Who’ll grow the food of tomorrow?
The kids, who else, not us old folks and perhaps with that in the mind the Master Gardeners of Cape Cod proudly co-hosted an open house at the Brewster Children’s Garden Tuesday with the young gardeners themselves.
Al Saperstein is currently in charge of the potato patch but he founded the children’s plot on Lower Road at the Brewster Community Garden six years ago.
“It’s for children to learn how to grow fresh vegetables,” he explained. “They learn organic gardening and how to plant seeds and little plants.
“Every year it’s a little better,” said Connie Ganss, current chairman of the garden. “There are 13 kids and we meet every Tuesday from 3:30 to 5. We have a little lesson to begin and each child has his own garden mentor. So there are different plots with different children’s names.”
In addition to plant lore the youngsters learn about birds, bees, worms, composting, mulching and such.
Russ Norton from Barnstable County Cooperative Extension is sometimes on hand to answer questions and hand out gardening tips on pest management and horticultural advice. The master gardeners commit to every Tuesday between May and September.
“They’re doing a great job this year,” he declared.
Plants are started at Checkerberry Farm in Orleans and then taken home or to the garden.
The open house welcomed parents, friends, grandparents, neighbors and other master gardeners who wanted to bask in the bounty.
“This is so the children can show what they’ve been doing,” Ganss said.
The master gardeners love working with the gardeners of tomorrow.
“They’re great. They’re precious,” observed Virginia Marhevka. “They start out saying ‘I don’t like vegetables’ and by the end of the summer they’re munching on beans and lettuce and discovering they’re not only fun to grow but great to eat as well.”
“I just like seeing the joy the children have when they grow what they’ve planted,” said fellow master gardener Trudy Steel. “They have to learn how deep the plant the seeds and hill them up a little bit. The garden is beautiful this year. We had wonderful leaf-mulch given to us that made everything grow and the children love picking produce. The girl I’m mentoring has a green thumb, she’s 9 years old and whatever she plants grows.”
They had a plethora of veggies. Sophie Christopher plucked Yukon Gold potatoes from the earth with Saperstein’s helpful pitchfork, Shea MacDonald carted a handful of tomatoes around and showed off a brilliant yellow patty pan squash while Leanne Kender hefted a grand green zucchini, Brielle Whalen boasted of her radiant radishes, Breana Kender could barely hold all her lettuce.
“I like the fun of harvesting and eating the food,” Breana said.
“It’s really fun and you get to watch it grow,” agreed young Jessica Williams who said radishes were her top crop. “There were so many of them and they were really good. And there were a lot of beans. I have a garden at home this year and I’m making a little teepee with beans – and I have a flower cutting garden.”
Giant sunflowers loomed over the garden’s corners while zinnias brightened the paths. Fat peppers sat on the plants and multi-colored carrots were wrestled from the ground. Some one found a snail in the lettuce.
“That’s a slug with a house,” Saperstein said. “I would say we’re very, very successful. They’re all great kids. When we started we had to go recruit the, we ended up with eight kids. Now we produce for the food pantries (Lower Cape Outreach in Orleans).”
“I love the opportunity to be one on one,” said master gardener Anne Stewart. “This is my third year and I’ve really loved all the kids. There is a lot of pleasure even though it’s hard work.”
The program is so popular the gardeners limit everyone to just one year of participation. But many siblings have joined up and so the alumni get to return.
‘Many of them have taken up gardening with their families,” Saperstein said. “They’ve gone to community garden plots and the kids teach their parents because they learn so much.”
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