Thursday, May 30, 2013

The Last of the Community/School garden

The school community garden will be finished in a week. Many beautiful vegetables grew in our raised beds in back of the school. The kids loved coming to the garden to plant the seeds and water and many of them toted bags of collards and lettuce and kale home for their families.

We could have said that this garden was a complete success, judging by the bounty of vibrant vegetables and flowers. We could have declared it a success because we won prizes for doing this project and everyone said how wonderful it was. It was featured at the County Fair. We were photographed holding up certificates.

But here is what really happened and how I learned from it. First off, all four of us "garden ladies" applied for and received the grant to do it and then put in steady work setting up the beds in the punishing heat of August, keeping the irrigation running, growing the seedlings to transplant, keeping the supplies in order, doing cooking groups with some of the classes, and with others, doing fun and interesting botanical lessons in the outdoor classroom. We really wanted to make a difference in this 'food desert' and teach kids that their food comes from the earth. We were as idealistic as twenty somethings out to save the world.

Quite early on it became apparent that no one in the school, except the kids, was very interested in doing gardening. We were not Alice Waters with a built in school population of Asian kids who already knew they loved vegetables.  Our kids did not eat or like many vegetables, they "forgot" to come to the garden when it was their turn. When they did come, the teachers regarded this time as a fun little activity and they seemed totally incompetent about growing anything , incurious for the most part, and left the garden strewed with trash, all the tools helter skelter, and the irrigation system askew. They let the kids put plastic into the compost.

No teacher ever thought of replenishing the fertilizer that we used to water the vegetables. No teacher ever pulled up a weed (what's a weed?) They had no idea about how to grow stuff! And we should have forseen this and conducted a gentle gardening/botany class for them. If you know about something, you have interest in it. In this I would say we failed miserably. We assumed too much.

But the biggest thing was that this whole school was intensely focused on FCATs. As the worst school in the county by the numbers, they were working, working on pretests, post tests, anytime tests to get this school up to scratch. We did not understand the burden of this. And this was the first major mistake we made. We kept wondering why in the world the science teacher would not give the garden a minute of her attention. Why didn't the scheduled classes show up? They had no time.

The school community coordinator, the second one in a year, was generally unhelpful, though she tried.

We also learned that kids need a lot of time outdoors in a garden. They love to dig and play in the mound of topsoil. They love to pick things. They love to think about keeping the butterfly feeder full, and they love bugs and frogs and worms. There were several kids from one class who came out regularly on their own to water and plant. What a joy to find them there!

We learned that we needed to really teach some of the adults about how to grow stuff.  For us seniors, it seemed so obvious, but many of these young teachers have no idea about growing anything because maybe everything worth knowing comes in 140 characters - or no one ever showed them. We needed to do more, much more, to teach these folks about gardening, and then pass on the responsibility to them.

We tried to have presentations about the garden for staff meetings, but it became abundantly clear that we were wasting their time. Eventually, the cooking groups, which were popular, stopped because we could rarely access our cupboard of pots and supplies. On vacations it was a major effort to get access to the garden to water it. Nothing was ever easy.

This week. we are pulling up the spent veggies,  sending the last of them home, removing the irrigation system, covering the beds with hay. We hope the families who tried to grow their very own earth boxes - with some success-will take them home. We are serving watermelon to the kids who show up to help with this. And the school? All they say is "Have you checked with the administration about serving melon? Someone might be allergic!"

Next year, next year.. Oy.

The thing is we are still idealistic and think about what changes we can make. I am thinking that if this school still retains the same administration, bound to a testing system that is going nowhere, maybe it is time to move on. Maybe just down the hill to the preschool.

In my fantasy life, I think of how great this garden could have been if the school folks could have seen what amazing learning happens when kids are outside learning and doing hands-on, and it is thought of as valuable.  Maybe the whole concept of harvest to table, and how to do it,  could work. Just maybe those scores would rise if kids could do something real and productive.

I have learned a lot this year doing this project. We have been saddened and we have felt unappreciated except by the kids, and I guess that's what it really is all about.




Saturday, May 11, 2013

Trying to Understand the Rednecks

I so love all the ways my neighbors arrange life. They have all kinds of animals and crops, and they are so interested in anything rural. We talk about what they have planted in their gardens and what works. Their kids approach us to sponsor their animals in the county fair.

These folks are fiercely independent Americans and they want no truck with "government" and they want to have their guns at the ready. These people do not recycle and do not believe in climate change, or understand it. T.V. plays constantly in their dimly lit homes. In many cases their yards are full of trash and plastic.

And yet, these folks have many wonderful values. They take care of each other, and on many occasions they take care of us, whose values are wildly different. Some of them are truly caretakers of this land.

We call these folks "rednecks", though actually my neck is redder than most because I am outside most of the day. This term really is about education, or the lack of it. O.K. It's about the vast ignorance so many of my fellow countrymen have.

