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Edible Classrooms, Gardening, and Clean Water · Clean Water Conversations

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_02: Season 5 of Clean Water Conversations is sponsored by RK.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_02: RKK is a full-service design and engineering firm that provides innovative solutions to complex challenges.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: As a recognized leader in state and municipal stormwater management, MS4 permit compliance, stream restoration, and ecological design services, RKK is ready to deliver community-focused water quality improvements to urban and suburban communities.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: Check out more information about RKK at RKK.com.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, RKK.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: And now on to our show.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: Hard to believe, isn't it?
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: Time flies.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_04: All kinds of fun.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_02: The studio audience.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: They're really excited too.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: Still loves it.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: Now, season five, we are going to be talking about education.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: Conservation education in all of its shapes and forms.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: I say from the ground up.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: So from little kids to grown adults, from enthusiasts to like professional learning opportunities.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: So we're we're just going to cover it all.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and education, along with the word outreach, kept coming up in different ways when we were revising the common agenda.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_04: So, for example, it doesn't have a specific priority called out.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_04: It's really baked into all of the work that's happening across Lancaster County.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_04: So education can mean lots of different things.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_04: And that's why we're excited to use this podcast as one of the ways to provide continuous marketing and storytelling to amplify the clean water initiatives.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_04: Reference cross-cutting strategies at the bottom of page three in the common agenda.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, part of that, you know, is is that whole storytelling element.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's so fun.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: And so let's talk about some stories, especially with like network leadership.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's true.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_02: You and I are in that in that network leadership kind of role.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, what is a success story that you can tell from that?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_04: Sure.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_04: So peeling back the curtain a little bit for us in the network leadership role.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_04: To start off 2026, we did a vision board session.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_04: So it was this time to think big.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_04: What are your goals for the year?
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_04: How am I going to tackle and approach this really awesome opportunity that we have to provide leadership for the amazing network, which now has 87 partner organizations?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: They love that too.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_04: That's right.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, we did a vision board session and it was it was a lot of fun.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_04: And I appreciate our team members who were like, I don't know.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_04: I wasn't quite bought in at first, but this was really great.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_04: So it was.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: It was a lot of fun, yeah.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_04: How about you, Ken?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_04: Do you have a storytelling example from recently?
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: I do, and it is a huge success story that the Conestoga River is the officially now has won the River of the Year for 2026.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_04: Our studio audience is busy today.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_04: They are.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: Well, there's a lot of stuff to celebrate.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of cool things.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: But the neat thing about that is as it relates to network leadership, is I'm co-leading the communications action team, and that's one of our projects that we do.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_02: We go and we find a specific project and then use our acquired skills in marketing and in communication to promote that single project or event.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and we did that.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly, yeah.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: So we did that with the River of the Year and the Conestoga won.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: It was amazing to see the team coming together and using those skills, and it was amazing to see just the general public voting for the Cotistoga River, because it's locally, it's our river collectively, all of our river, and it tells a huge story.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: So look for amazing things to happen this coming year as it relates to the river of the year being the Cotistoga.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_04: With storytelling as a driver there.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_04: So great.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_04: Congratulations to all of the partner organizations who are part of that.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_04: And it's just beginning.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: And speaking of storytelling, our guest today is Angie Martin.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: She's the director of community engagement for the Edible Classroom.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_04: We have a good time.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, you talk about a peek behind the curtain.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_02: We forgot the icebreaker.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_04: We did.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_04: Oh man.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_04: Hey, just being real.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_04: Right, right.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_04: But you get to jump right into the conversation.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_04: That was a fun way to start with, Angie.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_04: I'm curious to go back a little bit further.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_04: What are some of your early memories that tie you to conservation?
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: So my earliest memory is probably my grandmother washing plastic bags and hanging them up to reuse them.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Ziploc bags?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Ziploc bags.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so growing up in with a Mennonite background, we were like natural conservationists because it was like saving money, saving resources, you know, and just being good stewards of our the things that we had.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that along with, you know, we put our leftover food scraps on our garden, you know?
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Just like that, not sending that to the landfill, but we're putting that back to the earth.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so just it was like kind of before conservation was even a thing.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel like I really came into it naturally and organically.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then as I grew up, realized, oh, these practices are actually what we need to be all striving for and help everybody.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_04: Grandma's got a good thing, though.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_02: So I love this question.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_02: What did you want to be when you grew up?
