As our time in Berkeley draws to a close, I'm going through the sad process of saying goodbye to all the people, places and things I've grown to love here.
One of those places is the Edible Schoolyard, a one-acre garden/kitchen/classroom located in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School just a few blocks from our house.
The Edible Schoolyard or "Edible" for short, was created by Alice Waters' Chez Panisse Foundation in 1995 to "give urban public school students a chance to participate in all aspects of growing, harvesting, and preparing nutritious, seasonal produce with the goal of fostering a deeper appreciation of how the natural world sustains us and promoting the environmental and social well-being of the school and community."
In addition to those extremely worthwhile goals, it also offers a beautiful place to stroll, meet some chickens, admire fruit-laden kiwi vines, drool over the outdoor wood-fired brick oven, watch kale seedlings sprout, inspect a serious composting system, and more. Here's a little photo tour of some of its many charms. I'll miss you, Edible!
Fuzzy little kiwis growing on the vine.
A riotous arch of kiwi vines shades a path in the garden.
Gardening gloves hanging outside the shed.
A student-made sign marks a row of kale.
Chickens in their coop, accompanied by a metal chicken sculpture made of found objects.
Nesting boxes in the coop. Look closely at the box on the left, there's a hen hard at work laying in there and you can just make out her face.
Baby figs on a tree in the garden.
We will miss you, Rahm and Will. Sorry that Jackson could not have accompanied you on a walk through the Garden. He was a toddler when we moved to Josephine Street and that was one of our favorite walks. This year, as a 6th grader at King, he got to work in the Garden AND has the OK to eat as he strolls.
ReplyDeleteToday is a sad day was we say goodbye but our saddness pales compared to the excitement of the next stage in your lives.