Before I plunge into all that I learned, let me explain the basics of the Edible Schoolyard (ES.)  It is a project started 20 years ago by Chef Alice Waters at Martin Luther King Middle School in Berkeley, California.

It has a one-acre garden…

with a beautiful central teaching space: straw bales in a ring under a ramada with kiwi vines…

…a small but efficiently run greenhouse with timed irrigation….

….a compost row, when these very hot piles are turned every two weeks, resulting in finished compost in 8…

 

…a well-organized tool shed (more on that later)…

…outdoor oven…

…and much more (veggies, flowers, fruit and nut trees, olive grove, rainwater harvesting, etc.)

They also have a beautiful kitchen and cooking education building…

…a peek inside (more on this later too)

..all of which is based on Alice’s principles of an “edible education,” spelled out on the side of the building.

Take a look at the jaw-dropping dining commons…

…where we ate delicious things such as…

This program is run by a team of garden managers and interns, head chef and cooking instructors, program administrators and office staff, Americorps volunteers, summer interns, and consultants, all of whom we met the first day of the Academy.  They run the Academy once a year, for about a 100 attendees, to share all of their secrets.

St. Alice also spoke, emphasizing her big, audacious idea: a free, delicious, sustainable school lunch for every child in America.

Then we broke into three cohorts, by region, and spent one full day on each rotation: garden, kitchen, and administration.  We also had panels on fundraising, the farm to school movement and school lunch reform and one night went out for an a-w-e-s-o-m-e dinner in Oakland at Pizzaola.  Our days were full–example of garden day below:

My next four posts will talk about the Academy thematically, starting with one of Alice’s main principles: “Beauty is the language of care.”  Stay tuned….meanwhile, happy, fuzzy picture of me by the lovely, handmade ES banner.