Project operated through summer

Summer is the time to be working in the garden, and no one knows that better than Audrey Tehan of the Sisters Seed-to-Table project. Perhaps the most important production she and her crew achieved was the 150 pounds of squash, salads, kale, snap peas and the like that they delivered to the Sisters Kiwanis Food Bank.

Then there was the 3,000-plus student-hours she helped get going, and the four-days a week she was teaching Sisters High School interns, who were busy helping elementary school kids learn the art and science of farming.

Right after school closed for the summer, Audrey began working with six high school students: Dakota Wagner; Cassandra Arruda; Mikayla Duvenick; Maya Weiland; Kenna Cardin; and Margo Bruguier. They were driven to expand their knowledge and skills in the areas of sustainable agriculture and the art and science of teaching what they leaned to fourth-graders. When Tehan and the interns went volunteering at other farms, they made quite an impression with their willingness to learn all they could about farming practices.

Mahonia Gardens of Sisters demonstrated composting and vermiculture (use of earthworms), using the new soil they created for furthering their work in sustainable agriculture.

If all goes as planned, the interns will be putting on a harvest dinner to celebrate all the work they accomplished at local farms this summer.

The spinoff for the high school students working and studying organic farming practices may well be reflected in their grades throughout the school year. Twelve studies published in the Journal of Environmental Education evaluated the effectiveness of farm-and-garden-based science and nutrition studies and found school gardening increased science scores. From the health and nutrition side, the two studies demonstrated that gardening in elementary students increased the students' preference for vegetable snacks over the usual junk food.

As school started rolling this month, Tehan began teaching organic and sustainable agriculture four days a week in Glenn Herron's Sisters High School science classes.

Among the goals Tehan has set for her Seed-to-Table program for 2014/15, is the purchase of a two-wheeled tractor to help increase farm output.

This will help put Audrey's next big step into action: Turning Mahonia Gardens into a farming business - which in turn will provide the opportunity for her interns and students to learn the science of sustainable agriculture and the business of farming.