Upstater

A few weekends ago Mark and I took a class at the Common Ground Farm where we learned a little about the concept of four season gardening. Neither Mark or I have ever had a garden, although we both grew up around them from our parents and grandparents. I’ve never lived anywhere I could grow a garden until now. The class may have been a bit premature since we haven’t even bought our house yet; but we learned a lot and were able to participate in building a low tunnel and hoop frame.

Hudson Valley Seed

The class was taught by Ava Bynum who founded Hudson Valley Seed, a school-based educational garden curriculum that is currently in five Hudson Valley Schools. Her kickstarter program  at an elementary school in Peekskill, was the foundation for the Hudson Valley Seed. The program scaled up this year as she took what she learned in the Peekskill school, and has started a larger pilot in four of Beacon’s elementary schools.  The goals of the farm-to-school curriculum is to address the growing rates of childhood obesity, poor nutrition education, and lack of access to fresh and healthy food.

However, schools aren’t in session during the peak growing and harvesting months of summer. And it was this constraint that led her to develop the program around four season gardening and establishing gardens that produce all year long through use of row cover, low tunnels, and cold-tolerant crops.

If you’d like to know more about Eva Bynum and Hudson Valley Seed, please visit the website.