For years we tried to buy a contiguous sixty acres from an old and cranky guy who owned it. After having put in a lot of effort and money to have it surveyed, and a lot of energy removing trash from the property, he finally refused. We were planning to give away two thirds of it to his daughter, and to the man who put major work into restoring this land. This was disappointing, but we went on.

Some years later, we decided to place all our land into a conservation easement. This means that nothing more than what is here can be added to. We cannot build anything more on our 300 acres. This land can continue to be a wildlife corridor from the Withlacoochee River, through the Green Swamp. Annually, the water board comes to check on how things are going here. When and if we sell this place, the easement goes with it. We liked thinking that this paradise would be forever.

Since we made this decision we have enjoyed the burgeoning of the wildlife here. It is truly the peaceable kingdom where every imaginable Florida critter and wildflower thrive. I drive on our mile long driveway to get the mail and see bobcats, many deer, wild turkeys and every kind of bird. It was a good decision.

But now we are revisiting the desirability of buying that contiguous sixty acres. Over the last ten years, (who knew?), we became close with a family, all scientists, who more and more frequently came out to visit. We formed such a strong bond with them! They really "got it"! They helped in the work of the ranch - mowing and clearing trees, working in the gardens. We share meals, love their kids. They have become a very important part of our family.

They love this place so much they want to have a part of it for their own. They got a windfall and promptly offered a juicy contract on that desirable sixty acres ( a lot of it is swamp, but to herpetologists, so great!)  And that crusty suspicious redneck family still holds out! They never use it unless it is to shoot stuff!

The in-law son, Mac, now approaching seventy has Parkinson's. He's our ranch manager, owns the herd of cows and is here every day. I love him beyond the beyond and we would do anything for each other. If our younger friends could buy into that land, it would benefit everyone, especially Mac, in so many ways. If our "new" family lived here it could be such a win-win situation! The pastures could be mowed, fences fixed, the cattle pens repaired. We old folks could be staying here for a long time.

But these folks still say "No." They are not thinking about the welfare of Mac over the long haul. They are not thinking of Mac's wife who may need the money, and certainly they do not think about the stewardship of the land. These folks freely strew trash around. Makes me nuts!

It's hard being neighbors here! Stay tuned. There is always plan B, and maybe plan C.

Monday, May 06, 2013

Thinking about Syria

I see the photos of the terrible devastation of war in Syria and they grip my heart and I cry for those refugees now in Jordan and Lebanon. I have seen those places in another more peaceful time when I learned to love the stark deserts and the impossibly green spaces where water flowed.

More than fifty years ago when I was a teenager in Beirut, I accompanied my father on the trips he took to various archaeological sites in the fertile crescent. He was a classicist and was taking his knowledge on the road to various cities and towns that had been the cradle of civilization.

We would set out in the VW with various maps. It was always an adventure. I was responsible for the slide show and in each town we hired a translator. The venues were packed. (There was little else to do in these towns.) It was hairy getting from place to place, and I worried about my attire. I will always remember the dark shirtwaist dress and the black shawl I sometimes needed to cover my hair and arms.

We would set forth, through the lush Bekaa Valley of Lebanon and soon begin our trek through Syria and on into Iraq. We loved Damascus with its lovely buildings and the amazing maze of the souks- where I bought meters of cloth to take back home for my mom to sew into dresses. I learned to not notice the attention that was paid me for my wild curly blonde hair that kept escaping from my shawl.

We had a gig in Aleppo and enjoyed the town and its lovely leafy main street. Now this place is in ruins.

Lots of times our respite for the nights were sketchy. We were served roasted song birds and sheep testicles. We tried hard to enjoy these things, (my dad threatened me if I would not at least try them!) and the pay off for me was seeing the incredible blue to pink skies as day dimmed over the desert.

I was in all respects a typical teenager and I longed for my boyfriend back in Beirut. But, somehow I knew that these expeditions were part of the adventure of my life.

As we drove through the deserts of Syria and Iraq we saw a number of hills just jutting out of the landscape. My father told me these were called "tels"-ancient hills that covered up towns and cities, now lost to civilization. We saw so many of them! It piqued my imagination. What happened to the inhabitants of these cities? I wanted to get out and dig them up ASAP.

On one trip across the kitty litter desert after nightfall, we ran into a donkey, probably killed it, and it certainly did major damage to our VW. The donkey shepherd appeared out of the night, we paid him off in piasters, and we drove on without a windshield, shards of glass embedded in our clothes (the shirtwaist). The entry point into Iraq was fraught and we had to wait hours as they searched our car and constantly thumbed through our documents. Finally, we returned to Syria and Damascus where we had the possibility of getting the car repaired. A few days later we caught a plane back to Beirut, and eventually the VW was returned to us.

This middle east is so beautiful and amazing. I hate seeing so many places in rubble, so many people killed from the war, refugees,  and I know that so many of the iconic archaeological and natural sites have been ruined for all time. The wonderful people of the middle east deserve more. Our entire world deserves more.

And I do not know what to do about it!



