Blog Posts - Lettuce Learn

Special Thanks to Our Garden Supporting Teachers

9/11/2015

A key asset of successful outdoor classrooms that is often overlooked is our teachers. Yes, our volunteers, community support, organization grants, etc. play a huge part in our promotion, but our Childhood Development Center teacher, Ms. Brenda, has been our greatest supporter. Her role and avid involvement with the lessons is quintessential. Teachers have the greatest influence on garden based education, because it banks off of them directly. Without them, we couldn't have garden lessons at all, and we just want to extend our gratitude towards Ms. Brenda, as well as all the other teachers involved with Lettuce Learn. Thanks for everything!

Nursing majors take on "field work!"

9/2/2015

This week, the CDC had the privilege of receiving aid from some Appalachian State nursing students. Erin Morressette, Jenna Caudle, Abby Van Horn, and Jacob McCann served to be a great edition to the garden lesson, as they readily took on tasks, and immediately bonded with the kids.

Volunteers are one of our back bones in the successful promotion of garden based education, and we couldn't do it without y'all!

New Garden Lessons

8/31/2015

With the semester starting back, the CDC garden lessons are now held on Thursdays at 3:00 pm. We heavily encourage volunteers to come out and help at any of the lessons, or if you simply want to come out on your own to see/use the garden please feel free to do so! The garden lessons will only be going on through the end of October, so come out while you can!!!

With Fall around the corner, so is more produce!

8/28/2015

The days may be growing shorter, but our harvest is getting greater. This weeks harvest totaled up to over 70 pounds, and included carrots, garlic, cucumber, zucchini, green beans, pumpkins and tomatoes! Our summer produce is coming to an end but our fall crops are booming. This week's harvest was donated to Lucy Brock, where they will be using the food to prepare meals and snacks for the students there.

New Kids! New Helpers! New Food!

8/3/2015

It's that time of year! The newest class of the CDC made their way into the garden, and came out with a record setting harvest of 30 pounds, with 25 pounds of it being just zucchini! This is a very intelligent group of students and are readily involving themselves in the garden.

A big thanks to Miss Maggie Horne for coming out and helping lead this week's garden lesson! Maggie is a rising senior at ASU, studying Special Education and was a wonderful edition to the CDC garden! We are very grateful for all of our Lettuce Learn Volunteers, and and are always looking for more volunteers to get involved!

Rain Water Cistern in Operation!

7/17/2015

After two weeks of gathering supplies and putting it all together, our rain barrel is now complete and fully functioning. This new edition to our STEM shed will allow us to maintain the garden on a much more sustainable scale. Rain barrels are an extremely valuable, yet underused, tool. They can be purchased preassembled at most hardware stores or you can build them yosef! Check out the video below on how to make a rain barrel your next addition to your garden.

Produce Sale!!!

7/8/2015

We are now in business and it’s time for y’all to taste what we have to offer! On Wednesdays at 3:30 pm drop by the CDC to pick and choose from that week’s harvest. All we request is a donation to go back towards our organization so that we can keep feeding you! So far, our mini-market has provided straight off the vine sweet peas, cucumbers, and zucchini, crunchy kale and arugula, various herbs, and freshly made zucchini bread, and with the growing season peaking, our variety will only increase. So come down and check us out!

Mountain Pathways meets CDC

7/7/2015

Today we had the privilege of the Mountain Pathways team and students paying us a visit! The members of MTN Pathways were matched up with our students for some one-on-one teaching.

Each group was assigned a specific task, and covered pest removal, weeding, watering, and turning of the compost bin. Produce was also harvested and weighed. This weeks crop yield was over 11 pounds!

Thanks again to the wonderful ladies of Mountain Pathways!!!

June Report

7/1/2015

Multiple lessons were taught, covering vermiculture and the importance of compost, the various stages of insect development, engineering support structures for plants, weighing and mathematics, and invasive plants and insects. The students transplanted pea plants around the support beams of the bamboo trellis. Produce was harvested and we gathered 7 pounds of zucchini, 3 pounds of cucumber, and 1 pound of sweet peas. The produce harvested will be sold in to parents in a sale put on by the students and a portion of the zucchini will be used to make zucchini bread, muffins and chips. Plans to install an irrigation system through the garden along with a rainwater barrel have been set and will take place in the first part of July.

The ASU Child Development Center receives two grants to improve garden program

2/5/2015

The ASU Child Development Center Learning Garden team was awarded two grants to further develop the pilot garden program of the Lettuce Learn Project.

In November 2014, the ASU Sustainability and Environmental Education Club (SEEC) and the Appalachian Student Dietetic Association (ASDA) teamed up and was recently awarded a $1500 ASU Renewable Energy Institute Club Collaboration Grant to expand the garden, build an outdoor classroom, offer a tool lending service, and further develop the cooking demonstration capacity of the garden.

The garden leadership was also awarded a $500 Creating a Healthy, Just, Sustainable Student Research Grant from ASU to build a solar-powered tool shed and to develop and implement a garden, energy, and sunshine unit appropriate for early childhood.

Plans are underway to showcase the use of these funds during an Earth Month and Greening My Plate Celebration in late April with a DIY Solar Oven Green Pizza extravaganza. Stay tuned to find out more!

Much excitement happening at our pilot program site and we are excited to dig in!