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: So this is kind of funny.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um my earliest memory of what I wanted to be is I remember specifically having a conversation with my mom and saying, I want to be the first woman president of the United States.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And she laughed at me.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: But she laughed at me because what she said was, oh, sweetie, by the time you're that age, we'll have many presidents.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm of that age.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_04: And um but then there's still an opportunity.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, exactly.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I I did I did move on from that and really um I wanted to be a nurse for most of my growing up and went and went and became a certified nursing assistant in high school and college, and then kind of redirected.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: I was I was introduced to the medical world and found out there's more options.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what led me to occupational therapy.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: But um, because it was kind of like I could be a little bit more creative in occupational therapy.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: It had different avenues than nursing.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: So nice.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_02: Let me touch on that for a sec because um you have your your occupational therapy degree from Penn State.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: You've worked with mental health, brain injuries, orthopedics.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: How do you connect that world into gardening?
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I've always had a passion for gardening.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, grew up in a Mennonite family, and we grew and preserved a lot of our food.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I just really loved that.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: I was always pushing my parents to grow different things.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I wanted to grow unique produce that we were super happy about that.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, they're like, okay, here's some seeds.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: You can try to do something.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: But they wanted to stick to the standards, what made sense for our family to eat.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I always had that passion.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I went into occupational therapy, occupational therapy really focuses on having people meet their goals through things that they enjoy.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I was able to introduce gardening as an option for a modality when I was working with people with brain injuries, with mental health.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: So it was just kind of, I say all roads lead back to gardening.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I can pretty much connect anything to gardening.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I had the opportunity to then work for a company that provided indoor therapeutic horticulture for people living in memory care.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I really saw the impact that it had on those residents and how it gave them something that was familiar to them in an accessible way.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I saw all the therapeutic benefits of it.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: I saw how it like motivated them to get up in the morning so they could go take care of the garden that was just an indoor, like four by eight bed, but it was something there that was accessible.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I worked for them and that was more of a national organization.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to kind of get more local.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I remembered Beth Horst and Grace Julian, who were the founders of the Edible Classroom, and reached out to them and said, Hey, do you have anything for me?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: And they said yes, and I joined them.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: So that's how I got back to the Edible Classroom.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_04: I would have never put those two things together.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_04: I think I saw the arrows coming as you were describing.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_04: That's so fantastic.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_04: So you're doing it professionally, but you're also a farmer on for your family or with your family.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_04: Tell us about your farmette that's in Millersville and the types of practices that you farm.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: So my husband and I like to call ourselves wannabe farmers because we wanna be it's an aspiration.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: But yes, so yeah, both of us kind of grew up with an ag background, but didn't think that that's what something we were gonna get into until we got married and then started having kids and being like, we want them to eat healthy.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: We want them to know where our food comes from and everything.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: So we always did gardening and then we started with chickens.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: And chickens are the gateway.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_04: Animal.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_04: And so um maybe a tagline for something.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_04: Chickens are the gateway.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: We we need a t-shirt that says that.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_04: There probably is.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_04: Um man, Chris Thompson's gonna love that.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, so we started really wanting to do this well, you know, wanting our animals to just like how we were growing our produce in a regenerative way, which to me, that means organic.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think we have a maybe more people have a concept of, which is like not using chemical inputs, not doing things.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Regenerative is like kind of taking it a step further and being like, how can we restore the earth?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: How can we mimic nature to support plants and animals in a way that they're thriving?
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then as we consume them, that we're thriving.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's putting back into the earth what it needs in a natural way, not in synthetic ways.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what, you know, regenerative farming is like a broad category, and people probably can describe it in a lot of different ways, but that's kind of what how I see it.
