Welcome Salish Coast Elementary School to FBG
Where fresh food is "banked" and grows interest in veggie gardening
July 15, 2023
A brand new garden, Salish Coast Elementary, has joined the Food Bank Growers in a growing, gathering, and giving partnership. In this case the majority of the giving will go directly into the Port Townsend School system with the excess going to the nearby PT Food Bank or the Recovery Cafe.
If you drive by the corner of Discovery and Grant streets, you'll see a huge hoop house next to Salish Coast Elementary filled with tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. Outside are pounds of peas growing, squash, lettuce, kale, cabbage, broccoli, beans, fruit trees... and so much more to be added. In just 45 days the land was converted from soil to hand-turned raised beds flourishing in produce.
Directly east of it is a teaching garden where students get their first taste, touch, smell, look... at what makes a garden grow.
Farmer Neil Howe is putting his years of bio-dynamic farming skills to use designing the space for productive rows, creating the beginnings of an espalier orchard along the fences, and packing the hoop house soil with heat loving veggies.
Neil had the help of many volunteers donating over 60 hours of time getting the rows raised, planting starts, building infrastructure, and now - HARVESTING! Over 100 pounds so far have gone into the Salish Coast kitchen where he and Port Townsend School Food Director, Shannon Minnihan are converting the goods immediately into lunch for summer students or putting up for later use.
There will be a longer article soon on the full history of this system which includes the teaching garden run by Leta Fetherolf and how these gardens lead to the Blue Heron Middle School Orchard and finally to the PT High School garden and classes.
Welcome Salish Coast. We'll all be watching with interest to see how this garden grows.
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