Whitefield Academy held the Third Annual Lower School Farmer's Market on Thursday, November 19, with fresh lettuces, herbs, and seeds for sale from the Whitefield garden. Other delectable items provided by parents included fresh eggs, cookie jars with ingredients and recipes, Gullah Gravy, and home-baked goods such as pound cake, pumpkin chocolate chip bread, and other fresh breads. Cards and knitted caps which were handcrafted by members of the Whitefield community and Georgia apples were also available.
“The whole morning was a lot of fun,” said Nikki Nimey, who brought the fresh eggs from her own hens and also baked pound cake. “I love how everyone joins together to provide everything we sell.”
Members of the Lower School Playing in the Dirt club staffed some of the tables and also served guests warm apple cider on the chilly morning. The group plants seeds, waters, weeds, and harvests regularly in the garden.
The garden has become a central point of education and community, not only in the Lower School, but across campus. It was started when friends Mary Charles Bounds and Hannah Morris, fourth graders at the time, wrote letters to Jeannie Brostrand, Lower School principal, requesting that kitchen vegetable scraps be composted, instead of thrown away. The idea blossomed into a full-fledged garden over the summer of 2011.
Since that time, the garden has become an integral part of Lower School education and continues to expand each year. Lower School classes plant and maintain raised beds while learning scientific and spiritual principles. Boys Scouts have earned their Eagle Scout badges building outside seating areas, additional beds, and a message board. Families and Whitefield teams have grown closer by working together to maintain the garden; and concerts and events have been held there.
“The garden is a wonderful place that is always improving,” said Nimey “Just the other day in the garden club we handed out paper and seed catalogs and asked the children to design a spring and summer garden. It was fun watching how excited they were to dream about all the possibilities of the garden.”
A special thanks to the following families for contributing goods to the Farmer’s Market: the Feagins, the Gordons, the Holbrooks, the Robsons, the Mathews, the Nimeys, the Vaughans, and the Yates