• 11:04
  unknown: Okay.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Then from chickens, from from laying chickens, well, then we did meat birds, we have done turkeys.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: We currently have Cooney Cooney pigs, which are I want to know what that is.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: So Cooney Cooney pigs are from New Zealand, and they're a heritage breed pig.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: The one really unique thing about them is they can eat grass, which most pigs are not grass eaters.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: So they can survive a lot on grass, and um we give them very little grain.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: We give them right now, we only have two pigs, and so we are only giving them like a half a scoop of feed um per day.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: And the rest they're even through the winter, they can get a lot through hay and the grass that's exposed when there's not snow on the ground.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: And they're they're really hardy.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't need to have them inside.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: And again, it's it's so kunie kunie also means in the native New Zealand language, fat and round.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: So they are a lard pig.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: So they are really fat and round.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: They're much more personable too.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: We started with them because we our kids were young.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: And you could have your children in with the pigs, and they're very docile, they're very gentle.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: If you start rubbing them, they'll lay down on their back and they'll get belly rubs.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like they're really, really fun to yeah, and so we have them outside.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: We do rotational grazing, you know, we're just moving the paddocks around so that they get exposed.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: They graze down one area and then we let that area rest and go to another area, graze that, and it's kind of mimicking that like the bison did out west.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like they're going moving from places to place, and that gives the earth a little bit of chance to rest.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then they're also, of course, fertilizing it as they're that mimicking nature type thing.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: That's very cool.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: Do they oink with an accent?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: They don't.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: All right, just just thought it asked.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: I think that would be a lovely children's book, actually.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, my gosh.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_04: I'm very curious.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_04: Uh of your perspective, like you gave a very wonderful description of regenerative ag.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_04: Some people think that's a buzzword that is like, this doesn't actually mean anything.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_04: It's the way we have always farmed, and somebody put a new title on it.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_04: I'm just curious.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_04: Has that you run into that?
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: But I think like the way that we've always farmed, and I guess what do you mean by always farmed?
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you go back long enough, maybe.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: But the keeping animals in confined spaces, like Joel Salton is a is a farmer that I really enjoy reading and learning about.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: He has the pigginess of pigs book.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: And what that means, like when he what he describes, is we want to give animals an environment that they would have naturally evolved to thrive in, right?
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think a barn and confined is not where most animals want to be, right?
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, but if we went back to maybe originally how we were farming, I can I can agree with that.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_04: I'm just curious because we hear different versions of it.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the thing.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: It is, like I said, a broad category.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: It definitely is different than when you're looking at conventional farming versus regenerative.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: It really is different.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: You you have less inputs too.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: So it means that you're not spending as much money.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then it's basically more of a long-term game, though.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you're not gonna get that.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna get the initial, like, oh yeah, if I do this year, I'm gonna see benefits this year.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's everything comes from the earth, right?
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so, like, when you're uh helping the earth be healthier, it impacts everything.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_02: As we mentioned in the intro, you are the director for community engagement for the edible classroom.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_02: Give us your elevator pitch for the edible classroom.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_02: Uh what is it and how is it tied to clean water here in Lancaster?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: So my elevator pitch is we edible classroom partners with school districts to build and sustain learning gardens where students come out during the school day to learn about growing their own food, see to table, which also supports the school's state learning goals, such as science, technology, engineering, environmental literacy, and sustainability, which is commonly referred to as the steel standards.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: And you can use steel now as an acronym for the rest of the time.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: So if you need to say steel, go right ahead.
• 15:38
  unknown: Yeah.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: And oh, how does that c come back connect with clean water partners?
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: So everything we do in the garden is trying to teach the children how to take care of the earth.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so part of taking care of the earth is taking care of the water.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: So we talk about water catchment, we talk about conserving water.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: This past season, we talked about we read a book called One Well that really zoomed out and looked at water in the earth and how we all consume from one well, but then also came around and talked about how can we as individuals make an impact.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: And um, because everything that we're doing, like we have the ability to go turn on a faucet, not everybody has that, but we need to be mindful that when we're running water needlessly, that's actually affecting other people.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so we talked a lot about that and how people in other climates need to decide, okay, I'm gonna go get this water from maybe a well and carry it back to my village.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to have to decide: am I going to drink this water?
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: Am I going to water my crops?
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Am I going to wash my food?
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: Am I going to wash my clothes or my body?
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so all of those things, like to just really be mindful about that.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: And how can we conserve water?
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: What are ways we can do?
