Spuds in Tubs - 2010!
Thank you to all who have applied for the 2010 growing season. Unfortunately, we have already reached our capacity for this year's intake. Those interested in participating for the 2010/2011 school year should forward their contact information to jill.spencer@gov.bc.ca. We will keep you email address on file and do our best to get you on board next year.
Early Comments - November 2009
"I am so excited to be gearing up for another potato growing experience with my class. Last year's crop was outstanding, with an average of 60 spuds being harvested from each plant (360 plus many itty bitty spuds that would have grown larger had they had more time to stay in the tub).
We invited parents for a feast and made a fabulous batch of potato salad that included tomatoes, eggs, green onions, cucumber, and celery. It was a delicious, nutrition meal.
The students were amazed at the vast amount of knowledge they gleaned from the experience. We had our tubs safely enscounced in a neighbour's yard and she graciously offered to host the tubs again. She loved watching the children come to measure and count and water the potato plants. She expecially enjoyed seeing the children bring their own parents by the potato patch after school every day to admire their efforts. The children were so excited and proud that they could actually grow their own food and learn about so many scientific facts related to plants, soil, water, sunlight and insects.
Thank you so much to you and the Potato Growers' of BC for providing such a wonderful, hands-on learning experience to so many children that have never had the opportunity to be a farmer!"
Spud Teacher, Nov. 2009
Comments from the 2009 Harvest
We had a very successful harvest 352 potatoes, it was a huge hit with the students! We roasted them with Olive oil and Rosemary and the kids really enjoyed them.
Thanks again for all the growing tips it was a great hands on opportunity and every child knows how to hill soil!
A great bit Thank You. This is a really exciting project, the kids were enthusiastic. My kids saw them each day, growing. (It's important to have the tubs in close proximity to the classroom to allow this daily connection.)
When we returned from Spring Break, the students were completely amazed the plants had grown!!! The conversation between the students is stimulated by the 'rapid' growth, and that then stimulates their interest. Interestingly during the spring break, the room was completely dark. The plants then were tall, but were very very light in colour. That led to discussions about the important of light, photosynthesis, etc. Of course they were interested in the changing plant colour over the next few weeks.
When we placed the tubs in the courtyard, we had to move them to be sure they would 'catch' the rain water, so the students moved them away from the brick wall, which provided warmth. None the less, in our protected courtyard, the potatoes grew well.
We did a potato survey to see which ways students liked potatoes cooked. Of the 15 or so ways of preparing potatoes, our students liked mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, French fried potatoes, etc. It took a little while to connect a French fry with a potato. In the end, we served their potatoes on the last day, as simple boiled new potatoes, with a bit of butter, and every student LOVED them. They also took three potatoes home in share with their family members.
Our harvest day was so much fun. The students worked in groups, 'tickling' their potatoes. There were great grins when they located the small, the tiny the middle sized, the large, and the combo potatoes.
(We even invited a grade 1 class to 'harvest' one tub...they thought there would only be five potatoes in their tub, because they had planted 5 ! Imagine their surprise and delight!)
Our grand total of spuds was 294!!!!!
Hi. We had a lovely time. The Grade Seven's did a slideshow of the event. It will be on our school web site in September. I will forward a copy then. We had 298 spuds 14.5 kg in one class and about the same in the other. The children and parents loved the project and we are in for next year. What a great event!!!!! The children had a fantastic time. The parents thought it was cool.
We dug up our potatoes yesterday, and it was so much fun! It was my first time doing this, and I was really nervous! The plants weren't yellow and dead yet, but yesterday was the last day of school for the kids, so we didn't have a choice. As a result of digging them up before their time, we found many pea-sized potatoes! However, there were enough medium and large potatoes for the kids to take home. We didn't have time to have a potato feast, but I think the kids wanted to take them home to show their parents anyway.
What a FANTASTIC project!
I've always been afraid of planting things with kids, as I definitely don't have a green thumb. I was really afraid of "killing" our plants
I'm hooked! I can't WAIT to plant again next spring! Thanks again for introducing me to some form of agriculture ... I think it was the highlight of the year for my kids ... I know it was definitely one of my mine.
I hope I'll be part of the project again next year.
Just wanted to let you know that from our 30 seed potatoes, my grade 1 class harvested 236 potatoes! (Some very tiny and some quite large).
