The Harvest Season of Farming
Dec.1.2011
On Dec 1st, the weather had already begun getting colder, but the enthusiasm of the Starbucks workers never ceased. Today, ten Starbucks volunteers came to the organic farm at Shanghai Experimental School’s International Department. Together with twenty students, they harvested the vegetables in the farm and made, then ate, a homemade salad. Everyone harvested the plants themselves, and pulling them out with quite excitement.
Everyone came to our “Elevated Garden” and the first thing they saw was plenty of green vegetables. Under the care of R&S teachers and students, the gardens Crown Daisies and Cherry Radishes both grew particularly well. Everyone started harvesting the vegetables themselves and pulling the plants out excitedly. The Starbucks workers all one by one held up the newly harvested plants and praised the students for their hard work.
Afterwards, carrying a basket full of the vegetable, everyone walked into the schools dining hall. There, we divided ourselves into five groups to make the delicious salad. Due to our restriction of vegetable varieties, the R&S volunteers were nice enough to bring cucumbers, lettuce, arugula, and a few others to make the salad more delicious. They also brought grape seed oil, vinegar, sugar, salt, and ground pepper; everything was well prepared so that the students and volunteers could all get to work.
Then, under the guidance of the volunteers, the students started to wash and prepare the salad. They took all the vegetables cut by the volunteers and put them in a big bowl. In a proportion of 4:3:1:1, the students added in oil, vinegar, sugar, salt, and ground pepper respectively. To make the salad have a better taste, every group added their own “secret weapon” ingredient. Some of the groups added soy sauce to make their salad taste best, while others used two bowls to mix a dressing to make their salad even tastier. These creative techniques were all a success, everyone’s salad turned out to be delicious.
The day ended with everyone fighting over their food. Using their semester to take care of plants, the students and volunteers together learned everything about farming: from planting seeds to their delightful rewards. They also learned about organic foods, and learned quite a bit!
(Translated by WFLMS Crunchy Zoo Language Club)