Sunday, May 05, 2013

Old Lady in the Digital World

O.K. I am trying my best. I was an early adopter of these things and I wanted my kids to have access to computers, so we bought the first computer, an Apple, more than thirty years ago. Of course, we were all hooked, we learned how to program games and we endured the clackety clack noise of those first printers. The internet was in its infancy.

Time passes and I have had many computers and gone from the very slow dial-up to satellite to DSL and beyond. My first computers were Apples and then for a long time I switched to Dells that had more currency in my work life.

While all this was happening I adopted the cell phone life, and was thrilled with my first smart phone!. Of course, it was able to do more than I needed and its interface was ever seeming too small for my middle aged eyes. Not to mention my fingers that refused to be able to text.  On to the iPhone and a steep learning curve of texting, Instagram, and all the rest.

And now I have a brand new huge Apple desktop and this is a wonderful toy. In these days they do not give you any instructions. You get to figure it out yourself, and if you can't shift those photos to another album you can always click help.

I used to think that my computer was my inside pocket of privacy. No more. If my Mac can automatically provide the correct spellings and even find faces in photos and find so much else, including where the photo was taken, I have got to revise my thinking.

When looking at Google Earth looking down on our very private 300 acres, I saw that every single cow, every single plant in the vegetable garden, is visible! Yikes!

I suppose that for most of us our privacy is in the sheer vast numbers of us out there in the digital world. and so we hide in the crowd. Who is going to look us up on Face Book amongst 600 friends?  And yet, I know that nothing on our computers is really private. Our comings and goings are photographed on security cameras many times a day as we go about our business in stores and gas stations and all the rest.

Now, being seventy-two, I have come to realize that all the stuff I have written is not important in this vast world of writings. My kids can read my book, the documents in my computer files are mostly temporary and I delete them as necessary. Maybe they are permanently in clouds. I do not need to keep vast files and I can delete them as I do the boxes in closets and the hangers of clothes no longer wanted.

This is a whole new world and I am at the tail end of it. Where is it going? What will this mean for our children and grandchildren?

Meanwhile, I am doing the best I can with this new technology and loving every minute of it.  I am thankful I do not have teenagers under my responsibility because they are so vulnerable, though I would love to have one of them sit by my side and easily tell me to click on this or that.

But Siri soldiers on, helping me navigate everything.

Wednesday, May 01, 2013

Thoughts about our Community/school Garden

Spring is here in Central Florida and everything is a startling green. Fireflies are about finished and the love bugs are about to appear as they always do about this time of year. And our community garden at the local school is beginning to produce something other than the ubiquitous collards.

We 'Garden Ladies' feel proud of what we have brought to this school. We got the grant of a few thousand dollars to set up the beds and the irrigation system, buy a load of garden soil, and a lot of seedlings and seeds, and the ancillary things one needs to keep a vegetable garden growing.  We put up a colorful garden sign and a place for folks to write about the garden. We have a large garden supply box where kids can find new seeds to plant, hand lenses to look at the bugs and whatnot, tools for digging, gloves to wear. Even band-aids.

It was way harder than we imagined to engage this school in gardening! The administration and the teaching staff was so enmeshed in their problems about the FCAT and how the school would be letter-wise, they had little time and interest in the vegetable garden that kept on growing out back. It took us some time to figure this out. Gradually, we found that some classes came out to the garden and enjoyed digging and planting and watering. Most of the teachers who brought kids to the garden told us they enjoyed it, and yet, many continue to let their students foul the compost bin with plastic bags and other non-compostable garbage. Often, we find lots of trash around and tools left lying out.

Out irrigation system automatically waters everything, but we have fifteen grow boxes along a corridor that are out of range of the water. These are supposed to be the property of individual parents and teachers and they need to be cared for. I am surprised that some of these earth boxes get watered and that whoever waters them never thinks to water those of their neighbors!

What I have learned from this project is that kids love gardening! They are interested in everything that is growing. They want to keep a few of our broccoli plants that have gone to seed with their beautiful yellow flowers for the hummingbirds and butterflies. One small girl has taken it upon herself to keep the hummingbird feeder full of nectar. Another regular kid turns the compost bin. They love to plant stuff and they love to pick what's ready and take it home to cook and eat. They love to dig in the pile of garden soil and they love to water with the fertilizer water that smells of fish.  They love finding frogs and bugs. These kids love to be outside in the Florida sunshine (Their classrooms are windowless!) These kids are proud of what they are growing!

I have found that a few teachers come out to the garden on a regular basis and harvest the lettuce or collards or whatever and take it home for supper! We have picked many vegetables and cooked them in the classrooms with kids chopping and cutting and combining. The kids love these cooking groups.

So, we rejoice in this.  We wish that the school garden might have been a more compelling activity for everyone. We wish that there had been more support of our work.  I do not think that our major efforts have been for nothing in this food desert. We just need to think that the vision of good nutrition happens little by little, and we have had a part in this.