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| Click on any photo to enlarge |
The
preschoolers from “Time For Me” Early Learning Center, just down the road from
our garden, came to visit and have a lesson in the garden .
We
talked about what things are extinct and what that word “Extinct” means. Everyone was excited to raise their hand and
share that they knew that dinosaurs were extinct and all that was left behind
were bones!
However,
we then talked about how some fruits and veggies are going extinct, and they
were very surprised!
It
is estimated that the average American meal travels about 1,500 miles to get from farm to plate. Because more and more people wanted to eat foods that were out of season, like strawberries in October, foods needed to be shipped from all around the world. Farmers had to start breeding varieties that held up in boxcars, trucks, or ship’s cargo. SUPER SEEDS!
Vegetables
from hybrid (super) seed have some benefits like; disease resistance, greater productivity, and
a more uniform fruit (pretty), better pest resistance, disease resistance, cold
tolerance, drought tolerance, and added nutrition! They are genetically altered to create a
“super seed”. With these super seeds,
some of our Heirloom plants started to disappear!
Heirloom = seeds passed down from generation to
generation!
They
were no longer grown, and their seeds no longer saved!
They learned that Andean farmers in Peru once grew
some 4,000 potato varieties, each with its own name, flavor, and use, ranging
in size from tiny to gigantic and covering the color spectrum from
indigo-purple to red, orange, yellow and white. Now, even in the regions of Peru least
affected by the modern market, only a few dozen potato varieties are widely grown.
The
RCS Giving Garden introduces new heirloom vegetables to our garden every
year. Purple Beans, Dragon Carrots,
Green Zebra, Black Sea and Red Zebra tomatoes, and Rainbow Swiss Chard to name a few
Did
you know that when you cook purple beans, they turn green?! And if
you put them in a little olive oil and vinegar and put them in the fridge
overnight, they turn a little light purple again! At their next visit on July 11th,
we should have some purple beans that they take home with them and experiment!
The
RCS Giving Garden orders our heirloom seeds from Seed Savers at www.seedsavers.org. Seed Savers Exchange is a non-profit organization dedicated
to saving and sharing heirloom seeds. Since 1975, their members have been passing
on our garden heritage by collecting and distributing thousands of samples of
rare garden seeds to other gardeners in order to bring back those delicious and
rare varieties. 
After hearing about Seed Savers, the Time for Me group thought it would be fun to grow Dragon Carrots in their
garden next year!
Finally, we took a tour of the
garden plants and then visited the bee hives from a safe distance.
Thank you Time for Me for coming to
our garden! We will see you next month
when everything has grown much taller and you can see the vegetables that are
growing in the garden!
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| Bee hives in the shadow by the building Click to enlarge |
- Contributing Writer, Joni Fletty
