One of the most important aspects of Farm to School, whether at the K-12 or preschool level, is experiential education and gardening (read more about that here). Oftentimes both schools and preschool childcare centers are limited on resources and space, but that doesn’t mean they can’t get kids into a garden. Visiting a nearby community or school garden can fill that need, or some very simple small-space gardening methods can give kids the satisfaction of seeing a garden from start to finish.
This summer, I helped my preschool-aged daughter grow her very own pot of carrots. We started them sometime in June and they were occasionally subjected to drought when she didn’t remember to water them. We harvested a few carrots when they needed to be thinned during the summer, but waited to harvest the rest until just a few weeks ago. From a second-hand 15″ plastic pot filled with compost, potting soil, and sand, we harvested a whopping 6lbs of carrots. If you’re familiar with serving sizes of preschoolers, that harvest could feed 30 preschoolers!
This just goes to show you, gardening at home and at school doesn’t need to be fancy to be wonderfully productive!
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