Darlington fourth-grade farmers market is a hit

Students sell out of their winter veggies

“I was always looking forward to going into fourth grade and learning some new stuff,” said 9-year-old Tripp Dunn. “I didn’t know that much about turnips.”

Turnips are just one of the crops the kids planted in their garden — which has turned out to be an even bigger lesson — behind Thatcher Hall on the Darlington campus.

Dunn said he has always enjoyed growing vegetables and helped out during the summer at Oakdale Farms.

Elisabeth Lawson’s fourth graders at Darlington Lower School have been learning about gardening during one of the exploratory sessions.

Warm weather and rain made everything grow super big over the Christmas break. In addition to the turnips, the kids planted arugula, mustard greens, stir-fry mix, radishes and spinach.

“Good winter-growing stuff,” Lawson said. “We came back two days ago and saw we had way more than we could eat, so the kids said, ‘Let’s have a farmers market and donate the money to charity.’”

Wednesday morning, the market in Lawson’s class was set up by the kids who invited parents, grandparents and friends to come and, just like most other farmers markets, they were virtually sold out by 9 a.m. Now, the kids are trying to determine which charity to donate the funds to.

The gardening program is part of the exploratory program that allows students to learn important things that are not always a part of the regular curriculum.

“It does tie into the curriculum because they are using math right now (to make change at the register) and they used leadership skills out there in the garden. Obviously science, too,” Lawson said. “Not technical academic stuff, but very important life skills.”

Jay Watters, 10, said he has enjoyed planting.

“I also learned how you eat them and how good they are. I love them, especially the turnips,” Watters said.

He said he didn’t have any greens on New Year’s Day, but did really like a salad from the school garden before Christmas break.

/ Doug Walker Terri Pierce (left) and her fourth-grade daughter Sara Jo Pierce check out some of the greens in the students’ winter veggie garden Wednesday at Darlington Lower School. The students held a farmers market to raise funds for a yet-to-be-determined charity.

/ Doug Walker Above: Nora Knaak (left), 9, shows her mom Mandy Knaak some greens during the Darlington Lower School fourth-grade farmers market. Below Right: Tripp Dunn (left), 9, and Jay Watters, 10, get ready to serve green tea to visitors. Belowleft: Chip Shropshire (from left) gets some change back from Sydney Jennings as Sara Jo Pierce and Trey Moore help with the check out process at the Darlington Lower School farmers market on Wednesday.