Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Fresh Herbs All Winter

Last year we had the opportunity to purchase a grow light for our garden and greenhouse program.  It was used last year to grow seedlings for our garden, but having the greenhouse now, we no longer needed the grow light for that purpose.  Instead Chef Emily and I decided to set up the grow light in the cafeteria and grow fresh herbs all school year long. Now Chef Emily has easy access to the herbs for cooking all of our wonderful school lunches!  Also, it is pretty cool to have the herbs growing in the cafeteria for all the students to see.  Under the grow light you will find mint, parsley, cilantro, rosemary and chives.





Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Seedlings in January!

Over the holiday break our first planting of seeds sprouted in the greenhouse and we will soon have a few crops of lettuce and spinach varieties available for our cafeteria salad bar.  Just before we went on holiday break, I was able to pull out two groups of seventh graders, and also the entire fourth/fifth blend of approximately fifty students, to plant the different varieties of seeds in our greenhouse growing space.  We were concerned about the seeds sprouting, because of the solstice and very small window of sunlight that Maine receives right now.  But with the greenhouse reaching almost eighty degrees some days, and the extra amount of sunny weather we had over the break, the seeds sprouted nicely and are growing great!  It is such a wonderful feeling to know that we are growing fresh greens for our cafeteria in the middle of January!