By Cole Manor Healthy Comet reporters | When you walk through Hallway B at Cole Manor Elementary School, you’ll notice something new. It’s a tall, white structure lit up like a spaceship. You can see green plants growing up the sides of the structure.
Welcome to the school’s Fork Farms setup.
Cole Manor students are learning about sustainable indoor gardening using the Fork Farms system through a partnership with Fluxspace in Norristown. The garden is sustainable because it allows many plants to grow in a smaller space, needs less water, and uses LED lights. LED lights require less energy than traditional lights.
The school’s fourth graders have been working on growing lettuce, and they say it’s delicious.
“We planted lettuce and sold it,” Scarlett Navarro Ruelas said. “I bought lettuce and my mom made me salad. It was super good! We put some seeds in the Fork Farm and let it grow.”
Adaora Spruelk also gave the lettuce a good review. “It took about three to four weeks to grow,” she said. “It was ten times better than a [store] salad. I sold some of the lettuce and a lot of people bought it.”
Healthy Comet reporters recently interviewed Ryne Anthony, Fluxspace cofounder and director of of innovation, about the work that his company does with schools and the community, and the health benefits of indoor gardening.
Mr. Anthony said that because the food is grown locally, it keeps its nutritional value. He explained that when food has to be shipped, it has to be picked before it’s fully ripe so that it doesn’t go bad while it’s traveling. Food that is able to ripen before it’s picked has more nutritional value than food that must be shipped long distances.
The indoor garden also allows people to grow fresh vegetables and fruit year-round. In the Philadelphia area, people can’t grow these plants outdoors during the winter. An indoor garden can produce crops such as lettuce, herbs, tomatoes, and strawberries even in cold weather. One school even grew pumpkins.
There are different kinds of indoor gardens. The Fork Farms system uses a hydroponic method, which means that the plants don’t grow in dirt. They get their nutrients through a special watering system.
Mrs. Shannon Madara, a fourth- grade teacher, said the hydroponic garden allows students to use and learn many things. “They listened to
Illustration by Charlie Kern Cole Manor students made salads with
the greens thew grew.
videos and researched the steps it takes to be successful,” she said. “They are using measuring tools, estimation, and simple calculations to keep the water levels stable.”
In addition, they learned to manage the entire project. “It brought their research to life,” she said. “After they harvested the crops, the students were in charge of sales. They had to maintain their inventory and the money they were collecting.”
Fourth-grader Christopher Hernandez said that selling the lettuce gave him that extra experience. “I think something interesting was selling the lettuce because I finally got to work as a cashier. I could buy lettuce for my guinea pigs so they will be healthy and happy,” he said.
