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News & Events
Farmer Jack joins the Program
There are no shortage of inspiring stories when it comes to the Kitchen Garden Program, but this one has had a big impact on the Foundation team.
At the end of last year we received heart-warming letters from Jack Knight and his mum, Glenda. Jack and Glenda became a part of the kitchen garden community in 2009, when Merino Consolidated School, in Victoria, joined the Program. It has been a transformative experience for them both, as their letters show…
To Stephanie Alexander,
I am writing to say about my garden. I learnt from my school how to make a vegetable garden and I made one at home. I harvest my veggies then I weigh them all. I put the weight in to a file on the computer.
I am growing pumpkin, silver beet, potatoes, strawberries, onions, salad onions, broad beans are over, dwarf beans, tomatoes, carrots, capsicum, lettuce, Brussels sprouts and beetroot and corn.
I made a herb garden and planted mint, thyme and coriander, chives and garlic.
I have a worm farm and a small hothouse for seeds. I have made a scarecrow and something to scare the birds with tin cans. Every night I weed my garden.
Thank you for letting us have our program at school.
Jack Knight
Dear Ms Alexander,
I am writing as a parent of a student at Merino Consolidated School in Merino which has one of your kitchen/garden programs in place.
When my son came home earlier in the year and said with great excitement that he was going to learn how to make a veggie garden and cook I first thought oh yeah and how long will this last. I had absolutely no idea that your program would turn out to be the most amazing learning experience for any child and parent involved with the school …
… After your program commenced at Merino, my son came home and made the announcement that he wanted to grow vegetables. I said that was ok because we had a small garden that over the years quite a few veggies had been planted, but no one could find the time to water it or weed it so it would fail.
It didn’t take long before Jack made the decision to get Pops rotary hoe and make a start. In a few months that small garden has expanded quite dramatically. It expanded so much that his father had to get the tractor out and dig an 8×8 metre new garden as well as the small one.
I would always have to get him off the computer to have tea but now he is a permanent fixture in his garden. He will constantly weed and water his garden, and he has many bags of broad beans in our freezer. He has many vegetables and has also made two small herb gardens.
Each week he comes home and tells me what he has learnt. Our chook house has been cleared out for manure and when he was pulling the beans out he was explaining how much nitrogen they had had because he had learnt this at school. He decided to weigh every vegetable that he grows and he has a file on the computer which he puts the weights into.
Also he is learning that if his veggies don’t grow then he has either put them in too late or he is learning at what stage they will go to seed.
We have also had to obtain a worm farm which he is very selective as to which scraps are allowed to be put in to it.
Another of his ideas was to make a string line from my kitchen window to his old swing with cans on it (he saw it on an add on T.V.) and I am supposed to stay at the window and watch for birds in his garden, pull the string and scare the birds away.
On the cooking side of the program, he is eating food and vegetables which I would never have considered cooking. I have been purchasing foods which he has been cooking at school. We have had some very hot days over the last two weeks and one night I said I didn’t know what I was going to cook. He replied, “don’t worry mum I’ll whip something up”.
I believe your fantastic program has not only shown children how to cook, but to be able to grown vegetables in an enjoyable way, not as a chore that we had when we were young.
Thank you so much for helping today’s children eat healthy and know the foods that they are eating.
Yours sincerely,
Glenda Knight
PS: Glenda recently told us that Jack’s summer garden produced a bumper crop, including one tomato that weighed in at more than half a kilo. The family’s grocery bill has been reduced to next to nothing and it’s still a struggle to get Jack to the table for tea – he spends an hour and a half in his garden most evenings and it’s an effort to tear him away!
Thank you for sharing your experiences with us, Jack and Glenda – they really bring our vision to life. We want every Australian primary school student to experience Jack’s enthusiasm for growing and cooking their own food.
Please share Jack’s story and help us to grow the kitchen garden revolution!
A Message from Stephanie
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