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the traditional, when you're brushing your teeth, turn the water off.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: But ways that we can do that in the garden are building sub-irrigated planters where they're built in a way that there's a water reservoir underneath the garden bed.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then we put a special soil mix on top and the water wicks up.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: So we're not watering from the top, but we're watering from beneath, which is decreasing evaporation.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we built uh water catchment systems off our sheds.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: We utilized uh rain barrels.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so all of those things teaching that kids, you can make a difference even as an eight-year-old.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_02: I love that you guys are educating them to that level at just starting them off right.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's just awesome.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_02: Love that.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_04: And the edible classroom remind us, you're saying you're working with school districts.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_04: So the edible classroom is a nonprofit, 501c3, that gets contracted for that type of work.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: And um, we do also, so when we go out into the garden, like a typical day looks like the students come out for 40 minutes.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: We start out with an introduction to our lesson, whatever we're talking about that day, and then we have two stations.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: One station is in the garden, and one station is in our cooking station.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so whatever we're planting or harvesting that day, we're making a related recipe.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it's usually five ingredients or less, low allergen, something that they can replicate at home because we're making it right there in the garden.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: So we only have like really three appliances, and that's a blender, a griddle, and then an induction burner.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: So all of these recipes, the students could make at home, and they're usually sent home through the teachers or the school in some way.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_04: And so you're working with the teachers, as you said, to tie in the standards or the work in the garden.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's basically taking those standards and providing a hands-on way of understanding them.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: We kind of do secret science, as I call it, but we also branch out into like we learn where the food comes from, what country originated, what climates are different.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: So we're talking about geography, we do math because we're measuring with the cooking and even we're weighing the produce as we harvest it.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: So all of those things tie into multiple areas of education.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_04: What an amazing tool and partnership opportunity for teachers.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_04: So, so cool.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: And we always encourage the teachers to bring the students out even when we're not there.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's one of the huge benefits of having the garden on site.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: On site.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's like any day they can go out for a little field trip right in the garden and tie whatever they're teaching to garden.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: Back to that.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like I said, all roots lead to the garden.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_02: Have you had any child's response that they're like amazingly excited about this?
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, what is the typical response?
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, we have students say like they're maybe hesitant to taste broccoli because they have a idea of what broccoli tastes like, and they'll take a bite and be like, I don't normally like broccoli, but I like this broccoli.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: And like, you know, just I think there's there's a lot of excitement about, I mean, bugs are like a huge thrill for students.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like we have special areas where we just leave for like looking, picking up rocks to look at roly pulleys.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, and and looking for worms.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: And as they're digging in the soil, I think there's some times as parents where like we don't want our kids to get dirty all the time.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: But then that sometimes, you know, they they might be more afraid of getting dirty when they're allowed to and encouraged to like, hey, we're going in to dig for potatoes.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's a big yeah.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's like super exciting.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's like a treasure hunt, looking for potatoes.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: And we do both sweet potatoes and regular white potatoes.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: And get having the students just get in there and dig in.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, it's so fun.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's, I mean, it's like better than, I don't know, video games, right?
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, please.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_02: Where was that when I was a kid?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: Don't go on it.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_04: So this fits in really well because in this season of the podcast, we're celebrating conservation, environmental education in as many different kinds of examples as possible.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_04: And you guys do it with school children, but I know there's other audiences that also connect with gardening.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_04: So, where does the edible classroom as an organization fit in to this broader collaborative effort of conservation education?
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: So we actually are kind of branching out in some ways in this um opportunity we have to do bucket gardens.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I've worked with a couple different um local organizations.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: One upcoming is Career Link, where I'm gonna be Oh, yes.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm gonna be providing bucket garden education um for their clients.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so they're gonna come in and we're gonna do um, we are gonna do a salsa garden and then we're also going to do a chives and carrot garden.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: And we plant chives and carrots together.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Fun fact, because chives actually make carrots sweeter.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: So they're compared.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then also as the tribes bloom, they bring in predatory insects that will feed on the insects that like to eat keratops.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, we're we're kind of broadening out into some more adult education and teaching them just how to grow their own food.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I think when you, you know, everybody needs to eat.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so when we get interested in our food, we get interested in where our food comes from.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then we get interested in how can I eat the highest quality food?
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that goes into taking care of the earth and the conservation of water and having clean water to water our plants with.
• 22:36
  unknown: Yeah.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so all of those things I think just combine.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, we my role as director of community uh engagement, I have the opportunity to talk to a lot of different people.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think, yeah, just getting out there in the community, us talking about what we do, and also students do take back the information they learn to their families.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're we're hitting kind of a broader group that way as well.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_04: Can you give us an example of how community engagement ties in with the garden?
