Micro greens and more, students learning the business
Published 8:52 am Thursday, April 9, 2015
Snip, snip, snip.
A few quick motions from the scissors, and teachers at Davie High School are closer to a lunch with one of the newest food fads.
Micro greens.
They were grown by students in Karen Ferrell’s horticulture class, and prepared by students in Mandy Hines’ culinary class.
The greenhouse behind the school is exactly that – green. There are plants on the tables, hanging from the ceiling, on the floor. They’re happy plants, not long from gracing someone’s landscape or garden. A public sale is planned the first two Saturday mornings in May.
“They are learning skills they can use for the rest of their lives,” Ferrell said. The classes produce the plants in every way a commercial operation would, but on a smaller scale. “It’s not that big, but it’s perfect for a teaching situation.”
She incorporates other subjects into the curriculum. For those micro greens, students weighed the seeds and then the plants, keeping up with the cost of the seed vs. cost and time to grown them.
It must have worked. One of the students’ grandfathers heard about it, and is considering a greenhouse to grow micro-greens for the market.
Some of the students take the class because they want a future in the industry; others because it is already a hobby and they want to learn more.
“I’ve been in the garden since I was little,” said Katie Shoaf. “We have a very big garden.”