Students have grown, harvested and eaten an amazing variety of crops from the familiar to the unusual. Some crops like peas, fava beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and pepino are eaten raw in the garden, while others need cooking. Many student have enjoyed eating crops they were unfamiliar with such as sunchokes, mashua, occa, chard and kale after cooking them in the kitchen classroom. While the details of cultivation for each crop may not yet be familiar to every student, the understanding of natural cycles is becoming second nature. Crops are grown, harvested, cooked and eaten.
Any waste is composted together with the weeds from the garden.
The finished compost is returned to fertilize the beds. It has been a moving experience to see a vacant weed patch, partly covered in asphalt, transformed by 900 eleven and twelve year olds in the course of the past two years into a beautiful and fertile garden. Work in the garden is done in teams of 2-6 members. At the beginning of the class they listen to a brief description of the available jobs and choose which they will do. Then they go to the toolshed and check out the necessary tools from the students who are the tool librarians for the class.