Canning and Preserving
The students in our Environmental Stewardship class are students that struggled in the normal high school environment. They were referred to our alternative program, due to their unique needs. These students excel working with their hands and participating in collaborative projects with groups from our community. For example, this year we partnered with a community leader to rebuild our gardens and hold a community gardening event at our school.The students were leaders in every part of this process from planning, planting, advertising, and even teaching lessons at the event. We ended up hosting around 250 community members and our students were unbelievable.
Ultimately, we want students to become interested in the idea of sustainability and how they can apply this to their everyday lives and impact their community. We are preparing students to be leaders in their community and maybe even find a passion that leads to a career in a sustainability related field.
The students have rebuilt our garden and planted individual garden plants. Through this project, students will learn how to can and preserve the produce they grew. Currently we have no supplies to begin this process. We have also exhausted all of our fundraising money in rebuilding and planting our new garden.
In order to preserve the vegetables that we plan to harvest we have requested a water bath canning set and a pressure cooking canning set along with the jars.
These supplies will help our students learn and use multiple methods of preserving. Students are interested in canning beans, peas, and tomatoes. Our students are also interested in pickling a variety of vegetables.
Hopefully, students will begin to understand how their gardens at home can last beyond the growing season.