July was a month of many firsts for The David School’s garden: the first time we took produce to sell at the Floyd County Farmer’s Market; the first hot sauce production from homegrown produce; and the first time selling out of hot sauce on a single Saturday! We have been busy trying to get our business up and running. None of this would be possible without the help of each staff member and each student intern. Teamwork has been key each step of the way!

In our last blog post I raved about our amazing student interns … and I intend to again right now- they are just so great! Michael (17), Sammy (15) and Devan (16) go above and beyond each and every day. I am so proud of them individually and as a team! Not only do they work Tuesday-Friday physically tending to our school garden, but in July they picked up Saturdays, when they man our farmer’s market table. Each week, they weigh produce, describe different varieties of peppers (and now our hot sauce!) to customers and take care of the monetary exchanges. All that’s left for me to do is sit back and watch everything unfold … and it sure is a beautiful sight.

Two weeks ago, we produced our first batch of both our hot sauce recipes: Southeast Heat and Falcon’s Inferno. Let’s just say that although it tasted wonderful, we learned “what not to do while cooking hot sauce.” First, don’t produce both recipes at once…that leads to too many hot pepper fumes in one kitchen (cough cough). Second, don’t cut up hot peppers without gloves. And lastly, turn on the burner with your boiling water canner well before you are ready to can. You live and learn! This week’s production went so smooth and no one left with burning hands!

School starts in 2.5 weeks here at The David School and with that several changes will occur. The garden will go back to being an elective class and the student interns will only work on Saturdays. Most students will be involved in caring for the garden and helping to put in place new garden infrastructure: chicken coop, greenhouse and irrigation system. Our school will be in its second year of implementing our interdisciplinary garden education into each core classroom. Stay tuned for what is to come this fall in David, Kentucky!