Hi everyone!
Today was my first "real" day of work. Monday and Tuesday we mostly did paperwork and got our parking permits and worked out all sorts of logistical matters. Today I visited one of my schools and got to work in the garden with some kids!
Let me back up first- so FFI works with 6 different counties and 20 different schools in NE Iowa. The AmeriCorps/FoodCorps members are all assigned to various school districts that cover all 20 of these schools, and I was assigned three different school districts: West Central, North Fayette, and Howard-Winnesheik. These school districts are all at different points in terms of addressing local foods and healthy living; some of the schools have flourishing gardens and year-round walking school buses, and others are really enthusiastic about food and fitness, but they don't have gardens or a Farm to School program yet. I think North Fayette is my only school district with a garden.
One of the old AmeriCorps members (her name is Heidi and she actually lives next door to me!) worked with the North Fayette school district last year, so she told me that the garden coordinators at North Fayette's elementary school harvest on Wednesday mornings. So this morning I headed over there (only about a 40 minute drive) to help them harvest tomatoes. However...I ended up getting really confused this morning when I was looking up directions to the school, and I accidentally found the address for a West CENTRAL school instead of West UNION. So I drove an extra 20 miles and went to the wrong school! I was so embarrassed. I went to check in at the front desk and I told them I was the new AmeriCorps member and here to help with the garden, and the secretary replied, "We don't have a garden!" I was mortified. Luckily, my boss Emily and the West Union garden coordinators were super nice about my mistake. I made it to West Union Elementary about an hour late. I missed the first garden activity (harvesting tomatoes), but luckily the garden coordinators had planned other activities for later on in the afternoon.
In between activities, I got to speak with the coordinators about the history of the garden and their vision for the garden in the future. Since the coordinators are a retired couple from the community, this is their last season with the garden (they're moving to a warmer area of the country!). So I guess one of my big jobs with North Fayette is going to be finding a new garden director, or starting a garden committee. In the meantime, I will probably be managing the garden on my own (with as much help and interaction as possible from the teachers and students) after October.
At 11:30, the sixth grade class came to harvest the potatoes. The teacher is super on board with conservation, local foods, and fitness, so I think he will be one of my best contacts for the school district. Since the school's colors are red, yellow, and blue, the garden coordinators helped the 6th grade students start and plant red, blue, and Yukon Gold potatoes (the seeds were of course from the Seed Savers Exchange). They kids were SO excited about digging up the potatoes- they kept yelling "THIS IS SO AWESOME!" It was so great to see all of the excitement!
The garden coordinators and I then cleaned and weighed the potatoes. We had about 20 pounds of red potatoes, 10 pounds of Yukon Gold, and I think like 3 or 4 pounds of blue. I'm excited that the garden coordinators have been keeping track of their harvests because it will then be possible for me to compile a local purchasing report so that I can see what percentage of produce purchases for the district are local. Then I can come up with a percentage goal for purchasing produce locally (most schools require 30% of total produce purchases to be local for their first Farm to School program- I'm hoping this is a doable goal for my schools!).
After the potato harvesting, I headed back to Decorah. I stopped at home for a lunch break and then headed to Luther College (where my office is) to do some work. My day ended at about 4:30. It was a great first day!
Here are some pictures, as promised! They are totally out of order- sorry...
The amazing food co-op two blocks from my apartment!
Downtown Decorah in the evening- so beautiful. Minus the cars- couldn't get them out of the picture.
This adorable dog that I was obsessed with! We visited a local farm and made dinner there- the dog was at the farm.
Hiking around Decorah!
Scandinavian culture- of course no one eats the last piece of bread! I am definitely back in the upper Midwest. :D
Making dinner at David Cavagnero's local farm. We got to harvest whatever wanted from his gardens and then cook with it! We made lots and lots of vegetables and he cooked some venison that his neighbor shot. So sad but soo good.
Cooking dinner at David's!
Touring the Seed Savers' Heritage Farm- beautiful!
Welcome to my new town! I don't know if you can tell, but the flag on the left is an American flag and the flight on the right is a Norwegian flag (Decorah has the largest Norwegian population in the country. The king and queen of Norway are coming here this fall)! Amazing!
This is a little out of order- but here I am digging up the carbon source for our compost at Growing Power in Milwaukee during our FoodCorps National Training. Hard at work!
My friend Norris and I with a goat at Growing Power in Milwaukee! They were so cute- I loved them! I want to start a goat farm (seriously).
The bar downstairs has a Gator banner! I told them that they needed to add "national champions in 2009" in addition to the 2006 that's already on the banner! :)
My trip to La Crosse last weekend- the downtown area is interesting. It's like an industrial river town with just a hint of cuteness to it...
West Union Elementary's school garden- they are growing potatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon, tomatoes, and butternut squash.
