karlacook

March 17: Planting day for peas!

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green leaves and pea shoot

And…the 2022 growing season begins, in PPS Edible Gardens, and in home gardens as well! Tradition dictates  March 17 for pea planting, but it’s also a good benchmark date for directly planting seeds into the soil for crops that thrive in cooler weather – think kale, collards, Swiss chard, arugula, and even some lettuces.  Peas pictured here are the deliciously crisp, tender and sweet Magnolia Blossom variety, with beautiful pink blossoms that appeal to hummingbirds.

Our Garden State on Your Plate program, which brings chefs and farmers into school cafeterias at lunchtime to serve up sample sizes of NJ produce made into simple recipes, features sugar snap peas and their edible tendrils. 

We like adding them to stir-fries, to salads, and snacking on them, straight from the garden. What about you? 

 

Greening the courtyards

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As construction continues at Princeton High School, the Edible Gardens remain in storage, leaving fewer opportunities for students to connect with nature in a delicious way. So we celebrate the Princeton High School teachers who are working with Princeton Education Foundation “to transform the courtyards within the high school building into spaces where students can take a breath in natural surroundings.” Town Topics writes: 

The teachers, Paula Jakowlew, Cynthia Bregenzer, Keith Dewey, Joseph Gargione, Bryan Hoffman, and Bridget Schmidt, will design, organize and implement “The Natural Wellness Project,” which will include plants, trees, flowers, artwork, seating, and meditative spaces. Later phases of the project include a cafe courtyard. Students may gain community service credit for helping to implement the design.

 

Here’s a throwback to 2009 and the PHS Edible Gardens raising, when PSGC and some 75 community members showed up to build and fill 13 raised garden beds in a day: 

 

School-grown greens in winter?

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Edible gardens at Littlebrook are expanding to the school lobby. As Anne Levin writes in the Town Topics piece: 

In the lobby of Littlebrook Elementary School, two white, vertical fixtures will soon be covered with green. They are part of a recently installed hydroponic garden, designed to allow students who tend the raised bed gardens outside to continue their efforts indoors, during the winter months.The installation is a pilot program of Send Hunger Packing Princeton (SHUPP), which founder Ross Wishnick hopes to expand.