When is a vegetable a treat?  When you plant the seed, observe the food developing, and harvest the food yourself.  Students love to harvest.  No matter how many seasons they have been in Granny's Garden School, there's excitement in discovering food ready to eat.

Harvesting gives students a chance to try the foods they have planted.  Some foods may be new to a student; some may simply taste better to students because food fresh from the garden is often more tender.  We garden in colors, which means that we plant different colors of the same food.  Who can resist trying a yellow tomato, a pink radish, or a purple carrot, especially when we are trying to answer "do you think different colors of the same food taste differently"? 

Harvesting is used to teach across the curriculum.  Use the harvest to discuss plant parts that we eat and how the plant part is important to the plant's life cycle.  Practice measuring length, circumference, and weight and graph your results.  Discuss food as an energy and nutrient source.  Make taste comparisons between foods to practice descriptive words and graph preferences.  Discuss or research the history and origin of a food. 

Harvesting is the final step to connect students to their food.  The harvest is the reward for a season of work and learning.  We planted, weeded, and examined the connection between soil, plants, and animals so that students understand where their food comes from and that this is knowledge they can take with them.  We regularly hear stories from students, parents, and teachers about new home gardens and about applying something learned from Granny to an existing garden.

Harvest for a party, a lunch, a snack, or just a taste.

We harvest two ways - seasonally as a class and as we go when food is ready.  Because we plant with a purpose in mind, we harvest a salad in spring and vegetable soup in fall.  On these occasions, the focus of the activity is the harvest.  On other days, we harvest foods that are at their peak.  Some fruiting foods like tomatoes, beans, and peas require regular harvesting so they continue to produce; others like radishes and kohlrabi may be ready a bit early or late and require harvesting apart from the planned group harvest to enjoy them when they are at their best.  We harvest a treat for the end of class when we find a food that is ready for picking.

For more information:

How to harvest - describes how to harvest the foods students plant in their gardens

Spring harvest - harvest a salad from seeds planted in early spring

Fall harvest - harvest soup in late summer

Harvest Soup - a school-wide celebration of the harvest