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_04: I feel like school fairs, festivals, the things that bring people to a school ground.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_04: The garden is this extra enticing piece.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we have had many events in the gardens in the past, um, which brings in lots of families and community.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: And we have partnered with other, you know, we've gotten grants and things that we were able to actually give away a lot of produce.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: And um, so that's super fun.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then we having a recipe there that, oh, this is how you can use this produce because some people don't, you know, naturally want to choose that from their grocery shopping.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I am able to go and talk to PTOs or um, they call them all kinds of different things now, but um the whatever so close.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so that's parent teacher organization.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, I was doing so good.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, but whatever their community and school connection is, that's I'm able to talk to those people.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: Also, many of the schools have a community director now, community of schools director.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so I partner with them and we collaborate in different events to have or ways that I can get involved with them because again, the garden is a great gathering space.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's something that like we all need to eat.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and so everyone has some kind of connection with food.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then what's really fun is when we have diverse populations that we're working with, they can bring their experience and knowledge from whatever their culture is into the garden and into our recipes.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're really focusing on uh Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic in our spring curriculum.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: So we're bringing in some recipes from those areas of the world, which is going to be so fun and talking about that.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then we can also hear from our students and parents about what their experiences with that particular food or recipe.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_02: So 26 marks our first year beyond the the 2025 deadlines for the Bay Agreement.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_02: So we are now officially in the beyond 2025.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_02: In Lancaster, we are looking to achieve a collective goal of clean and clear water by 2040.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_02: What brings you excitement and eagerness as we look towards a future beyond 2025?
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I did read a little bit about those goals for 2040.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: And what really excites me is how you're working with a diverse group of folks to try to achieve this goal.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: I really believe that when we sit down with people and hear different perspectives and different goals and different passions that we can find similarity and we can then grow together to achieve the goals.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I love that it's kind of like a grassroot effort.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: I I'm just so motivated right now to start at the the very localist level to achieve big goals because um, you know, it gets overwhelming when you see all of the things, but when you can can work with the people that are around you, I think that you can see those shifts happen faster.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then another thing that excites me about actually meeting this goal is the increased diversity of wildlife and insects, because we need all of that diversity to have a healthy earth.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: And like those pollinators are gonna come pollinate our food.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: And if we don't have those insects, we're not gonna have food.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so having clean water affects everything.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think it's something that everyone can get around.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: And if we continue to have the dialogues, have the conversations of like, how can we get there?
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like this has this has to be a common goal for humanity, right?
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so, how can we all bring our strengths, our passions together to achieve these goals?
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what excites me.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_04: So good.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_04: I'm doing my little happy dance right here.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_04: And it's such a fun and perfect way to start off our fifth season.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_04: Fifth season, yeah.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_04: And thinking of implementing that common agenda.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_04: You're right, it can be very overwhelming when we think of how big things are.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_04: But thank you for bringing us back to it all starts at the local level.
• 27:24
  unknown: Yeah.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_04: And we're we're talking about Lancaster's water here.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_04: That's our priority.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_04: So yep.
• 27:29
  unknown: Yeah.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_04: Lancaster's work.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_04: It's all good.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_02: What are the other ways that people can engage with your organization?
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_02: You need volunteers, what have you, and how do they get in contact with you?
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm also the volunteer coordinator at the Edible Classroom.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: So anybody that wants to volunteer, um, they can reach out to us.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: They can go to our website.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's just the edibleclassroom.org.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they can't.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_02: I will also have a link in the show notes.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: And there's, you know, there's opportunities to volunteer if anyone is interested.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, about the bucket garden program.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: That is something that can be if you just want a taste of the edible classroom.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe this would work at our school.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like anything like that or with with our organization, you know, we're happy to explore those possibilities and you can reach out to me.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_02: So with that, we have come to my favorite part of the show, and that is trivia time.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, this is a good one.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: As we noted earlier, you live on a six-acre farmat.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_02: You have noted that you love to read a balance of fiction and nonfiction books.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_02: So I am going to read to you potential book titles about or set on a farm.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_02: You tell me if it's an actual book title or if I made it up.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay, okay.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna start out really easy with this one.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_02: Charlotte's Webb.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's a real book.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_02: That is a real book.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: Very good.
