On the Road with Common Vision

Many, many thanks to our friends at The Edible Schoolyard Project for a great feature report on Spring 2014 Fruit Tree Tour. The mission of the Edible Schoolyard Project is to build and share an edible education curriculum for kindergarten through high school. They envision gardens and kitchens as interactive classrooms for all academic subjects, and a free, nutritious, organic lunch for every student. Integrating this curriculum into schools can transform the health and values of every child in America.

> Read their full report on Fruit Tree Tour

Fifteen Years From Now

"This tree you're planting today is a  gift to the future," I tell my group. Looking around at their faces I see the usual scene: a couple eyes locked on me, some checking for worms in the dirt, and naturally, one pair has drifted off to distant day dreams. I wonder if they get the message; maybe I should repeat that part? But then I remember yesterday. 

Building a Healthier Community

Many thanks to Nutiva for blogging about our amazing planting together at Richmond College Prep School. It is thanks totally to Nutiva that Common Vision is blessed with the opportunity to plant a new orchard on the campus of every public school in Richmond!

> Read Nutiva's Full Post

Orchard Curriculum launched at four Southern California schools

We figured that if McDonalds could contribute to public school curriculum, well...so can Common Vision. We are very proud to announce that we just launched the first unit in our Orchard Curriculum at four Southern California elementary schools: Carthay, Palms, Round Meadow and Vista del Valle.

Thanks to your support, Common Vision’s week-long unit on decomposers features the California Education and Environment Initiative (EEI) Curriculum as a base and includes hands-on compost and mulching exercises in the orchard. Now, in addition to leaving a wake of fruit forests in food deserts, we are also leaving behind lesson plans straight out of the book of life itself.

For example, orchard learning activities include composting and mulching, when students are introduced to the deep ecological reasons for maintaining soil health. Our juicy curriculum transforms school orchards into living classrooms right in the heart of the city. Now, that is some serious schweetness!!!

California is currently poised to lead the nation in environmental literacy with the Education and Environment Initiative (EEI), a national model designed to help prepare today’s students to become future scientists, economists, and green technology leaders. The K-12th grade curriculum is comprised of 85 units teaching select Science and History-Social Science academic standards. Each EEI Curriculum unit teaches these standards to mastery using a unique set of California Environmental Principles and Concepts. The curriculum was created to bring education about the environment into the primary and secondary classrooms of more than 1,000 school districts serving over 6 million students throughout California.

Thank you so very much for an incredible orchard day at Carthay! We were so very impressed with your team - they worked so hard and so efficiently and with such kindness. It was absolutely amazing - as soon as tree (or vine : ) trimmings dropped to the Earth another team member was there to haul it away - all six dumpsters full!

And I can't believe how quickly the mountain of mulch was moved, and the grapes pruned and everything else expertly pruned and fed - it was a beautiful day and we thank you for it. It is such a HUGE help to have Common Vision come to Carthay each year - our fruit trees anchor our garden. With the care you provide these trees will preserve it for many years and many generations of students to come. Thank you for the amazing work you do.

- Teresa Dahl, Sustainability Schoolyard Ombudsman, Los Angeles Unified School District and Cathay Elementary Garden Coordinator

A daytrip down to Orange County

We had so many LA area schools on the schedule this tour that we only had time for a daytrip down to Orange County for a fantastic planting at Brea Junior High School. With so much suburban sprawl, it’s amazing to remember that OC's namesake were the orchards that once carpeted the county. It’s great to see students start to reclaim some of that heritage by planting a new school orchard. Eighteen new fruit trees went in the ground today, and urban agriculture continued its beautiful expansion into Southern California suburbs.

As fulfilling as it is for Fruit Tree Tour to return to thriving orchards that we planted back before co-director Leo Buc was 21, we have to admit that there’s a uniquely special feeling in the air when we are putting a new school orchard in the ground for the first time. Watching a schoolyard transform from a lawn into an orchard in just a day is itself transformative to witness. A superindent from the local school district came by Brea Junior High to see what all the buzz was about. After watching our amazing all-volunteer army of modern-day Johnny Appleseeds in action, he turned and told us, “I love it!”

Massive gratitude to EnrichLA for keeping Markham’s orchard juicy

It’s not every day that the flagship of our biofueled fleet gets a chance to play the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but our visit to Markham Middle School was one such auspicious occasion. On this visit, we returned to prune and feed the trees, improve the irrigation system, and create colorful orchard signs with the students. It was great to see an entire 6th grade science class outside using the orchard as a living laboratory!

First planted on Fruit Tree Tour 2007, this 30-tree orchard is producing tons of free, fresh juicy fruit. We want to express gratitude to EnrichLA for being the group on the ground who makes sure that Markham’s orchard gets enough to drink during the hot Southern California summers. 

EnrichLA is an environmental non-profit focused on adding edible school gardens to public schools. Their gardens are inexpensive, promote community involvement, encourage respect for the planet, act as outdoor classrooms, cheer up school campuses, help students build a good work ethic, and promote thoughtful and healthy eating habits. Needless to say, we are perfectly aligned!

Student innovation and drip irrigation at Crenshaw High in LA

The orchard Crenshaw High is more like a food forest than most school orchards. Rather than rows of trees in an otherwise manicured schoolyard, this more natural-looking ecosystem features multiple levels of canopy, permaculture style. In that spirit, some students, aware that water is too precious to waste, transformed a leaky water pipe into flood irrigation for their orchard by digging a drainage from the leak to the trees.

Originally planted by Community Services Unlimited (CSU)  in 2003, there are now about 55 mature fruit trees at Crenshaw High including mango, sapote, Chilean wine palm, loquats, figs and all sorts of tasty tropical and subtropical fruits. We’ve been hearing about this orchard for years and really wanting to make it a stop on Fruit Tree Tour.

Many thanks to Crenshaw for inviting us to stop by and unload a bus-load of Common Vision-strength lovin’. It was a fast and furious half-day stop where we were able to put their entire food forest on drip irrigation thanks to engaged, helpful students.