Even though the coronavirus pandemic has changed the way the Cranbury School operates it has not stopped the harvesting of vegetable greens from the school’s aquaponics system.
The greens grown through this system are still being used for school lunches. The aquaponics system is a method of growing plants without soil. Aquaponics is a form of agriculture that combines raising fish in tanks with soilless plant culture. Cranbury School third, fourth and fifth grade students had been growing and harvesting vegetables from this system and farm raising the fish prior to COVID-19.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the nutrient-rich water from raising fish provides a natural fertilizer for the plants and the plants help to purify the water for the fish.
“Pre-COVID we were putting spinach and lettuce and all kinds of leafy green produce in the school lunches and also donating to the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK) on a regular basis,” said Susan Shiffman, Cranbury School enrichment teacher. “In 2019, we donated about 27 pounds at each harvest of produce to TASK. This year, because we are not in school the first thing we started to do was grow microgreens (baby plants) and we grew 40-feet of microgreens out of our system that were used in school lunches.”
Dill, cilantro, beets and a mild salad mix were microgreens harvested and used for school lunches. Spinach, red lettuce and arugula continue to grow and are set to be the next group of greens harvested from the system.
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