We planted our spuds right before Spring Break according to the directions given and left them inside our building under a skylight for the week that we were away. We only used about half of the bags of compost. The seed potatoes did well and began to sprout during that week. We hilled them up as they grew. We continued to tend them, and leave them inside under the skylight until the weather was predictable enough to transfer the tubs outdoors. The sprouts grew wildly in the few weeks inside, and by the time that we put them outside; we had used all of our compost and had gently worked in the second bag of plant food into each tub. The big difference between previous years and this one was that the plants became very 'leggy' under the skylight before they were moved outdoors.
The tubs remained on the south side, right against the building for the remainder of their growing period, and we gave them plenty of water during the hot, dry spell. The plants looked pretty sad for the whole time they were outside, and many parents expressed their sympathy for the failed experiment.
On Thursday, June 18th, we harvested our crop, and were amazed that we had both more and larger potatoes than in previous years. We hosed them off, drained and dried them, and left them for the next day to count, weigh, measure, examine, etc. We found that we had 370 potatoes ranging in size from mini marbles to fairly large ones that were about 2 1/2 to 3 " in diameter through the widest part. Their total weight was about 10 kg.
I took the 23 largest potatoes home to scrub for cooking at school, and divided the remainder up into enough bags for each child to take a small meal's worth home to share with their families. On Tuesday, June 23rd, my class mom cut the scrubbed potatoes in half, sprinkled them with a little olive oil, set them on a piece of parchment among a few garlic cloves, and roasted them lightly in our school oven. The students shook whipping cream to make butter, and then we all sampled the potatoes with a little of the butter. Most of the kids already liked potatoes and were receptive to sampling. A few asked if they had to try them, and I said that everyone had to take at least one small piece to sample, in the same manner that we sample the fruits and vegetables that are delivered to our school throughout the year. In the end, those who didn't think they liked potatoes asked if they could go back and have more. Both the Spuds in Tubs project and the feast were very successful. Many parents were astounded that our plants were not only alive, but big producers.
Thank you so much for this great program! My kids absolutely LOVED it. The harvest was the best. We tipped the containers over, opened up the dirt and there were hundreds of potatoes like golden nuggets inside. They were really tasty and even the kids who at the outset said they didn't really like potatoes ate everything and wanted more. We counted 500 potatoes harvested. We had enough to make three different dishes for our class to try as well as about 20-25 of varying sizes for each student to take home.
We are really looking forward to doing this again next year!
I did the spuds this year for the first time, and I would definitely do it again next year. I have 2 Kindergarten classes, and they always wanted to go and check out how our potatoes were doing. When we dug them up, you would have thought we were looking for buried treasure. The excitement was contagious.
Thanks you so much for this wonderful program
Wow!
I was surprised at the amount and size of the potatoes. A few of the potatoes that came out of the pots were the size of my fist. Each tub we emptied had enough potatoes to fill a large size zip lock bag. The students and teachers I worked with on this project were very pleased with the results. One teacher even brought in a deep fryer and made French fires for the class. Other teachers cooked them at home and shared with the class, and others let students take the raw potatoes home to cook on their own. Thank you again for supplying the pots, dirt and seed potatoes.
We had a GREAT harvest and the potatoes were the biggest that I've ever had, and this is my third year participating. We harvested last week, even though the potato plants were still very healthy and green, and had a yield of 265 potatoes, with very few tiny potatoes in the bunch. I would say this is the best year yet! We celebrated by having an "International Food Day" since I had incorporated the potato growing with our healthy living unit, and we boiled the potatoes and served them with sour cream, butter and salt. Very yummy!
Please sign me up again for next year!
Once again, "Spuds in Tubs" was a great success in our classroom and school! It's a wonderful program to have available to us and I cherish watching the faces of the children each year as they dig into the pile of dirt and pull out potato after potato as if they were pieces of gold!!!
This year definitely was a much improved crop over last year! I think we had about 100 or 110 potatoes total last year (including all the small ones), but this year we had 100 of the fist-sized, or bigger potatoes, plus another 110 of the smaller ones!!!!
Well ... another successful year with Spuds in Tubs. The students gathered for our annual Potato Party and enjoyed delicious boiled Warba potatoes dressed with butter, sour cream, chives and real bacon bits. Most of the students preferred the spuds plain and would eat them on a fork like an ice cream bar. This year the potato buffet included baked tater tots (many ESL students had never tasted potatoes like these), various types of potato chips and chocolate mashed potato cake for dessert. This time the students took pride in their own potato plants and would discuss what was happening to their plants with other "potato growers".
