Young gardeners enjoy 'Worm Day' at Beth Tikvah
No one noticed the soggy morning or cool June temps, distracted by the excitement of welcoming the newest residents to the flourishing garden - worms.
More than 1,500 long, fat, somewhat squishy worms were rescued from being fish food to become a part of the garden at Beth Tikvah Congregation in Hoffman Estates.
"They help aerate the soil, their poop fertilizes the soil and they don't make any noise," quipped Sue Schwartz, a Beth Tikvah Congregation member and a University of Illinois Master Gardener, as she watched groups of children eagerly take a small container of worms and distribute them throughout the garden.
The youngest congregation members, a handful of preschoolers, joined elementary-age children to help place the worms throughout the Gan Tikvah, which means "garden of hope" in Hebrew.
For more than 10 years, the temple members have tended to the garden adjacent to the synagogue. All the food harvested from the garden is distributed to those in need.
For most of the 10 years, the food has gone to kitchens at WINGS shelters, which supports women and children who have been victims of domestic abuse. This year the garden's produce will also go to the Schaumburg Food Pantry, Schwartz said.
The temple members begin their garden work in April, cleaning out the garden beds, and by May they are planting seeds for radishes, collard greens, bok choy, lettuce and kale.
By early June, the pea pod vines are climbing up the trellis and the radishes, as large as onions. A few of the younger members helped pluck a radish or two, but on this day, the worms were the biggest highlight.
"I like putting the worms on leaves so they can decide where to go, and I'm putting them on the soil too," said Kash Jacoby, a recent graduate of the temple's Early Childhood Center.
As a middle-schooler, Maya Campagna was eager to help the younger students, while also enjoying her own time distributing the worms around the garden.
"It's so fun to see the worms," she said.
"Worm Day" began with a short prayer led by Rabbi Taron Tachman to welcome the "humble hidden helpers" to the garden and a prayer for the first harvest in the garden on June 11.
The garden has grown through the years, increasing in size to allow for more plants. Members sign up to help tend to the garden, from watering during the week to weeding and harvesting. Beth Tikvah Congregation member Becky Fiedler said through the years they have worked with the kitchen staff at WINGS to better understand what produce is needed for the staff's recipes.
Produce is selected based on what will grow well and what will reap the greatest produce. Fiedler said broccoli won't yield a large enough harvest to feed a lot of people.
Fielder explained that garden leaders also consider what veggies children will enjoy, hence the snap peas, which is also a great economic choice, too.
"Sugar snap peas are horribly expensive in the store, and we can grow hundreds," Fielder said.
The radishes are harvested early enough in the growing season that the garden bed will be turned over to allow another species of plants to grow before the final harvests at the end of September.
While "Worm Day" brings together more than the average number of young children, the temple members don't mind the extra noise and helpers on this Sunday morning.
Though the volunteers are smaller in number, each week brings out longtime helpers, a few families and a few teen helpers to lend a hand, get dirty and, in the end, fulfill the Jewish mission of Tikkun Olam, which in Hebrew translates to "repairing the world."