You may have visited your school’s garden recently and noticed an interesting plastic covering taking over one of the raised beds. If you had some questions immediately come to mind you would not be alone! Built by your garden educator, these contraptions are known as hoop houses. Very similar to a larger climate controlled greenhouse, hoop houses are used to extend the growing season in colder climates such as ours. Most “cold '' tolerant plants can not survive the harsh Boston winters, so by giving our crops a little bit of protection and warmth, we are able to continuously harvest until we plant our full gardens come springtime. Even though our lessons are currently indoors, this practice gives students access to fresh greenery year round.
During the month of January, garden educators placed a special emphasis on our fungi lessons. Students had the opportunity to observe various types of mushrooms as they grew them together on our mycelium block grow kits. Each week, students were amazed by the rapid growth as they were tasked with creating craft replicas of the mushroom fruits under observation. Unfortunately, we do not get the opportunity to cook and enjoy these mushrooms in the classroom together so we encouraged students to share their curiosity in the kitchen with you!
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