One mom told me that her son would carefully dig around the plant until he spotted a potato, and then he would gently cover it up, reassured that the growing potato was okay. It was a very positive experience for these students to be responsible for their plants. The harvest was good this year - not as many potatoes as before but the potatoes were much larger and not as many "pea-sized" as last year. The potatoes were in excellent condition - no fungus or insect damage.
Thank you for a wonderful project.
Spuds in Tubs - Spring 2009
This spring more than 3000 students throughout the province are getting a hands-on opportunity to get involved planting, growing, harvesting and eating their own crop of early Warba potatoes.
The Spuds in Tubs program is designed to teach students the importance of access to fresh food as part of science, social studies and healthy living. The idea is to connect kids to the food that they eat - to let them become involved in the production, to learn where their food comes from - that it comes from the soil, and the ground and the water where we live, that it doesn't come from the grocery store.
Students are given a chance to observe the seed potatoes as they begin to sprout. Planting is completed mid-March in order for a successful harvest before classes are dismissed for summer holidays in June.
With four or five students sharing one tub, each student gets to plant their own seed potato. The tubs are kept indoors until early in April when it is warm enough to move them outside.
Younger students are taught basics such as describing the features of the plants, colour, shapes, sizes and textures, while older students will have to make more challenging observations, such as describing potential environmental impacts.
The program originated four years ago in the Fraser Valley with just eight classrooms participating.
The response from students and teachers alike is extraordinary. There is alreay a growing list of new schools interested for next year. Plans are to continue to expand into more new areas of the province for the 2009/10 school year.
Early Growing Comments from Teachers - April 2009
"
The third grade class was SOOO excited to see how their plants had grown over spring break...such a great opportunity to introduce measuring with a ruler...."What would happen if you put the end of the ruler with the 1 cm on it down on the ground rather than the other end?"
One classroom teacher had left several pieces of newsprint on the top of one of the tubs...just placed it there while rearranging a table, and then forgot it...so was a good lesson on the impact of light on plant growth."
"Our plants look terrific and the children are very excited at the growth they've seen. We are keeping track both with pictures and with notes. Tomorrow they are going to the home across the street. A boy in our room lives there and we have permission to put the tubs in the backyard."
"Thanks so much for having this program as it fits so nicely in with the science program in Grade 3."
"Here at ASIA Sumas we have had our potatoes out for the last two weeks. They are beautifully green and looking very healthy. I think they even had a dusting of snow at one point."
"Today we spent some time with the potatoes. After combining the fertilizer with the soil, we added the last of the soil - they have been hilled for the last time.
We've listened to and are singing along with Stompin' Tom Connor's of "Bud the Spud". We've enjoyed a simple story called "Two Old Potatoes". Another book we hope to experience soon is "Spuds", a moving story by Karen Hesse. We're still enjoying this opportunity. Thanks so much!"
"Our spuds are growing great. We put our tubs in the library where it is a lot warmer and the large windows gave them plenty of sunshine over the Spring Break. When we got back this week, the potato plants had already shot up."
"The spuds are growing full and tall in our hallway under the skylight. Five classes of us planted the seed potatoes a couple of days before Spring Break, watered them, and hoped for the best. By the time we returned, a week later, most had sprouted and there has been no stopping them since. We've begun hilling them up and are excited to see them becoming stronger and taller almost as we watch."
"The spuds are doing fantastic. Parents are coming in and commenting on how fast they are growing. There are a lot of teachers interested in the program. I am going to the Network for Healthy Living meeting on the 16th and I will give them an update on how it is going. The kids love the responsibility. Many parents and students from other classes stop and ask all about the potatoes. "
"We were just talking today about how amazing these potatoes are! You can almost see them growing."
"The spuds are doing very well. The plants have just reached the top of the tubs. The kids have been hilling them every time there is a good section of stem showing. The kids are so excited about their potatoes, it is the first thing they check in the class each morning."
"Our potatoes have really grown! We planted the potaotes the day before Spring Break, and when we came back we measured and some plants were 18cm high. This project has generated a lot of interest among the rest of the school. Thanks for the wonderful opportunity to grow potatoes!"
"The plants are such a huge hit with the students. Today I was showing a new student and her family around the school. I was doing the ESL tour and showed the family my classroom - the family is from Lithuania and were amazed that we did stuff like this in Canada. Another of my students is a girl from Korea and she will be leaving before our "potato party" in June. She has alreay asked her grandmother in Korea to plant potatoes for her so she can have a "potato party" too when she returns in late May."
