An exciting new community resource, the Vita Parcours Fitness and Ecology Trail, will be presented to the Lopez community at an Open House celebrating the last Evening Meals at School for this academic year. The Evening Meals Open House will be Thursday, May 28, from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., dinner served from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. in the Lopez School multi purpose room.
A highlight of this month’s Evening Meals is the introduction and guided tours of the first two phases of the new Vita Parcours trail, which features recently constructed habitat of the endangered Island Marble Butterfly. Russel Barsh and Madrona Murphy, supported by state funding, initiated the project to reintroduce this important pollinator to Lopez.
The new mile-long trail, winding through a rare deciduous forest and pasture on the 33-acre campus, is based on a Swiss model for well-being that can be enjoyed by any age and ability level. A local family, working with the school, built the trail as a donation to the school, and as a resource for all members of the community. Completion of the entrance kiosk and meadow trail is subject to the school’s plan and schedule for constructing an irrigation/retention pond in the meadow, slated to begin July 2009.
Musical entertainment, starting at 5 p.m., includes an ingenious performance by Lisa Geddes’ students using garden tools as musical instruments, and a special performance by Ann Marie Fisher’s students.
Events include tours of the one year-old fruit orchard; new “hoop houses” that grow food for the school cafeteria year round without supplemental heat; and the nationally renowned learning gardens. The Lopez School garden program, (L.I.F.E.) will be featured in the upcoming publication Smart By Nature by the Center for Ecoliteracy, one of just twenty school programs selected from a nation-wide search for education in sustainability (scheduled release Autumn 2009).
The menu and the mission of these community dinners are lessons themselves in the benefit of sustainable, local foods and the strength of a connected community. “Inspired by the L.I.F.E. Farm-to-School program, which is designed to teach sustainability, ecology and real life skills, the dinners began two years ago with the goal of strengthening ties between the community and the school. Providing affordable, fresh, delicious food, and supporting local farmers and families is our mission,” said Michele Heller, co-founder of Lopez Locavores, the event’s sponsor.
Those who attend the Evening Meals donate what they can afford to pay. Chefs Kim Bast and Jean Perry collaborate to create meals that showcase local food and celebrate the season.
This month’s menu features a Moroccan spiced stew with Arikara beans, a beautiful yellow bean that was a primary food crop of Native American tribes of the Missouri Valley, along with Lopez-grown spring lamb, a pilaf of ancient Emmer wheat from the Methow Valley, and a salad of Lopez spring greens with grated beets and pickled red onions, dessert is Rhubarb Custard Square. To learn more, visit www.lopezlocavores.org
