We planted 36 potatoes in 4 pallet bins, and nurtured them through some crazy events and weather! We had two bins that we had to restart due to people filling them with rocks or putting their children in them seeming to use them as a "potatoe bin babysitter". Last Monday the students and two of the teachers went out and harvested what was there - it was not nearly as much as we expected or desired, but we all learned a lot and the kids seemed to love the whole process and they learned a lot and had some super fresh produce to cook in the culinary arts class!
9:00 am and yes it is just getting light! The kids are listening to a short lecture about potato care from Culinary arts instructor Mat Bredburg (you can see him at the very back of the group with the light green shirt on - the tallest one there). They haven't turned over any bins yet.
Bin one has been turned over and the kids are getting some spuds out. All total we only got about 10 pounds (we expected at least 30), but the kids were happy to get something and they had fun doing it.
Mr. Wagoner our Yearbook and Business instructor is leaving no spade unturned and will made sure every last spud is harvested! Way to go Wags!
We will be setting aside the bins intact and using them next year. We plan to ask for some help from the garden community locally and start a garden club of some type at the school as well as do some more soil supplementation, we are looking to increase our production for next year.
This is the second group of students to go out and harvest - we had two culinary arts classes and the yearbook class that went out during two different class times - so one class got to harvest in brighter daylight!
We arent sure why the production was so low. A number of factors could be involved and I think the top three reasons are (1) the soil that came out from under the football field that we started with was very compacted and probably didnt have any nutrients left, and when it got hit with water it would super-compact again, stunting our growth, (2) the weather went from blazing hot to very cool in a short space of time and (3) it is possible we had some seed that was not in the first 3 generations and therefore was weak seed. Next year we plan to try to get some first gen seed and see if we dont have better success.
I have talked to numerous farmers throughout our Valley and many of them had the same problem with production that we did - we were not alone - not that it makes us feel any better - just doesnt make us feel worse!
The school has a number of staff and students on board with this project and we plan to plant as early as possible next year - hopefully during the school year so the students in the Culinary arts, biology, and ecology classes can participate in the planting process. This year it snowed 6" the day before school got out so we didnt get to plant with the students there.
There are a couple of other schools in Aalska that have these types of gardens including Huffman Elementary in Anchorage (they have a much larger garden than ours right now) whose students harvested 1500 pounds of potatoes to donate to the local food bank! Way to go Huffman - Way to make a difference! View their project here: http://www.adn.com/2013/09/27/3097974/huffman-potato-harvest-2013.html
Overall this project was a very simple way to teach kids and grownups how to grow and treat some of their own food and I hope everyone tries to do this in their community or at their school! Have fun with it!
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