Spuds in Tubs Program
As part of science, social studies, language arts and now healthy living, it has been brought to our attention that many schools would like to grow food at the school but find it difficult to work with in ground school gardens. As a solution, AITC has developed a new program called Spuds in Tubs -Potato Tub Gardens for Elementary Schools.
An early variety of potato (Warba) has been planted in portable tubs and will be ready to harvest sometime in June. Over several months students have the opportunity to observe and record any changes that occur in the potatoes. As a bonus, they also get to enjoy the experience of growing their own food!
Teachers involved in the program are supplied with our resource for Spuds in Tubs. At the end of this trial period they will share with others what they have learned and how they have been able to integrate Spuds in Tubs into their lessons. Watch here for comments and ideas from teachers and students.
Download Spuds in Tubs here.
Partners in this program include:
- BC Potato and Vegetable Growers Association
- W & A Farms of Richmond
- Buckerfields - Duncan, Nanaimo, Salmon Arm
- Transform Plant Products - Abbotsford
- Cinnabar Valley Farms - Nanaimo
- Noel Roddick Ltd. - Fertilizers
- Garden Works at Mandeville
- City of Abbotsford, Parks and Recreation
- Vancouver Island Health Authority
- Okanagan Science Centre - Vernon
- The Kipp Centre - Chilliwack
- CY Growers Abbotsford
- Benjamin Moore - The Colour Cafe - Abbotsford
- BC Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation
A special thank you to all the schools for volunteering to take part in this great program!
BC Potato Facts from "Grow BC" - A Teacher's Handbook on BC's Agriculture, Fish and Food Business (2002). Page 1, Page 2.
BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands - Potato Home Page
BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands - Potato Fact Sheet
Ontario Potato Board - Website
Comments from the 2008 Harvest
"We boiled the potatoes and had them with butter, sour cream and bacon bits. They were yummy!! The children all enjoyed eating them. Yesterday every child took a few potatoes home to share with their family. The harvest was very plentiful. The teachers on staff also thought the new potatoes were delicious. Will this program be offered again next year? I will definitely be interested!"
"We had our potato feast today and my 30 ESL students from Gr 1 to Gr 6 came - ate and laughed together along with our principal. I separated the 500+ potatoes into small, medium and large sizes. The large potatoes I put in paper bags and labelled for each student (stapled the bags shut and told them to take them home before opening!). The other potatoes I boiled at the school and put in a crock pot to keep warm (thanks for the hint). On a buffet style table, there was a Russian potato salad, two types of chips and chocolate potato cake. The boiled potatoes were eaten with butter, salt, pepper, sour cream, chives and bacon bits... the potatoes were a huge hit... the pot was overflowing and nothing was left inside moments. Some students came back 4 or 5 times for more. The potatoes were more popular than the chips or the cake. A very successful event and the students enjoyed leaving with their "goody bag", potato journal and the international potato cookbook that they had contributed recipes to. After recess, the Gr 1's returned for their class with me and midway through, one little fellow asked when we could go visit the potatoes. When I reminded him that he had just eaten the potatoes, he became very quiet - I guess we all had become emotionally attached to the spuds! Thanks again for such an interesting and fun project".
"We had our potato harvest today and it was a great success!! They kids (and I) had a blast! It was amazing how much learning was going on as we looked at the old seed potatoes, the different conditions of the plants, and all the bugs and other residents of the pots! We had boiled potatoes with butter and salt this afternoon and the kids thought they were absolutely delicious! My favourite comment was one little guy, who told me with great fortitude, " I'm never eating those McDonald's fries again....these are my absolute favourite potatoes from now on!!!" It was a great unit and I look forward to doing it again next year!"
"The kids had a blast - it was fun and the kids really took a keen interest to this hands on project. One of the best science units and experiences I as a teacher have had yet!"
"Just wanted to let you know what a great time we had today harvesting our "spuds". Each class harvested a tub, emptied the soil into the garden, completed a worksheet and planned how to eat the potatoes. The students loved everything (well, maybe not the woodbugs). Some really got into it and dug through the soil like they were looking for buried treasure. There was great fun and conversation during this activity. Our harvest was pretty good - some potatoes the size of a child's fist and others the size of grapes - roughly 2 to 3 pounds per tub with 83 to 120 potatoes per tub. Lots of little guys! Thank you for all your support, materials and Spuds in Tubs".
