The Mobile Market is ready to roll!

After several months of sanding, priming, painting, and sealing, Arcadia's Mobile Market has finally gotten a proper makeover! 

Having painted many surfaces in my life, a 28-foot school bus was definitely a first.  Needless to say, this process has been a learning experience.  For instance, I now know that acrylic primer dries very fast when applied to metal in 85-degree, sunny weather!  

I also learned the importance of volunteers.  A million "Thank Yous" to both new and longstanding friends who sacrificed their precious weekend time to come out and help paint. You all rock!

A huge shout out also goes to Bancroft Elementary, who let us park our “Big Bad Green” bus in their students’ school yard! Many children stopped to say hello, and a few even contributed their designs for the bus.

The early stages of painting: Priming and Designing

The finished mural on the driver's side

Painting the Mobile Market was a lengthy project, and I definitely would have talked to myself to pass the time far more frequently if it wasn’t for Benjamin, the Mobile Market Director, who would volunteer to do the laborious tasks “no one else wants.”  Thanks, Ben!

I would also like to thank McCormick Paints for lots of helpful advice and supplying our materials at a discounted price!

All told, I am pleased with the final product, particularly since this project will be used to excite kids about eating veggies!   

To that end, the Mobile Market launched its weekly, educational school visits this Tuesday, to much success!

Check out the Mobile Market’s weekly schedule and route, and read our blog post to learn more about its programming and services!

Field trip update: Eight great quotes from our spring season so far

It's true what they say: kids really do say the darndest things. After the students leave, our field trip staff absolutely loves trading stories about the quotable kids they worked with that day.

After hosting groups from the Lab School, EW Stokes School, Whittier Elementary, and Thomson Elementary over the past few weeks, we thought we'd share some with you:

• “That’s what my dad says. We should have more dirt in our diet.”
  
• We asked for kids to suggest names for our new chickens, and some of the suggestions included: “Yo beautiful!” “Max!” “Blacksmith!” “John!”
  
• “When worms do their business, it makes the plants happy.”
  
• “Can we pick a ladybug and keep it?”
  
• After tasting a freshly-harvested spinach leaf, one student remarks: “It tastes so much greener.”
  
• “I want to be a farmer. It’s fun.”
  
• We're talking about trap crops, one of the natural pest control methods we use on the farm and one response is “People are hearing and they’re gonna tell the caterpillars.”
  
• “I never want to leave here."
  

Thanks to our friend Professor Amy Best from George Mason University, who recorded these gems during her field trip observations.

Join us for Family Fun Day!

Have you been meaning to check out Arcadia Farm with your family? Arcadians are quite excited to welcome kids to the farm, so ditch your urban plans on Saturday, June 16th in exchange for some good ol' fashion fun! Come to our:


                                                   Family Fun Day!

Saturday, June 16th

1pm-5pm 

at Arcadia Farm, part of the Woodlawn Estate

9000 Richmond Highway, Alexandria, VA

• Learn to make healthy farm-fresh snacks
• Meet our chickens!
• Play farm-based games with your family
• Purchase produce from Arcadia's Mobile Market
• Facepainting, arts and crafts, and more! 

Just $5 per person (Children 2 & under are free)
Register your family here!
The rain date is Sunday, June 17th.

Rockin' Red Radish Salsa a Hit at Schools

Our second month of DC Farm to School Local Food THROWDOWNS saw Chef Tom introducing students to something a majority had never tried - Radishes. The radishes really got a chance to shine as a healthy part of a dish kids are universally familiar with: chips and salsa. Chef Tom's Rockin' Red Radish Salsa gave kids a citrusy, fresh, not-too-spicy introduction to radishes that had them calling for more!

After students had eaten their school lunch, individual samples of the radish salsa were passed out and students were encouraged to try it and offer their feedback and thoughts on what they like or don’t like about the sample. Although some students were reluctant at first, Chef Tom heard overwhelmingly positive feedback from the students that they LOVED the salsa!

The Local Food THROWDOWN program ties in with DC Farm to School's new Farm Fresh Feature effort, which helps schools celebrate a different local, in-season veggie each month. The Farm Fresh Feature for May is Strawberries - and our Local Food THROWDOWN recipe is a super-tasty Strawberry Gazpacho soup!

ROCKIN' RED RADISH SALSA:

Radishes are a classic salsa ingredient in Mexico, and the technique of mixing a vegetable with an acid, chiles, and fresh herbs is common in many other parts of the world. This would go great with steak, or quesadillas, or just serve it with a big bowl of tortilla chips!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups chopped or grated red radishes (about 1 pound)
• ½ English cucumber, peeled and diced
• 2 scallions (green onions), thinly sliced (use only the green part for less onion flavor)
• 1 minced fresh jalapeño (seeds removed)
• ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
• Juice of 1 lemon and 2 limes (approx 1/4 cup) to taste
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Steps:

1. Put all the ingredients in a medium bowl and mix thoroughly.
2. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding more chile, lemon, or salt as needed. 
3. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate for up to a day.

Volunteer opportunity with kids, food & nutrition!

Who doesn't love teaching kids about where our food comes from and how to make healthy choices?  On Wednesday May 23rd, students across the DC will see fresh, locally-grown strawberries and salad greens in their school meals as part of a city-wide event called "Strawberries & Salad Greens." Arcadia's D.C. Farm to School Network is coordinating the event, in partnership with D.C. Public Schools and Whole Foods Markets.  

