Gracia R. from Ogden, UT

How the Church Lettuce Garden Grew!

At the church I attend I am the church gardener, and I teach preschool Sunday School.  My young students absolutely love gardening-type projects.

They decided they wanted to do something fun and different for their fathers for Father’s Day this year, so when your lovely packet of Earthbound Farm lettuce seeds arrived, we excitedly sowed them to the wind in the church flower garden one wintry day, atop the snow. 

Most of the children told me they had never grown lettuce before, so it was a new adventure for them. They had grown watermelons, pumpkins, sunflowers, and even watercress, but never lettuce.

We don’t have a lot of space for growing vegetables at the church, but we felt the rich diversity of colorful lettuce leaves would make for a pretty, lacy groundcover beneath the tall wildflowers we grow in the church flower garden. We looked forward with great anticipation to the gorgeous greens for our Father’s Day salads.
The lettuces grew so well that lettuce plants even sprang up in the cracks of the wood around the raised bed and in the parking lot pavement, which the children found miraculous! They enjoyed playing “Lettuce Hide-N-Seek,” searching under the flowers and everywhere for the lettuces.

Their favorite activity in the garden was nibbling on the baby lettuces and tasting the edible flowers growing alongside them (pansies, violas, cornflowers, etc.).  They thought getting to eat stuff right out of the garden was great fun. 

Since we grew everything organically, the children were able to enjoy observing birds and bees and butterflies and cabbage loopers that frequented our garden, too. We believe it is important to be good stewards of the Earth, and that’s why we grew our garden organically.

We don’t have a big budget at our church, so your generous gift of seeds was much appreciated. Many are feeling the economic squeeze in our congregation, so the prospect of growing wholesome organic garden produce for the church potluck was quite appealing.

We studied up on the various types of lettuces that came in our seed packet and colored pictures of a bunch of them. We also read a wonderful salad cookbook for preschoolers called Salad People.

My preschool class also loves to do cooking projects, so after picking a variety of the many luscious lettuces grown from your seeds, the children donned cute aprons to protect their Sunday best and tossed two different types of colorful Father’s Day salads, which they called “Lettuce Honor Our Fathers.” 

They had fun personally choosing the ingredients they wanted in their salads. Here are their salad recipes:

Lettuce Honour Our Fathers 1
Lots of lettuce greens of all types
Plenty of baby spinach
A handful of fresh peas
Easter egg radishes of all shades, chopped
Fresh basil, chopped
About a cup of chopped red and yellow
     Delicious & Granny Smith apples
Several chopped strawberries
A big handful of blueberries
Garnish with 3 or 4 Bing cherries still on stems &
     blue bachelor’s buttons flowers and top with a
     generous sprinkling of sunflower seeds.

Lettuce Honour Our Fathers 2
Same as above, but substitute chopped pears for the apples and add chopped sprigs of fresh parsley.

They made their own salad dressings, too. Here are their recipes:

Heavenly Strawberry Salad Dressing
Mix, to taste:
Virgin olive oil
Apple cider vinegar
Pineapple juice
Honey, water, sea salt
Chopped strawberries

Answer to Prayer Pear Salad Dressing
Mix, to taste:
Virgin olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
A bit of fresh ginger root, grated
A touch of chopped cilantro
Honey, water, sea salt
Lots of chopped pears

The fathers received their salads with pure delight, which was quite satisfying to both children and teacher. My greatest joy is found in the opportunity to nurture a passion for both gardening and good nutrition in young children.

We had such a great time with this project that we have decided to make it an annual tradition. We can’t wait to grow our second Lettuce Honor Our Fathers Salad Garden next year!

Maybe we will even set up a city roadside stand and give away some of our organic lettuce to passersby, as a special ministry of health. That would make us feel good. We would like others to be able to enjoy the blessings of healthful, home-grown food, too!

See Gracia’s photos on Flickr and watch her video on YouTube.