Third Graders and the Rutgers Master Gardeners Seeds to Salad Team Harvest Bountiful Crops at Whiton Elementary

In mid-June the Rutgers Master Gardeners of Somerset and Hunterdon Counties completed their Seeds to Salad program with third graders at Whiton Elementary school located in Branchburg.  The second year of this program at this school exceeded everyones expectations and resulted in two giant salads which fed all nine third grade classes, teachers, and Master Gardener volunteers. Due to an excess of produce, donations were also made to the local food pantry twice during the growing season.

It took many weeks of preparation to reach the much anticipated Harvest Day.  In early spring volunteers including parents, employees from Home Depot and Master Gardeners doubled the gardening capacity of the school by planning and installing an additional vegetable garden.  This garden, along with the raised beds created the previous year, allowed all third grade classes to visit their plots once a week instead of every two weeks enriching their gardening knowledge and experience.

Not only did the children plant various types of lettuce, radishes, beets, arugula, Swiss chard, carrots, spinach, onions but they were also were instructed in how and why it is important to weed, thin and transplant their crops as the plants grew.  Master Gardeners also presented weekly lectures about several topics such as soil and soil temperature, good bugs/bad bugs, worms, tropism and much more.

For many children Harvest Day was a highlight as they pulled up all the vegetables they had grown and shortly afterwards enjoyed consuming them at the Salad Extravaganza party. The program was a hit with third graders, their teachers and volunteers alike. The Rutgers Master Gardeners of Somerset and Hunterdon Counties are looking forward to educating and inspiring next years batch of students!

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Jean Miller (908) 782-1661

or email: jeanmiller@embarqmail.com