Farm to School

The Malta High School Garden hopes to yield its largest harvest in years thanks to a new approach learned from Hinsdale High School.

The Malta Family Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) and Malta Future Farmers of America (FFA) Chapter have tag teamed to cultivate fruits and vegetables for possible use in the school's cafeteria in a "Farm to School" program.

Though the garden has existed for years, this year FCCLA and FFA came up with a School Garden Committee last August that will oversee the project.

The Garden Committee was birthed to give the few hands that worked on the garden throughout the year a little more help, which should not only be an educational experience but also help the field in the west side garden yield more produce.

Junior Payton Clausen, a member of both entities, has been hard at work all year long.

"Payton has been out there and he has plowed out there," said Family and Consumer Sciences teacher and FCCLA advisor Becky Bruce. "He planted winter wheat this year and harvested it himself and made bread."

Clausen has been working the school garden for produce since his freshman year, along with FFA teacher Grant Messerly, Bruce and other students at Malta High School throughout the years.

"I just saw the garden spot out there, so I just went out there and tried to plant some stuff," Clausen said.

Last September, Bruce, Clausen and sophomore Ezra Judd visited Hinsdale High School to study their Farm to School program.

"The three of us went and spent the day in Hinsdale with the teacher there," Bruce said. "She showed us what she did with their garden and talked about grant writing. Then we figured, if Hinsdale can do it we could do it."

The trio went back to Malta and started the grant writing process, sending two applications to the Garden Clubs of America and has been working with other grant providers throughout the year.

"The grants are going towards raised beds, a sprinkler system, seeds and other materials that we need," Clausen said.

The garden has also given Bruce a new opportunity to educate.

"The other thing that we started to do is Harvest of the Month," Bruce said noting this November was the first month. "Each month, we introduce a different (fruit or vegetable) to the kids in the cafeteria."

This month's Harvest of the Month item is the apple.

"We have taste tests," Bruce said. "It's all locally grown Montana made products."

Though the apples presented in this month's Harvest of the Month have not been grown here in Malta, Bruce and Clausen hope to change that.

"That's our intention to get everything from our garden," Clausen said. "We do have an apple tree out there but they didn't grow this year."

Though the field has brought forth winter wheat, there are currently many other fruits and vegetables in the field.

"Right now we have some cherry trees, pear, apple, plums, winter wheat," he said. "Last year we tried to plant some carrots, radishes, corn, beans, pumpkins."

He went on to say that there was no yield produced because the garden wasn't watched throughout the summer months.

"I tore my meniscus, so I was kind of out and couldn't do much in the garden," Clausen said.

Bruce then mentioned that the loss year after year sparked the idea of the School Garden Committee, which will produce a schedule in which students and local clubs can help the garden thrive in the summer months.

"That's the reason for the School Garden Committee," she said. "We have FCCLA, FFA, we are working with the Boys and Girls Club, and we are working with the Garden Club, Malta Dirt Daubers. When summer comes and school is out, we can kind of work together and have a schedule, where so and so can come and check up on the garden."

The success of the grant applications will be of the utmost importance and can help the Farm to School program's success for next year's success.

"If it's all set up with the raised bed and the sprinkler drip system, the summer shouldn't be too labor intensive because most of the work comes in the spring and the fall," Bruce said.