How does your garden grow? We do not have silver bells or cockle shells. However, our ‘pretty maids all in a row’ are the ladies who work for the Tyonek Tribal Conservation District (TTCD). These “dirt ladies” coordinate and collaborate with the school and the community to create a successful and productive community garden.
The “Dirt Ladies”
Christy has been with the Tyonek Tribal Conservation District since October of 2011
Nicole began working with TTCD in April of 2014
Shortly after spring break they begin having the students plant the seeds. It is the responsibility of the students to water and care for the sprouts until mid-May when they have the students plant the sets into the prepared ground at our community garden plot.
On August 23, 2014, a community harvest meal was celebrated. People prepared their favorite dishes made from the produce gathered from the community garden. We took this opportunity and held the Open House at that time as well. Due to the fire in Tyonek last spring, we were unable to have our promotional celebration for our students, so we presented trophies and awards to our students at this celebration. Great food and trophies, who could ask for anything better?
The TTCD ladies, Nicole Swenson and Tanya Kaloa have provided and continue to provide fun activities for our students. So far they helped our students make pumpkin muffins from pumpkins harvested from our community garden. They also baked some of the pumpkin seeds. Yum-yum!!! They were at the school in January and helped the students build a watershed model and demonstrated how a watershed works and what happens when conditions in a watershed change. On February 25, they plan to take the students ice fishing for pike and later we will be dissecting some of the pike. Then in March we will begin the preparation for the new garden plants again.
We were fortunate to have Deborah Kane, the National Director of USDA’s Farm to School Program, visit our school along with the Alaskan Director, Johanna Herron. They were here to see how effectively the school is working with TTCD to help provide fresh produce for our village and to work on a plan to have some of the garden products used within our school lunch program. They spoke with our students, staff and Dean Hamburg. A couple of our students taught them how to do the seal hop.
We may not have silver bells and cockle shells, but we sure do have fresh vegetables from our local garden which are not always available to us here in a fly-in village. The garden also provides a great way for us to learn new things about science and nutrition.
