Garden Club: Sweet Potatoes and Apple Sauce

Garden Club students had nearly 5 hours in the garden, now. They had learned about rules and discovered the garden through a “Garden treasure hunt” during their first two Garden Clubs. For the third Garden Club, the teens decided, it was finally time for the elementary students to do some real gardening.

One garden club student working hard peeling and coring apples for applesauce

For the Garden Club on October 8th, students finally got their hands dirty and harvested sweet potatoes, made apple & pear sauce, and helped water the high tunnel. During the Green Teen Summer program, the teens cooked or put together a dish nearly every day of the program. The four teens that continued employment into the school year decided it was such an integral piece of their experience at the garden, they wanted the elementary Garden Club students to have a similar opportunity. Once a month, at the beginning of every month, Garden Club students would get the opportunity to cook/make something and then enjoy it that same day. With apple season in full swing, the teens decided applesauce would be a great intro into cooking, knife safety, and team activities.

In the planning stages, the teens realized that planning to make applesauce with a group of younger students was way more than just “making applesauce.” They had to figure out how to orchestrate the whole ordeal so that everyone could participate in some capacity, we had enough tools (like cutting boards and peelers) for everyone, and everyone could still try the applesauce at the very end.

Students show off their sweet potato harvest

They produced a great system, having team leaders take “shifts” with their groups. When students arrived, they had enough cutting boards and slots for everyone, as not all 22 students showed up, and the team leaders took a little more of a relaxed approach, having fun working beside students to make the snack rather than working in shifts.

Meanwhile, students who were less interested in the culinary arts harvested massive sweet potatoes. STEM topics naturally arose as students weighed sweet potatoes and took “bets” on how much they each weighed. Later, the teens reflected on how much of the STEM learning was happening not in a formal “lesson” that they planned out ahead of time to then “teach” the elementary students, but rather casually, almost messily, as the students experimented and played in the garden. The trick, they remarked, was getting them to focus in a way that didn’t make them feel like they were at school! The applesauce got raving reviews and we harvested a whopping 215 pounds of sweet potatoes.

After working alongside elementary students to harvest sweet potatoes and make a yummy applesauce snack, the Green Teens felt particularly energized to come up with more engaging, STEM-based activities in the garden that both them and the students could enjoy together.