Edible Schoolyard gathering circle and Alice in her new knitted scarf/shawl

…with Alice Waters this afternoon (wearing the crazy 10 foot long triangular multi-indigo-blue linens and cottons shawl/scarf I had just knit and presented to her at lunch – relieved that it was actually wearable) was a much anticipated first chance visit to the revolutionary and influential garden and ‘edible education’ program she founded in 1996 at at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, which I have long admired – and what struck me most this afternoon wasn’t the obvious beauty and sophistication of the gardens themselves (left in a lovely balance of wild and cultivated, so that they seem to naturally evolve out of the existing landscape instead of dominating it) – but the warm and inviting home-like nature of the edible classroom kitchens, where the children immediately feel at ease learning how to relate to their environment, landscape, food, and each other in a more cultured and thoughtful way, and where Alice’s unique human touch is seen and felt everywhere down to the smallest detail – as soon as you pass through the threshold of this of this otherwise simple boxy prefab institutional building it’s clear that this is a space where people care, a central point of the upcoming Domestic Integrities series – which will surely find inspiration in today’s visit.  (check out the new Edible Schoolyard website and database)