Community garden reaps fresh veggies

SEQUIM — Social studies can be delicious.

So can socializing.

A small flock of sixth-graders and older retirees have tasted those facts at the long-awaited Community Organic Garden of Sequim, behind St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on Fifth Avenue.

“Holy Moses, snack on that,” instructed Linda Dolan, the paraeducator and garden co-founder who walked over to the small plot with her Sequim Middle School students last Friday morning.

The sixth-graders, under the tutelage of Dolan and social studies teacher Carolynn MacDonald, reaped what they’d sown just last month: lettuce, chard and radishes that, plucked from the earth by young fingers, looked like cherries.

Brittany Zuck, Lavee Hess and Brandon Payne, all 12, held the blush globes aloft like birthday gifts.

There was a little too much soil on them for immediate eating, but Hess, Zuck and Hector Baylom, 12, obeyed Dolan’s orders and munched on some young, fluffy lettuce. 

Dolan then reminded the students to stay focused.

“Pull the weeds out,” she said.

“They’re going to compete with your food.”