By staff writer Jeanine Achacoso

Every Thursday, 6th graders gather around the greenhouse at Bay Farm School, eager to find out what fun Ms. Garner will bring them. This is GACC, Garden and Cooking Club. In GACC, middle school students have fun growing and cooking organic vegetables, fruits, and herbs. So far, only 6th graders are participating. However, this club is open to all middle schoolers at Bay Farm.

On some days, the students garden with help from Ms. Garner. They plant seeds of flowers and vegetables, transfer plants to better soil, and harvest full-grown produce. This spring students prepared cheesy chard, miso soup, lemonade, and potatoes. The miso soup and lemonade were the GACC club members’ favorites.

When they are not gardening or cooking, the students also make tea. They harvest fresh herbs from their garden, wash them, brew them, and then drink them. Selections include lemon balm, fennel, lavender, rosemary, mint, and calendula.

Not everyone comes to every meeting. Some only come for the cooking. But Daniela Quintero, Allison Kee, Chau Doan, Aiden Ung, Xuxa Laplana, and Jeanine Achacoso have attended every meeting, unless they were absent. (Or if they were doing state testing.)

Each time they cook the students bring a portion to Mrs. Reynolds, a 6th grade teacher at Bay Farm. She called their homemade lemonade “perfection in a cup!” GACC is her favorite club, because she gets scrumptious food from them every so often. Mrs. Reynolds usually hates chard, but she loved the cheesy chard that the GACC club served her! One day, the students brought lemon, mint and rosemary tea to Mrs. Reynolds, Mrs. Oducayen, Ms. Diaz, Ms. Bonnie, and Mr. Valois. It was a hit!