the corn, beans and squash.

Camp is over! Gotta go!

Hey Mom & Dad –

Hey Mom & Dad –

Our garden class today, the second at 21^st Century Project Camp, was more exciting than last week. Some of the things we planted are up! The carrots are tiny, so small they look like the other weeds in the raised bed.

We did not do as much in the garden this week, but we had more time to do other things. We weeded, meaning we pulled out a bunch of little bitty plants. We know they are weeds because they are not growing in the places that we planted seeds last week. Planting the different lettuces was easy because the teeny-weeny seeds just need to be in contact with the soil.

We saw some bugs – good ones – in the garden, ants and a mayfly. Also, there are tiny cucumbers and squash on the plants, and the tomatoes are less green than they were. The squash, cucumber and tomato plants have pretty yellow blossoms on them.

Miss Ann told us that there are good and bad bugs. The caterpillars falling from the trees near our raised beds are bad. They are eating the leaves off the trees! I learned about bugs that poop, pollinate, prey and are parasitic.

The conditions at the garden were warmer today than last week with no wind. The clouds were coming and going pretty fast. We’ve had some rain, so the plants seem quite happy.

We had time to write in our garden journals with Miss Carol and read some of the poems. I wonder if we’ll be able to eat anything from the garden soon…

 

 

September Farmer Of The Month

Farmer of the Month is a Farm To School platform that applauds the local farmers who are growing fresh, nutritious produce for Habersham County students. Wide Bottom Farm, with land in the North and South ends of Habersham County, is the Farmer of the Month for September.

Wide Bottom Farm derives its name from the flat, bottomlands where Habersham County creeks often overflow creating an influx of rich, dark, sandy soil perfect for crop production.  Bottomlands have been sought-out by generations of farmers as the perfect areas for growing the best variety of produce. Two families and three generations work together to plant, harvest and process a variety of vegetables and fruits for Wide Bottom Farm.  They use traditional farming techniques such as small tractors, walk behind tillers, hand held hoes and sweat to plant, weed and pick the produce.

Though not totally organic, the farmers of Wide Bottom Farm use best practices to be as earth-friendly as possible.  James and Phillip Franklin, lead farmers, take pride in the quality and taste of their produce. “What we don’t sell we can and put-up for enjoying ourselves during the winter months” said James.  “One of our goals is to add more heritage seeds to keep the old varieties alive and be able to save seeds after harvest for replanting future gardens.”  Carey Madigan, a member of the Kollock family justifies their techniques by saying, “Being a farmer is not easy, laboring in the fields is hard, hot work, but once you have the first bite of a summer tomato or enjoy the sweetness of a fresh ear of corn, it makes it all worthwhile.”

The duo farm families, the Franklins and the Kollocks, farm 15 acres of land producing 3 to 4 varieties of corn, half-runner beans, field peas, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, okra, strawberries, melons and pumpkins. Their typical farming day includes planting, hoeing and picking. “We like to start early and break once the heat of the day sets in,” explains James.  Wide Bottom Farm’s produce can be found at local farmers markets, and it is sold directly to individuals by contacting James Franklin at appal@myemc.net.

“We are proud to be one of the Farm to School farmers. The students in the schools should be able to eat produce that is grown in local soil.  It’s important, when available, to give our children good, healthy produce with the knowledge of where what they are eating came from and that it can be produced right in your backyard,” states Phillip.

Thanks to the grant funding from Northeast Georgia Food Bank and Georgia Organic’s Farm To School program, the Habersham County School’s Farm To School pilot program at Wilbanks Middle School will serve as a model for the rest of the state. The pilot model incorporates food and nutrition education into the classroom, integrates gardens in the school environment, and brings local food into the cafeteria while working in partnership with the community and local farms.

Habersham Farm to School September Events

September 4 – F2S leadership meeting, Wilbanks Middle 3:30 pm

September 9 – Farm to School Presentation to Board of Education by Student Ambassadors

September 14 – Farm to School Booth at Clarkesville’s Farmers Market

September 16 – Cafeteria Staff Training: Whole Wheat and Cornmeal from Sylvan Falls Mill

September 24 – Northeast Georgia Nutrition Directors Meeting

September 27 – Farm to School Ambassadors tour Chattooga Belle Farm

September 30 – Farm to School Taste Test – Students will meet farmers from Wide Bottom Farms, taste their produce and vote with their taste buds.

Farmer Of The Month – August 2013

August Farmer Of The Month

Meet Liberty Farms – Wesley and Sherri Gerrin, a mother-son farming team!  Liberty Farms sprang from the need for a source of extra income for the Gerrin family during these difficult economic times.  The severe decrease in home construction, teacher furloughs, and a son heading into college required that the family look for other ways of creating needed income.

Liberty Farms, off New Liberty Road in Clarkesville, began in 2011 as a one acre stand of okra.  Now, Liberty Farms produces a plethora of crops such as corn, beans, peppers, potatoes, melons, squash, tomatoes and onions on several acres.  Most recently, Wesley and Sherri have been hauling trailers full of their Silver Queen sweet corn to the Clarkesville Farmers Market.  They also sell their produce through Northeast Georgia Locally Grown.  Northeast Georgia Locally Grown, an internet-based market which connects producers and consumers, is a unique way to make fresh, local and sustainable foods more accessible to citizens of Northeast Georgia.

Wesley, a UGA college student, comes home for the summers to work the fields of Liberty Farms and set up their booths at farmers markets in Toccoa and Clarkesville. When she is not farming, Sherrie is a teacher at Wilbanks Middle School in Demorest and is a strong advocate for the implementation of Farm to School in Habersham County.  Liberty Farms will be growing Irish potatoes and tomatoes for Habersham students this school year.  “As a farmer and educator, I am thrilled to be involved with Farm to School knowing that my own students in my own lunchroom will consume our fresh vegetables. “ says Sherri.  “It makes me proud to be apart of a school system that cares and is proactive about the nutrition of our students.”

Farm to School is a nationwide movement that connects schools and local farms to serve healthy meals in school cafeterias, improve student nutrition, and farm and gardening educational opportunities. Habersham County’s farm to school project will be a model for the rest of the state on how to incorporate food and nutrition education into the classroom, integrate gardens in the school environment, and bring local food into the cafeteria while working in partnership with our community and local farms. Northeast Georgia Food Bank and Georgia Organics who support Farm to School as part of their vision for all Georgians to eat good nutritious food and stimulate the local farming communities are funding the pilot program.

Farmer of the Month is a Farm to School program that applauds the local farmers who are growing fresh nutritious produce for students. Paige Holland, Nutrition Director for Habersham County Schools, says, “Our goal is to help students understand how their food travels from the farm to their finger tips. We strive to honor and celebrate local farmers and connect children with the people at the front line of their food supply. We hope that the students will encourage their families to take them to the farmers’ market, seek out the Farmers of the Month, and purchase fruits and vegetables during the peak of their season.”

Liberty Farms will be providing Irish Potatoes for our first Farm 2 School Student Taste Test of the new school year which will be held at Wilbanks Middle School on Monday, August 26 during student lunch time in the cafeteria.  The students will be given the opportunity to taste a dish called ‘Greek Potatoes’ which will then be served in the school cafeteria at a later date.

Seal of Habersham County, Georgia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This map shows the incorporated and unincorporated areas in Habersham County, Georgia, highlighting Clarkesville in red. It was created with a custom script with US Census Bureau data and modified with Inkscape. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)