Integrating gardens in our schools

I have completed the Service Learning with barely interacting with kids (my major is Elementary Education), but I will go during the following Saturdays so that I can enjoy and experience that engaging combination: kids and garden. I totally believe that every school should have a garden (as California did order in 1995), since gardening has a large amounts of benefits for the kids.

Working on a garden can make you consider how much effort needs success, the importance of the little details in life, the relationship with the environment and nature, and many factors that we could easily name here.

But, how can we integrate gardening in schools? I remember that we didn't have a garden in our school until I was 15 (I did my whole education -3 trough 18- in the same school), but I discovered that apart from little kids, problematic students also work there, as part of their redemption.

Besides, we went (and they still go) every year to farm-schools for a couple of days. These places are usually hostels in the middle of nature, with animals and garden, so that kids can experience diverse activities like making candles, feeding animals, planting fruits, interacting with animals, just to name a few.

I also found this two interesting contributions:

http://www.hort.vt.edu/HORT6004/network/schoolgardens.html

http://cesandiego.ucdavis.edu/Schlgrdn/Beds.html

What is your idea for the future?

Esparragos Cojonudos

Today I went to complete my Service Learning and we saw something surprising: a giant asparagus! I am not even exaggerating, it might be 11 inches tall on the surface. Is it natural? No pesticides and helpers? It's the BUGS so I totally know that the asparagus we saw is completely natural, but it reminded me of a happening back home.

The Southern part of the Basque Country is famous for its asparagus, specially the white ones. They are sold all over Europe and they proudly stick an etiquette where 'From Navarra' (the exact region) is written. The biggest company is Esparragos Cojonudos, which means 'Freaking Good Asparagus' in Spanish. They were very popular, since they discovered that they were actually from Congo! ! !

Unfortunately, this not only occurs with asparagus, but also with the famous oranges from Valencia, the energetic bananas from Canarias,... Land owners forget about one of the most important ideas in this field: being trustworthy and natural. But it is not a big surprise, since money affects everything.

For this reason, I recommend to buy local stuff, specially in markets. These fruit and vegetables would be so 'freaking good'.