Did you know that May is National Salad Month? And that National Salad Month was founded by the Association for Dressing and Sauces in 1992? And that SMPA has a hydroponic Farm Stand growing tower?
Thanks to a grant from Lettuce Grow, SMPA students have been devotedly caring for their 24 seedlings, monitoring the Ph of the water and checking on the progress of the plants’ growth regularly for the last two months.
Sixth grade student Emmanuel has been diligent about monitoring the water. “To help the plant grow, you grab 5ml of water and 5 drops of the pH test solution and watch it change to an orange-yellowish color to grow the plants the best. We also added some vitamins. If the PH went too high, I would have to put pH down powder to lower the pH,” explained Emmanuel.
“I checked on it each and every day. I kind of bonded with the plant. It was exciting to see it growing more each day. I noticed that the side facing the sun was growing more leaves than the side facing the classroom, so I treated it as kind of an experiment.”
The students already have harvested and tasted several lettuces. The hope is that they can grow enough to donate to a local soup kitchen so that others may enjoy fresh produce too.
“We grew Romaine lettuce, washed it and then tried it. It tasted bitter at first, ” said Emmanuel. “I am hoping to see the lettuce be donated to people in need.”
Founded by Zooey Deschanel and Jacob Pechenik, Lettuce Grow strives to democratize the growing of food for all, provide access to clean, unprocessed foods, decrease transportation emissions, drastically reducing water usage, and recycle ocean-bound plastics from places that lack recycling initiatives.
If you decide to purchase a tower and use this friend code: FRIEND-MM4L – we will receive a $50 credit that we can use to purchase more seedlings for our Farm Stand!
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