We need your help!

We're looking for passionate, enthusiastic volunteers to engage students at educational tables in their school cafeterias on May 23rd.  At lunch, students will grab their fresh berries and greens from the lunch line.  Then, volunteers will show students how the food on their trays came from nearby farms using visuals like plants, seeds, maps, seasonality charts and more.  We promise it'll be the best extended lunch break you ever take.

Learn more about the event and what's involved here and email ERIN @ DCFARMTOSCHOOL . ORG to sign up!  

“The looks of wonder and contemplation were hands down the most rewarding part of the experience!” – Catherine, Volunteer

Natural Play Space at Arcadia!

This spring season we’re welcoming a brand new natural playspace to Arcadia's educational farm!

What is a natural play space anyway?

According to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, a natural playspace is:

"A space intentionally designed or designated to integrate natural components into a place for
structured and unstructured play and learning."

Part of my responsibilities as the Farm Education Intern was to create such a place for field trippers, summer campers and other young visitors to the farm.

To be honest, a natural playspace wasn't something I was familiar with from my own childhood experience. I generally had woods or the beach to play in and explore. These naturally occurring playspaces are dwindling, or may not exist at all for many of the children who visit the farm. I figured that making the playspace was very much about re-creating a natural exploration experience for those kids.

The process began with research in order to gather some ideas that might work within the parameters of Arcadia Farm. Design Principles for Nature Play Spaces and New American Phenom by Liz Kirchner were both excellent resources. I also visited the Nature Explore Classroom at the Washington Youth Garden.

Designing and building the structures in the playspace was really a team effort between Stephanie, the other Farm Education Intern, and me. We wanted to include different areas that could be appealing to a variety of personalities. We wanted kids to have space to thoughtfully assess their own risk and exercise their creativity to have fun with natural materials. We wanted to create a place at Arcadia Farm where kids of all sizes and ages could be silly and happy about being on a farm!

-The following are a few highlights:

-Two digging areas (because after all, who doesn't want to just dig?);

-A straw bale pyramid for climbing (thank you to Mt. Vernon for supplying these);

-A few stump circles for gathering and hanging out;

-A bamboo bean teepee to serve as a nook/hideout; and

-A table with building blocks, another table with rock checkers (carrots vs. eggplants).

Creating a play space was a unique experience. I think it will be even more interesting to observe how students and other young visitors utilize the space differently throughout the season. I hope that our creation will be an area for kids who visit the farm to dig, jump, climb, run, wish, hop, skip, build and just be kids!

School Food Workshop: Healthy Food for Healthy Students

You know it's a great event when you're greeted at the door by folks in carrot and peapod costumes!  (Thanks Keith and Sara, from the School Food Tour!)

On April 18th, Arcadia's D.C. Farm to School Network hosted a workshop 40 Washington, DC school food stakeholders, in partnership with OSSE and DCPS.  The goal of the workshop was to get students and staff on board with the healthier types of foods being served in school meals.  Because all too often schools have healthy, farm-fresh food on the menus, but cafeteria staff aren't thrilled to serve it and students are more inclined to just throw it away.

The workshop opened with a keynote address from Ms. Anand Shantam, a cook at Walker Jones Education Campus with DC Central Kitchen's Fresh Start Catering.  A graduate of DCCK's culinary job training program, Ms. Shantam spoke of how she treats the students she serves as family, which helps create a culture of respect and curiosity in the cafeteria.

Alyssa Moles came all the way from the Food Trust in Philadelphia to speak to attendees about getting cafeteria staff buy-in around serving healthy, farm-fresh foods.  Then, our panel presentation included tales of:

• A school full of students who demolish salad bars (Lisa Dobbs, the Chef and Director E.W. Stokes Public Charter School's school meal program); 
• A seamless team of dedicated cafeteria staff called the Dream Team (Sandy Hodge, Cafeteria Lead at Phelps Architecture, Construction and Engineering High School with Chartwells); 
• How DC Central Kitchen's Fresh Start Catering staff treat the school kitchen like it's their own kitchen (Ed Kwitowski, Executive Chef for DCCK's school contracts);
• How a principal leads the charge at her school to engage students, staff, parents and teachers in an integrated school health & nutrition program - she eats the school meals every day! (Principal Janeece Docal at Powell Elementary School); and
• How a school food service vendor doesn't just serve food, but engages the entire school community in hands-on "food awareness" (Sadie Barr, a School Account Manager a Revolution Foods).

After the panel, we took a break and attendees enjoyed snacks from Chipotle and Rockin' Red Radish Salsa made by our very own Chef Tom.  Both were a big hit!  Folks broke in to groups for some in-depth discussions about breaking down the biggest barriers to getting students and staff on board with healthy school food.  Next was a much anticipated screening of the student-made documentary "School Lunch," and a conversation with former Thurgood Marshall Academy High School students Keith Jenkins and Brittany McGhee who produced and edited the film.

Finally, we were honored to have Ward 3 Councilmember and Chair Pro-Tempore Mary Cheh share some closing remarks, and raffle off some great items from the Neighborhood Restaurant Group and USDA.  We were also joined by special guests Christina Connel from USDA's Farm to School team, and Sandy Schlicker, Deputy Superintendent of Education.  Many thanks to all who made the event a success!