• 28:47
  unknown: E.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_02: B.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_02: White, 1952.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_02: Uh The Sheep Pig.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: It is a real book.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_02: It is a real book, yes.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_02: It is by uh Dick King Smith.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_02: It was uh in 1983.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_02: It was actually the book that they based the movie Babe on.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: See.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_02: How about all about a farm?
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: A real book.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_02: No, I made that up.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_02: I was shocked that there is not a book already called All About a Farm.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_02: There's all about farm animals.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_02: There's about farms, but not all about a farm.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_02: So I was shocked.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_02: How about the cowbook?
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: A real book.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_02: That is a real book.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's John O'Connell, it's an Irish memoir.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_02: The Big Book of Little Farms.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_02: A real book.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry, I made that one up.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_04: You're good at book titles.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_04: No, no.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I saw.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_02: Stick around and buy my unauthorized autobiography.
• 29:52
  unknown: Okay.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_02: Don't think about that one too hard.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_02: Fertilizing with Pig Waste, a guidebook for Pacific Island Farmers.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say yes.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_02: That is a real book put out by the U.S.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_02: Department of Agriculture.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_02: See how I missed an acronym there?
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: Ooh.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_02: The USDA.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_04: What's U.S.?
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_04: United States.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_04: You still used an acronym.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_02: I don't get to call him on the city.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_02: The United States Department of Agriculture.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_02: It's only the first show of the fifth season for crying out loud.
• 30:33
  unknown: Ha.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, how about one goat, two goat, me goat, you goat.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_02: You are correct, I made that one up.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_02: I think I was channeling a little Dr.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_02: Seuss in there as well.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: And that was gonna be a really long title.
• 30:48
  unknown: That's true.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_02: Well, the one before it was even longer.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_02: So uh The Enormous Potato.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_02: That is.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's by Aubrey Davis.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_04: It must be part of your treasure digging.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: I don't because I'm not familiar with that one.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_02: Start your farm, an authoritative guide to becoming a sustainable 21st century farmer, speaking of long titles.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm gonna say yes.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_02: It is, yeah.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's uh Ellen Polishuk and Forrest Pritchard from 2018.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_02: The big fat cow that goes kapow.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna say no.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, but actually this one.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_02: That does sound like I made it up, though, but no, it is actually a book by Andy Griffiths, not Andy Griffith, uh, from 2010.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_02: Big Fat Hen.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_02: It is, yes.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_02: That's Keith Baker from 1997.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_02: How about Big Fat Pig?
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_02: You are correct.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_02: I that was another one that I was shocked was not already a book.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I did a whole bunch of research, and no, apparently that's not a book.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_02: Versions of it, but Yeah, but well there yeah, there is Big Fat Totally bonkers diary of a pig.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_02: And there is the big, comma, fat, comma, pig, comma, big pig.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_04: Your search algorithm is gonna be so off.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_02: He wants to learn more about pigs.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the next one is My Plants Hate Me, a memoir in leaves.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_03: I might have written that.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_02: That is, yeah.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_02: That's Michelle Hoffman.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_02: I did.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_02: That just came out last year.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_02: And finally, the the Humanore Handbook, a guide to composting human manure.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say yes.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: It is.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's that's gross, but it is.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, well, that's our trivia.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yay!
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_02: And that's our show.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much, Angie, for coming in, telling us about Edible Classroom.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like I said, uh, we're gonna have links in the description.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_02: And um, yeah, we're excited to have you here, and we're excited to start off season five.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_04: Starting off the season, and Angie, you must be embracing the slowness of the winter season, as I'm sure spring uh feels around the corner for you, but yes.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um our slowness is not as slow these days because we do winter programming now as well in high school.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: But yes, but uh spring is definitely faster.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I am enjoying the little bit of slow down during the winter season, absolutely, and trying to to respect the rhythms of uh life though.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you for having me.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: It was such a pleasure being here on my first podcast.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: You guys made it a pleasure.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: Hope you had fun because we sure did.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_02: That is awesome.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_02: And we will be back in just a couple of weeks.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_02: In the meantime, take care.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_02: This episode of Clean Water Conversations is sponsored by RKK, Creative Solutions, responsive people.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_02: And produced by Lancaster Clean Water Partners, striving for clean and clear water by 2040.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_02: If you have comments, suggestions for show topics, or are interested in becoming a show sponsor, please contact us at infol at Lancaster Cleanwater Partners.com.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for listening.