October is Farm to School Month, and in a typical year, students would be getting an extra dose of edible education with Farmer Fairs, tasting events and other in-school experiences. Check out these at-home activity suggestions to help keep Farm to School learning alive and well no matter where school happens for your family this fall.
While most planting happens in the spring and summer, bulbs like garlic, tulips and daffodils are typically planted in October or November. Kids will have a blast digging in the dirt to plant the bulbs and will learn a valuable lesson as they wait for tender green shoots to pop up in the spring. Food doesn’t grow overnight! It takes a lot of time and patience.
To plant garlic, break apart a head into individual cloves. Grocery store garlic should work, but a local seed garlic variety is even better. Plant each clove in its own little hole, 1-2 inches deep, 4-6 inches apart. The pointy part of the clove should face upward. The trick to helping the garlic survive the winter is to cover it with a thick layer of mulch, like woodchips, leaf litter or straw, all winter long. Aim for a layer at least four inches thick! Watch this video for more.
The garlic shoots will appear in the spring, and the cloves will be ready when the leaves turn brown. Flavorful garlic scapes (the above-ground flowering stalk of the plant), however, will appear much earlier and be ready for harvest as early as May. Teach your kids about minimizing food waste by using the oft-forgotten scapes in your recipes next summer as a bonus activity!
Vermicomposting (composting with worms) has the duel benefits of teaching your children about soil health and sustainable living while also reducing your own environmental footprint. Getting started can be as simple as cleaning out a small plastic container (an empty yogurt or salad tub will do nicely), poking some holes in the lid and adding a few simple components. Fill about 1/2 of the container with shredded or torn newspaper, add a small handful of soil, a little splash of water and some coffee grounds or broken egg shells for grit. Add a few worms (they’ll multiply based on the size of your container) and feed them will small pieces of food waste, adding more newspaper if the container becomes too wet over time. Do not give the worms meat or dairy and avoid very tough materials like citrus peel.
Check out these more thorough instructions from the EPA before you get started.
There may be no better way to show a student where food comes from than to take them to a farm. Bonus points if you cook something with your harvest, too! The Iowa City area has several U-Pick apple orchards and pumpkin picking spots, including Wilson’s Orchard & Farm, Colony Pumpkin Patch, Allen’s Orchard, Big Apple Orchard and Kraul Farms. Check our searchable local food database for more U-Pick options near you.
Getting kids to try new foods is certainly tricky, but letting them choose their own samples might help! Visit an in-person farmers market or browse our Online Farmers Market products page and let your kiddos choose three new fruits or veggies they’ve never heard of for the family to taste test together. This is a great way to expose kids to the variety of our community food system and perhaps learn to love some new healthy options!
Consider donating to Field to Family today to help us continue growing local foods education in our community.