What's been going on...

Hey there, friend of the IDES Learning Garden!

We've had a lot of fun stuff going on in the past couple weeks... on the logistics side of things, the school's parent-teacher organization (PTO) passed a budget that included several allocations for expanding the garden's operations -- including the possibility of getting more food prep and cooking happening. All that we are hoping to do is contingent on fundraising that we hope to be successful at in the coming months, so please don't shy away from being even just a little part part of what we do. Even just buying something from us now and again, or making a small donation, can make a world of difference :)

Now, take a moment to enjoy a brief photo-digest of some of the goings-on of the past week:

IDES students get 'hands-on' with delivering and spreading mulch on campus

Lemonade for students, made possible by Early Girl Eatery, King Daddy's Restaurant and Mountain Valley Water! Thank you!

4th graders share oatmeal with fresh toppings every Friday as they study nutrition

Joele and Rick from Asheville Greenworks assessing our campus as we prepare for more trees

Ms. Brenda planting milkweed seeds together with her kindergartners

Dickson PTO renting and staffing a real apple press, making dozens of gallons of cider for kids to enjoy

A lesson in how bread begins... students grinding wheat and flax sseds into meal and flour

Ms. Moore's first graders hanging out with Swankie the duck

We've got a lot of work to do to get our program back up to speed (now that we're in this beautiful new building and this campus that just teems with possibilities =). To help us do all that we need to do, we're hoping that you can commit to spending one or more Friday afternoons helping us with some of the bigger fish that we've got to fry. We've got important volunteer work going on every Friday from 3:00 until 5:00 or 5:30... If we can get you out here, then we can get 'you' to start becoming 'us' -- and that is EXACTLY what we need!

That is all for now. I dearly look forward to hearing from some of you (via Blogger comments and emails) and even SEEING some of you getting dirty with us on Friday afternoons =)