What's growing in Redwood City?

Hello from Hidden Villa’s Garden Outreach program! My name is Carey Fritz. As Garden Outreach Teacher Intern, I spend 2 days a week teaching off-site at Taft Community School and at John Gill Elementary. I am excited to share how I have been involved in our partnership schools in Redwood City in this guest post.

On October 22, Taft Community School their annual Community Fair.  I was happy to join Dan Ronco, Hidden Villa's School Garden Specialist, in representing Hidden Villa to Taft families.  Dan helped people cool down from the warm weather (or heat built from too much merengue) with old-fashioned hand-cranked ice cream.  I got to invite families into the garden to meet some Hidden Villa chickens.  Many of the Taft kids who visited had not been to or heard of Hidden Villa before, however, they were all excited to become expert chicken catchers.  Many adults in the Taft community shared with me their excitement about the chickens because they or their families had grown up on farms. It was obvious that everyone was engaged, especially when by the end of the day one student had enthusiastically taken over my job in guiding people through Taft’s garden to catch chickens.

The garden at John Gill Elementary, our second longest-standing partnership school in Redwood City, went a bit untended over the summer and we were welcomed in the fall with many bolting and inedible plants.  During the past two weeks, though, we have made some major progress.  Every other Friday, there is a “Design Team” at John Gill, comprised of students who are nominated by teachers to get together to help plan the garden's trajectory.  The hands-on learning of this group, combined with our other garden classes and unscheduled visits during the after-school program, has turned John Gill’s plot into a READY winter garden.  This is exciting now because the radishes, kale, and sweet peas we planted in class have begun to sprout in the green house.  One of the garden rules is to ask permission before picking or eating something.  Very soon, we will be saying YES to students’ hungry requests!

Last week after-school, my co-Hidden Villa garden teacher, Kate, and I were working with two students, Lucas and Alma, struggling to clear one of the garden beds of invading tree roots. Help arrived in the form of Lucas' father, John, who had grown up on a farm and excitedly taught us the best way to remove the stubborn roots.  John was so appreciative of his brief time spent in the John Gill garden and mentioned that his work schedule does not allow him as much time as he would like to spend with his son, though they garden at home together when they can.  I told him about Hidden Villa and the many family opportunities available: visiting farm animals, picnicking, and hiking.  I hope John and Lucas are able to visit one day. I love being able to introduce my students and families to both their school garden and such a special place as Hidden Villa.

Originally from Oakland, Carey has been coming to Hidden Villa since she as 13, at first as a camper. A self described “lapsed” second year intern, Carey was with our Environmental Education department from 2006-2007, returning this fall in a new position.  Her time between internships was spent in Philadelphia, an experience that brought up many new questions for her about food justice and food accessibility, and how inequality, climate different and city/urban environments affect that access.  She says that, “as Garden Outreach Teacher Intern, the opportunity to teach in a school garden uniquely allows me the opportunity to answer some of those questions with young people.”  She feels privileged to learn about issues of justice as she has conversations with people off the farm about Hidden Villa’s work.