Sunday, October 23, 2016

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 =)

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Welcome to the IDES Learning Garden blog!


Welcome, friend of Isaac Dickson's Learning Garden, to our first blog post! Allow me to introduce myself: my name is Matthew Mikulski. I am a fervent gardener and wannabe homesteader, parent of two IDES kids, and a middle school math, science and technology teacher. Beginning this Fall, I've committed to regular volunteering with the garden at Dickson, with a planned focus on organizing our upcoming Community Garden next spring. I will also lead Dickson's blogging and Facebook efforts. Speaking of the TEAM... please examine the sidebar to the right, to further acquaint yourself with those individuals who are working hard to make this happen! Thanks to these people, and the many, many others over the years, we have a school with one of the most student-engaged, socially conscious and community-uplifting gardening programs in Asheville!

The goal of the IDES Learning Garden Blog will be to host a weekly digest of "what is growin' on?" -- meaning, what are we engaging in, not only in classrooms but also throughout the school campus and in our broader community (as we hope to grow our impact even beyond the bells, hallways, and sidewalks of Dickson). We also hope to use the email subscription list to keep you all aware of special one-off volunteer opportunities (NB: a sneak peak at one is revealed in the pics below)! At the risk of running too long in the tooth with my first post, I wanted to let some pictures of our recent goings-on speak for themselves. Much as a homegrown tomato will, when simply glancing upon it, concede nothing of the curious journey a single human caretaker might have started many months ago... we hope a few brief captions will allow you to sink your teeth into things :)

Spencer Lyerly, making our first eleven raised beds happen
Ricky, Spencer's fearless sidekick
Ms. Joan, getting ready to plant lettuce
Vine-ripened heirloom tomatoes donated from Juanita's Produce in Candler. We gave tons of these away to the school community!
An amazing, three-lobed heirloom tomato Mr. Mikulski named "Helium"
Christine from Asheville GreenWorks, helping students separate their food in the cafeteria for composting
Mr. M checking out the viability of strawberry plants offered for donation this fall (related volunteer event TBA!)
Joele of Asheville Greenworks, helping at our ribbon cutting ceremony on Sept. 10th


















Can you guess how this is related to gardening? =)
Yumiko serving tasty coffee at our 'IDES of September' monthly social
Fruit ingredients for kid-built smoothies!
Mr. Royer's first graders, getting hands-on with smoothie making
"Cheers!"