For many years, our table scraps went to a local pig farmer. When Stonyfield Farm offered him free by-products of their yogurt manufacturing process, we were without a pig for our pig bucket. The win-win solution to this crisis was composting. Today, when we hand our plates to the day's duty team, one student separates meats and fats from compostable stuff. This goes over to a series of compost piles near the ski jumps, where local manure is added. Rain, oxygen, a backhoe and countless microbes do the rest. Months after plates have been scraped in the dishroom, rich compost is added to campus flower beds and the school's prodigious organic garden.
The threat of frost prompted student volunteers to harvest almost all of the vulnerable, hot-weather crops Thursday. Here's Katie working through rows of tomatillos.
The school garden is not huge, but the yield is surprising. Tomatillos are planted in two separate sections. Processed into green salsa, with garden-grown chilis, cilantro and garlic, they will be enjoyed throughout the school year.
While a few veteran organic gardeners showed up after C block, most of the volunteers are new to this process, and new to these vegetables. It's an opportunity to discover new taste treats. Haley gets Bobby to try nasturtium flowers...
The size of golfballs, tomatillos beg to be tossed. Nick holds the collecting box...
The total harvest from this afternoon is staggering: more than twenty pounds of basil, alone, and thirty-five pounds of tomatillos, spinach, nasturtiums and cilantro. Virtually all of this food will be served this year in the salad bar, in sauces and in tasty entrees. Not all of this food will be consumed, though. Some will be scraped into the "pig" bucket, to be composted. And so the cycle continues.
To view an October, 2003 page with similar themes, click on
Quest For Sustainability. The next update to this site will appear Monday evening.
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