Commentary: A trip to Rock Creek School's garden

I didn't expect my visit to Rock Creek School to be a whole column. I was invited by school garden volunteer Barbara Kitz to learn about the school's garden so I went, figuring the result would probably be a longish paragraph. I mean, what on earth can I say about a school garden? I'm not a gardener. To wonder about whether I'm a gardener is charming, really, but I'm not. Once, Don and I (well, Don) grew roses, and they were lovely, but that was more than 20 years ago. No more. I confess we do have a couple of rosemary bushes Don waters occasionally. But aside from our not tearing them out, we have nothing to do with their being here. They arrived out there long before we did. Lupine and poppies and clover and other lovely little red and purple invaders appear every spring, and we're always charmed. But neither of us has an interest in really having … a garden. Too much work. So I gaped a lot at the Rock Creek Garden, a half-acre plot stuffed with tomatoes and snap peas and apple trees (and more – read on). I gaped and kept gaping. Never have I been told more and been more impressed and tried to look and listen and ask more questions. I was told more than I could write, and when I asked questions, I often forgot to write down the answers, because there's so much to look at and understand. Barbara introduced me to Michelle Fisch, there for the school, the kids and the garden, from UC Cooperative Extension. Her job: Community Education Supervisor 2. As the three of us were talking and I was learning about the bare root pear trees, turnips, sweet potatoes and carrots, Lysa Sassman's second-grade class came out. "This is a one-of-a-kind place," she said. They sat quietly at the picnic tables in the shade and learned they were going to plant popcorn. This sat very easily with them. Clearly, they approved. Of course, it won't be ready until they're third-graders, but they were fine with that. Michelle's most important information came as she held up her finger and showed them her second knuckle on her little finger: "Just plant it an inch and a half down," she said, and pointed to their little fingers. "Just that deep." Michelle led the 7-year-olds to two ready rows, and the group knelt and stuck their little fingers in to the second knuckle and dropped in their personal popcorn seed and covered it up. Then they were invited to pick all the carrots and snap peas they wanted. Some didn't want any, but most did. I could tell because I saw them picking, investigating, comparing and chewing. Lots of chewing. The garden gets visited by all the grades, kindergarten through third, twice a month. "The kids sample everything we grow," Barbara said. Enjoying the same sun as the nearby leeks, onions, grapes and pomegranates, students learn about more than planting – they learn about nutrition, the astonishing variety of vegetables and how good a vegetable or fruit can taste if it comes out of a piece of land they're familiar with. And they learn about the delight of harvesting something they've been involved with. I've said this many times before: We (you and I) live in a wonderful community. And it's made more wonderful because this Auburn school grows vegetables that ALL go into the kitchen (all 100 pounds of it every year) and thus into those kids' mouths. "If the cafeteria lady tells them it's from here, they eat it," Barbara said. And from kindergarten on, they begin to get used to this, this school-grown food – which is often different from the stuff brought home from the grocery store. It may take a while, Barbara said, but they eventually trust the food they've had a part of helping to grow. Standing fewer than 25 feet from kumquats, leeks, tomatoes and a strawberry patch, I met Rock Creek Principal Kim Morris. She grew up in Auburn, and she was a fourth-grader at Rock Creek when the school started the garden. Her class planted the apple trees over by the fence. I'm convinced – I just thought of this – that if I had the privilege of attending a school with a garden like this when I was in fourth grade, I'd have developed a different attitude about vegetables. Maybe about gardens, too. "And all the herbs and spices," Barbara added. There are also dahlias. Susan Rushton's opinion column appears regularly in the Auburn Journal. Her email address is goldcountrydenizens@gmail.com.