Thursday, June 10, 2010

Mt. Markham Visit












A child at Mt. Markham gets excited about planting tulip bulbs


This morning I met with Anne, Joyce, dietitian Kate Dorr and concerned Mt. Markham parent, Chris Merritt. Chris essentially started Mt. Markham's school garden program all by herself in the summer of 2007. With her guidance, a lot of my fears about MLK's garden were assuaged, but a few more popped up in their place.
Chris was great at reassuring us that this project is feasible. In her words: "It's all been done before!" While our garden may not be located in suburbia or an upper middle class neighborhood, the curricular resources and grant money is still accessible to us.
However, Chris and Kate made it clear that our project will not survive without parent and teacher involvement. Within Utica, this may pose a problem - many parents either don't speak English or are working during the day.
Therefore, I arrived back at Hamilton this afternoon with a new set of answers and a new set of problems to be solved over the course of the summer.

I'll leave you with a great potato salad recipe I used for a potluck my suitemates and I hosted this weekend...FYI - bacon makes everything better!

Potato Salad with Arugula, Tomatoes, Bacon & Goat Cheese
2 lbs small red potatoes boiled until tender
Salt
4 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces and fried
1 c cherry tomatoes, halved
1/3 c pitted kalamata olives, halved
1 & 1/2 c baby arugula coarsely chopped
4 oz goat cheese

Balsamic Dressing
2 T balsamic vinegar
4 T olive oil
Salt & pepper

Cut the potatoes into quarters while still warm and place them in a large serving bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and dressing when ready to serve.
Hint: goat cheese crumbles better after sitting in the freezer for 5 minutes

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