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Taft students reap rewards from their 4-H club garden
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Bra’nia Underwood, a student at Taft Elementary School in Youngstown and a member of its 4-H club, poses in the club’s garden, holding the last of the peppers and green tomatoes picked this week from the plot located across from the school. The club, Taft Grows Green, is the city schools’ first 4-H group.
By DENISE DICK
denise_dick@vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
Braylun Anderson. Ja-Liya Jackson and their classmates gathered the last of the tomatoes, watermelons, strawberries, cabbage and fall flowers from their garden this week, hoeing the earth and preparing it for next year’s crop.
This is the second year the Taft Elementary School 4-H Club, Taft Grows Green, has planted and harvested a garden in a plot across from the school.
“We grew sunflowers, tomatoes, jalapenos and bell peppers,” Braylun, 10, a fifth-grader, said. “It was all good.”
At the height of the vegetable yield, students took vegetables home and made their own creations. Vegetable omelettes were the order of the day at Braylun’s house, and he gave them four stars.
This week, he gathered green tomatoes for a fried green tomato feast at home.
“You just cut them up, put them in some flour and put them in a pan with some grease for a little bit,” Braylun said.
Teacher Laurie McEwan is the 4-H adviser, and eight students participate in the club, the first in the city schools. The club went to the Canfield Fair this year with an upcycling project, spelling out the letters “Upcycle” with recycled items.
Last year, a senior from South Range High School, Christian Moore, worked on the garden as his senior project, and South Range seniors Dillon McBee and Kayla Zimbardi, both 17, continued the work for their senior projects this year.
“I really enjoy working with the kids,” Kayla said.
Dillon said three new beds as well as a “Taft Grows Green” sign and a compost pile were added this year. Both South Range students hope someone in next year’s senior class keeps working with the garden and the Taft club.
Ja-Liya, 12, a sixth-grader and the club president, said cabbage and spinach were among the new crops added this year and it was all good. McEwan gathered the vegetables from the garden and made a salsa that she brought in for the class.
That was Ja-Liya’s favorite thing to come out of the garden.
With weather turning cooler, the students collected bouquets this week from the zinnias, begonias, forget-me-nots, ornamental grasses and grasses in the beds to see who made the prettiest arrangement. They left the sunflowers for neighbors to enjoy for a few more weeks.