Jesus's Garden Week 2

Our second week in the garden was better than last week in my opinion because we finally planted our seeds and seedlings(baby plants) as opposed to lifting the heavy EarthBoxes and cleaning the garden. We planted our own collard, radish, and watermelon seeds and our own lettuce, tomato, and red onion seedlings.This was great because I learned how much seeds/seedlings to plant in a box, how deep to plant them, and how much to water them. I finally felt like a farmer! I was surprised by how fast the seeds germinated and sprouted. Towards the end of the week, we visited Philip's Academy Charter School in Newark- a old factory completely recycled and transformed into an eco-friendly 'green' school(literally). It is a kindergarten through eighth grade school where every student is taught the importance of healthy eating and environmentally friendly choices-whether it be in math class counting tomatoes, sewing carrots or planting and growing vegetables on the rooftop garden( which surprisingly every grade does).They designed their school with their rooftop garden as the focal point, which I thought was amazing being the first time I saw such an amazing feat. However, what really shocked me was how everything they grew was served to the kids-it doesn't get more locally fresh than that! This entire experience was great for me as I learned that simple choices make a HUGE difference in the long run regarding what we want our children to be fed nationally, especially the fact that what I buy at the supermarket is a vote to sell more of that type of food(being run on supply and demand principles), so now I think I'll give organic food a try.