ACC Students Find Comfort in Routine, Return to Familiar Activities

ACC Teacher Simone Leigh and student Nikki scoop salsa into a container for people to taste test at the Otter Tail Power Company “Pay It Forward” event.

Adam smiles at a nearby cart loaded with jars of salsa.

He and his classmates at the Anne Carlsen Center cared – for many months – for the tomatoes and onions that became ingredients in the delicious dip. In spite of the threat of overland flooding, seeds were dutifully planted, and grew into large, ripe vegetables. These veggies were picked, sliced and simmered with spices before being canned and eventually loaded onto chips this fall.

Anne Carlsen Center employees who walk by the salsa stand stop and say hi to Adam, asking him which kind of salsa is his favorite flavor, or what the price is for a quart versus a pint.

Each filled salsa jar is a statement of resiliency – a reminder of a special place, and the proclamation of a hope-filled future.

Getting Back To Normal

During the third and fourth week of a usual year, ACC teachers Corby Maddock and Mary Lewis are in the planning stages for that year’s garden.

In 2009, plans changed quickly, however, when the Center was forced to evacuate on March 23 due to the threat of overland flooding. Students, staff and equipment were displaced to a variety of locations throughout Jamestown for nearly three months.

In the following weeks Maddock and Lewis began talking about what to do with the garden. They decided to plant seeds in the ACC Solarium and begin growing many of the ingredients to the Center’s salsa.

The staff cared for the seedlings in their early months, as baby tomatoes and onions grew in the comfort of the solarium.

“In the spring you don’t really know what is going to happen,” said Maddock. “In the end, it all worked out and it was another successful year in which we made more jars than we had the year before. That is always the goal – to make as much as we can and have students be part of it.”

Following the return to the Center students helped make salsa for the Otter Tail Power Company “Pay It Forward” event.

“It was nice to jump back in once we all got back,” said Maddock. “We were able to get that sense of normalcy and get things back to usual with a routine. It was nice to be able to open that side door and go into the garden plots or into the solarium.”

Along with educational and recreational benefits to gardening, learning to wear a jalapeño mustache can be fun and funny.

The Rise of Fall

Over the next eight weeks students in Maddock’s classroom put together 485 jars of salsa. Students in Mary Lewis’ classroom helped create another 50 jars, pushing the total over 500 jars … and over 100 gallons produced.

“One week – the third week into it – it was 125 jars,” said Maddock. “That was when the tomatoes were starting to ripen. Some people were donating some, and we had so many tomatoes.”

Along with donating ingredients and jars to students, volunteers have begun to give their time to the gardening and salsa projects.

“The volunteers are awesome,” said Maddock. “They come in and will help us weed and keep everything tidy. We couldn’t do it without them.”

Once the salsa is made, plants are pulled from the ground, and, this year, organic hay was placed over the gardens to help reduce weed emergence. Uprooted plants are placed on a trailer that is hauled to the city compost site, and other plants as well as some flowers are brought into the solarium for the winter.

“That is where we are at right now,” said Maddock. “When we get into February and March, we’ll be ordering seeds and getting things started in the solarium and the cycle will start again.”

Success

Now in its fifth year, the Center’s salsa experiment is without doubt a success. A hit with the students, staff and everyone who has bought a jar of the chip dip, the salsa is here to stay.

“Mother Nature took care of us once we could get back to the Center and get going on things again,” said Maddock. The kids always do such a nice job taking care of the plants. It has turned into a pretty cool program and it is something we want to keep improving each year.”

Just 32 jars of salsa were made that first year – all during a home economics session that began when students got to class and ran until 1:30 in the afternoon. Today, an average of 60 or 70 jars can be made on home ec day – before lunch.

A total of nine different salsa flavors were made this season: Mild, Medium, Hot, Hawaiian, Garlic Cilantro, Lime Cilantro, Garlic Garlic, No Onion and Mean Bean.

“Each one is a little different,” said Maddock. “It is a dumping process and each jar is an original, that is for sure.”

If you would like to volunteer your time to help with the Center’s garden, please email Corby Maddock or Mary Lewis for more information for call 1-800-568-5175.