One of the first things you learn as a gardener is that there’s a HUGE world beyond lettuce. And, for those of us who love a good salad, that world is a paradise.
With Dexter Food and Nutrition anticipating a few new salad bars to come into the schools, we’ve been thinking about fresh, local items that students could enjoy on those salad bars. This Guide to Salad Greens from the Oh My Veggies food blog is just the thing that someone new to the greens craze needs to get started on exploring the wonderful world of endlessly interesting salads! With tips on everything from how to choose salad greens, to how to store them, which types of salad greens there are, and even a recipe for each type of green, this guide couldn’t be more complete.
At the DHS Spring Garden Workday last weekend, students planted seeds for spring salad greens like the ones pictured above. They also direct-seeded snap peas, snow peas, beets, radishes, carrots, and rapini! As long as the seeds all germinate, get watered, and stay sheltered from pests, the DHS students involved with the garden will be fancy salad experts before the end of the school year! Our eventual goal is that some of these items grown in the school garden could be served on the salad bar in the DHS cafeteria. With the help of IB Biology students who will soon build pest protection, design drip irrigation systems, and row covers for frost protection, salad bar produce grown in the school garden is a few steps closer to becoming a reality.
If you want to help water and maintain the Sullivan Memorial Learning Garden at DHS this spring, contact Dexterfarmtoschool@gmail.com and let us know you’d like to become a salad expert, too!