Many hands make light work in the garden at Brown’s Early Learning School. And though a good number of those hands are small, the harvest the garden brings forth is rich and bountiful and filled with good things that big and little people like to eat. The Durham preschool is home to ten garden beds provided by Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s Gardens For Everyone program. Since the beds were built in the early spring of 2021 with funding from McGriff Insurance, the gardens have flourished under the care and tending of the Brown’s Early Learning School staff, students, and families.
On the day we visited, the children—all 4- and 5-year-olds—were preparing to harvest cilantro from the garden, in order to make salsa for their afternoon snack. They all gathered around the herb bed, were handed out small, child-sized scissors, and were told where to cut on the cilantro plant. Intent on their work and under the watchful eyes of their teachers, the children began, carefully clipping the leaves and adding them to the collection bowls, to exclamations of “Good job!” and “Good cutting!” and “These are some great fine motor skills!” The children were proud to show off what they had harvested from the garden and were looking forward to getting to taste it later that day.
After all the scissors were collected back in the box, it was time to visit the chickens. Suwimon Martin, the class’ lead teacher, entered the chicken pen and after several circuits of the yard, was able to pick up one of the hens and bring it over to the children gathered around the fence. The chickens are evidently a big draw for the students at the school, as they all stood quietly in awe of the bird. The chicken coop was built by the Gardens For Everyone team at the same time that the garden beds were put in, but the birds only recently began laying, which was a pleasant surprise for school director, Cheryl Brown.
In addition to herbs, the garden has a plentiful crop of radishes, beets, collards, kale, cabbage, and lettuce. Everything was planted by the school families on a Saturday some weeks back, and the families are encouraged to harvest what they want and/or need from the garden as they wish. Cheryl Brown says “it’s been a learning experience, as people share what they know about gardening and cooking.” As a part of the school’s participation in the Gardens for Everyone program, the staff also has the benefit of a gardening mentor in Michael Wagger, who comes by on a regular basis to offer advice and guidance to help keep the garden growing smoothly.
Harper, small son of Suwimon Martin, carefully carried the one egg that was collected from the chicken coop that morning, as the children returned to their outdoor classroom. The gate closed on the garden, leaving it quiet once again—awaiting the next visit of its small troupe of tenders and their unquenchable sense of curiosity about the world growing around them.
