Madison elementary students grow rosemary for Taziki’s Cafe
MADISON – A business relationship between Madison Elementary School students and a local restaurant has grown with healthy transactions.
Five years ago, Rodriguez Torres with Taziki’s Mediterranean Cafe approached Elizabeth Woodard, Madison Elementary’s Gifted Specialist, about creating a partnership between Taziki’s and Madison Elementary School. As a result, the restaurant has purchased rosemary that the students grow and harvest ever since.
Woodard, who teaches grades 3-5, has 15 years of experience as an educator and is a National Board Certified Teacher.
About six years ago, students planted rosemary in the school’s herb garden in the Outdoor Classroom. The courtyard also has gardens for vegetables, sunflowers and attracting pollinating insects. Student families volunteer to tend gardens during summer.
“The purpose of our Outdoor Classroom is to give students and teachers a place where they can engage in hands-on natural science lessons and activities. Within the courtyard, we have the Outdoor Classroom and the Reading Garden areas,” Beth Woodard said.
Students planted the rosemary from small starters and then weeded, watered and mixed compost into the soil each year. Woodard’s third-graders collect food scraps from the cafeteria to maintain a compost bin.
For its Mediterranean menu, Taziki’s will use the rosemary to season bread, roasted potatoes and chicken dishes.
All students at Madison Elementary use the Outdoor Classroom for visits and to access the space for lessons. Madison Grows, the Outdoor Classroom club, weeds, plants and cares for the gardens. Fourth-graders in Madison Grows meet before school on Fridays for the work.
In addition, several classrooms have specific vegetable gardens that they have adopted. “Our fifth-grade students plant three vegetable gardens each year with their science teacher Shannon Lilienthal. Our English Learner students have a vegetable garden that they plant each fall and spring. Their teachers Beth Massey and Kathryn Ryan are planning for them to plant a special variety of giant, white radishes from Japan that they are going to try out this fall,” Woodard said.
In addition, classes in every grade adopt caterpillars from the Outdoor Classroom to raise in their classrooms. Students learn about and experience the full process of metamorphosis before they release their butterflies into the Outdoor Classroom, Woodard said.
“We definitely consider the outdoor classroom to be a success. It provides hands-on science experiences that are impossible for children to have within the walls of an indoor classroom,” Woodard said.
Over the years, Madison Elementary has had parent volunteers help with the gardens. Families that help in the summer with weeding are invaluable to upkeep of gardens. Teachers are always looking for new and additional volunteers.
This fall, students will plant onions, radishes, lettuce and carrots in their vegetable gardens. In the spring, they will plant squash, tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs.
“Our students love providing herbs to our community, and the money that they receive in return allows us to purchase needed plants and supplies for the Outdoor Classroom,” Woodard said.
For more information about Taziki’s, email rtorres@tazikiscafe.com.
