The CitySprouts internship for youth ages 11-14 years old officially began at Kennedy-Longfellow last Monday, July 26th. We will be meeting together in the mornings for four weeks to take care of the garden & learn about growing & eating food.
On the 2nd day we ate fresh carrots and made ranch dip using herbs (pictured below). We also made basil pesto, but failed to take any pictures of it!
One of the lessons covered so far was plant life cycles. The students divided into two teams and mapped out the stages of growth for two different plants: radishes and strawberries. The steps were given to them in random order and the challenge was to place them correctly from beginning to end of life cycle: seed, new shoot, mature plant, flower, bee, fruit, dying plant. Strawberries are considered a true fruit botanically, whereas radishes represent a plant that produces an edible root. In the case of radishes, we eat the plant before it ever produces a flower.
This week we are going on two field trips: The Food Project in Lincoln and First Church Homeless Shelter in Cambridge.
In other news, we noticed a baby mockingbird and its mother today in the garden. It's nice to know the garden is starting to act as habitat for wildlife in the neighborhood.
