Sunday, May 15, 2011

Temple Beth Am 4th Graders Taste Produce They Planted

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

Ethan Shapiro introducing Tim Rowan and welcoming the kids to the Club

Tim talks about all the harvested vegetables
Tim speaking next to a cutting of cosmos













Ms. Koller holding a beet plucked from the garden just a few hours ago
Posing next to a pineapple plant grown from a cutting
Posing next to a pineapple plant grown from a cutting


Ethan leading the kids on a walk to the garden




Freshly picked carrots



Ethan talking about composting next to the Deering Bay composting bin


3 comments:

  1. Great for Beth Am 4th Graders! Looks like a fun day.

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  2. Very clever idea to have pictures of the vegetables next to the dishes. That's cool that the kids came back at the end of the season, to eat what they planted. Looks like they really like being out in the garden! Good job done by all!

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  3. It was so much fun, hopefully we will be able to do it with other schools in the area next season

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