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  • Glen Lake Community Schools Chef Gene Peyerk stands in the school garden that will provide some food for school lunches this fall, ranging from cabbage to cucumbers to peaches. Jan-Michael Stump/Record-Eagle

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June 15, 2010

Many hands help school gardens during summer

By MARTA HEPLER DRAHOS mdrahos@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — When school ended Friday, Chef Gene Peyerk and his Glen Lake Community Schools culinary class walked away from their garden, leaving behind rows of heirloom vegetable plants and boxes of fragrant herbs.

For the next few months, the garden will be maintained by the Glen Lake 4-H Kids Club, an after-school and summer educational child care program for kids from 5 to 12. And when school starts again in September, the tomatoes and cucumbers, peppers, onions and squash will be ready for harvesting by another culinary class for use in school lunches.

"They're eating pretty good here," said Peyerk, who incorporates the herbs and vegetables in healthy soups and salads, entrees and desserts. "Probably 85 percent is from scratch."

The 3-year-old garden is a collaboration between Glen Lake students and teachers, from the preschool and elementary classes that plant seeds in trays each spring, to La Fresca culinary students who tend them in the hothouse, prepare the garden and put up the harvest, to the summer Kids Club.

"One day it will be primarily fourth- or fifth-graders out there weeding and carrying water, or it may be the little guys and the older kids will mentor them with our guidance," said Laurie Sohasky, coordinator for 4-H Kids Clubs of Leelanau County. "For the kids to actually be able to see something grow and have a snack out of that garden is so wonderful. Agriculture is a huge part of what Leelanau County does, so the more we can connect our kids to agriculture, the better."

Last year the garden produced 20 gallons of pickles made with dill from the herb boxes and enough tomatoes, peppers and onions to freeze for soups and pasta sauces, said Peyerk. The food service director and his culinary class also cut up green zucchini squash into medallions for the salad bar and steamed and puréed yellow squash for Peyerk's signature macaroni and cheese dish.

"We had homemade tomato-basil soup for the salad bar probably till December," Peyerk said.

The 15-foot-by-100-foot garden behind the school kitchen is as attractive as it is practical, with its handcrafted sundial, bird bath and stepping stones — all the result of senior projects. It's also a model for other schools in the area looking to create gardens for health and education.

"I went to Glen Lake last week and oh, was I impressed," said Boone Scharp, a teacher at Kingsley High School, which started its own garden this spring.

The garden is a project of Scharp's environmental science class, which focuses on local sustainable economy. The money to start it came from a raffle of quilts made with the students' recycled shirts.

"They were really serious about it," said Scharp, who also led the students in growing shiitake mushrooms, raising ducks and grafting and planting apple trees. "Once they realized how important it is where their food comes from and how many resources are wasted getting our food from across the country and the world, they were excited about it."

So were their families and businesses, which donated wood for the beds, windows for cold frames, tools and hoses. A bus driver pitched in with top soil. Now a special education teacher is raising money for a greenhouse.

"It was magic," said Scharp, who was initially inspired by a "farm to school" conference.

Teacher and class planted their first crop — spring greens — in late April and made salads after final exams. While the garden will lie fallow this summer, Scharp said he hopes to start earlier next year and to enlist the help of children at Kingsley School Summer Camp to watch over it.

Another garden got off to a modest start this spring at St. Francis High School and will take shape over the summer with additional boxes designed and built by an aspiring Eagle Scout.

"By next spring and next planting season we're going to have a nice, full-blown garden," said culinary arts teacher Jason Maday, who plans to alternate watering duties this summer with a handful of students.

The garden is part of the school's "Life Balance" initiative and will be planted and tended by beginning and advanced culinary arts classes with help, Maday hopes, from Munson Summer Camp. Some of the harvest will be used in classroom preparation and cooking demonstrations and some will go to the lunch program. Some could even help provide meals for the community.

"There's such pride when you know that you're contributing," he said. "It's a win-win situation for everyone."

Maday said his goal is to involve the students in the whole process, from beginning to harvest.

"My long-term goal is to see them have a garden at each (parish) school," he said, "so that the kids have a better understanding of the importance of eating well and good food."

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