Students from Temple Beth Am Day School visited the Garden again on Friday, 5/13 for the culmination of their planting back in November. 35 Students and Teachers got a chance to sample various items they planted including Parsnip, French Radishes, Pineapple, Escarole, Red and Yellow Cherry Tomatoes, Arugula, Mint, Carrots, Sorrel, Edible Flowers and much more. The kids also voted on their favorite veggies and favorite dip. Cucumber and the Spinach Dip won the voting but a few kids wanted to change their vote after trying the Sorrel. Sorrel was the unofficial winner!
The 4th graders met again with QCS Certified Organic Farmer and Deering Bay Chef Tim Rowan as well as Deering Bay’s award winning Executive Chef Greg McDaniel. Over the last five months, Chefs Greg, Tim and the Kitchen Staff featured fresh produce from Deering Bay’s garden on our menu or part of our salad bar every day. On many occasions, the items harvested were served in our dining room within the hour; you can’t find produce fresher than that! On Friday, the children visited the garden for the last time this season and observed how many of the plants had “gone to seed.” We discussed the many ways plants produce seeds and the idea behind composting.
This season the Deering Bay garden survived two hard frosts and won top honors at the Edible Garden Pavilion of the South Beach Food & Wine Festival in February. We held successful gardening workshops with children of all ages and did a workshop for our Members with the President of Slow Food Miami, Donna Reno. This blog, “A Garden on the Bay” http://blog.dbycc.com, was featured on well-known, local blogs Mango & Lime, Slow Food Miami, Redland Rambles, Food for Thought and Little River Market Garden.
On behalf of the Members and Staff of Deering Bay Yacht & Country Club, we thank Temple Beth Am Day School for allowing the children to visit the Club and collaborate on the garden. The garden project would not have been a success without their help!
Tim Rowan & Ethan Shapiro
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| Ethan Shapiro introducing Tim Rowan and welcoming the kids to the Club |
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| Tim talks about all the harvested vegetables |
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| Tim speaking next to a cutting of cosmos |
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| Ms. Koller holding a beet plucked from the garden just a few hours ago |
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| Posing next to a pineapple plant grown from a cutting |
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| Posing next to a pineapple plant grown from a cutting |
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| Ethan leading the kids on a walk to the garden |
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| Freshly picked carrots |
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| Ethan talking about composting next to the Deering Bay composting bin |
