Celebrating National Farm to School Month

School cafeterias have been challenged in the past to provide delicious and nutritious food choices, but that is changing thanks to the concern about childhood obesity and other health problems that can be avoided with proper nutrition.

Hawaii Island students get 54 percent of their daily calories from food they eat at school. This increases the importance of offering food with nutritional quality. Bringing fresh local food into our schools can help improve food choices.

Congress designated October as National Farm to School Month in 2010. The designation was made to encourage relationships between farms and schools. The program also is a way to support local agriculture.

“An investment in the health of America’s students through Farm to School is also an investment in the farmers and ranchers who grow the food and an investment in the health of local economies,” U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.

The USDA Farm to School Program “is transforming school food and creating a healthier next generation. When students have experiences such as tending a school garden or visiting a farm, they’re more likely to make healthy choices in the cafeteria.”

For more about the program, visit fns.usda.gov/farmtoschool/videos-and-webinars.

In Hawaii, we have an active School Garden Program and a growing Farm to School Program. Both expose schoolchildren to parts of the journey. Both end with kids enjoying the fruits of their labor or that of area farmers at school.

The first Farm to School Conference, “Regrowing our Community Food Systems,” was held on Oahu earlier this month. More than 200 attendees came to hear representatives from government and nonprofit agencies, as well as educators and community representatives discuss the movement of food and ideas from the farm and distributors into the schools. At the conference Ken Kakeako, deputy director at the Hawaii Department of Agriculture, announced his agency’s willingness to add a Farm to School position to the department.

Farm to School is growing in Hawaii, with increasing connections between growers and schools. Area organic food distributor Adaptations has been providing fresh fruit snacks for Kona Pacific Public Charter School through the Fresh Fruit &Vegetable Program. In the cafeteria at Laupahoehoe Public Charter School, cherry tomatoes from the school garden are being served.

Last year at Konawaena High School, students working on a senior project were able to set up a salad bar in the school cafeteria from produce grown on campus and prepared by culinary arts students. Mary Lynn Garner, a math and health care careers teacher, mentored the student gardeners and this year has a new crew of nutrition students working to expand the popular fresh food offerings in the cafeteria.

Some other area schools are starting to supply their cafeterias with local produce. These win-win programs connecting farms and gardens to schools are having success getting kids to choose healthier food and are helping farmers move their produce and offer their expertise to schoolchildren.

Visit farmtoschool.org/about/farm-to-school-month to learn more about this program.

Comment on last week’s olive tree article: Larry Rose, a dryland forest specialist and concerned reader responded to last week’s column on Mediterranean olive trees. He is a woodworker who works with the native olive relative olupu. He has found that where the native and the introduced olives grow close to one another they hybridize. That means that the native olive could eventually get crowded out by the more robust hybrid, and become endangered or extinct and we would lose the olupu and its numerous positive qualities. Rose was also concerned that, though he is not sure that we have the olive fruit fly here as yet, encouraging folks to grow olive trees could mean that this fruit fly would eventually arrive on imported stock and become yet another alien pest.

Tropical gardening helpline

Vicki asks: My orange tree is dropping fruit early this year. I am not sure what is causing it but I came up with a use for the fallen fruit and wondered if you would like to share it.

Answer: Fruit drop in citrus trees can have several causes. Warm, wet weather prior to fruit maturity can trigger early drop. Low available potassium in the soil can also cause premature fruit drop. Excessive watering, poorly drained soils or drought stress can also lead to fruit drop.

Mature citrus trees do best with a slow, deep watering when the soil 6 inches below the surface feels dry. In our wet summers, they may get too much water. In our cooler winters you may need to water them but not more than weekly or every two weeks.

Since we have had a very wet summer, climate change may be at the root of your fallen fruit problem. Your solution, “When life gives you oranges, make orange oil cleaner,” is a good one. Here’s the recipe.

Because citrus fruits contain d-limonene, a natural solvent that chemically reacts with oil to break it down, citrus oil makes an excellent addition to this homemade cleaning product.

Ingredients: citrus peels, distilled white vinegar, water (optional)

Directions: Collect citrus peels in an airtight glass container. Once the container is full, cover the peels with white vinegar. Let the jar sit for about two weeks. When ready, the vinegar will be yellowish in color and should have a strong citrus odor. Once ready, strain the peels from the vinegar. At this point you can dilute the solution with water if you like. A 1:1 concentration works well for all-purpose kitchen and bath cleanup. Pour the solution into a spray bottle for use.

Email plant questions to konamg@ctahr.hawaii.edu for answers by Certified Master Gardeners. Some questions will be chosen for inclusion in this column.

Diana Duff is a plant adviser, educator and consultant living on an organic farm in Captain Cook.