A Sweet Taste of Fall at Crestwood Elementary's Outdoor Garden

The early afternoon shone brightly on the garden at Crestwood Elementary, where third-graders from Eve Rosenthal’s class gathered in the school’s outdoor classroom. It was a hot, unseasonably warm fall day in Madison –– more summer than autumn –– and a perfect time to celebrate the season with an apple-themed lesson.

Students sat on wooden benches and chairs beside the garden beds, listening to a reading of “Fall Apples: Crispy and Juicy” by Martha E.H. Rustad, before being given apple slices of different varieties to inspect for themselves. One by one, each student described what they saw, felt and smelled, using words like “shiny,” “rough” and “sweet” and made predictions about how each apple might taste.

From there, the group headed to the school’s apple orchard, which sits prominently at the front of the Crestwood campus and has become a favorite outdoor learning space for students and staff alike.

“The lesson we’re doing today started with apples that I picked earlier from the orchard,” Maddy Belter, who supports outdoor learning at Crestwood through the Rooted Gardener in Residence program, said. “The kids are making predictions about what the apples might taste like, what the texture might be and just using descriptive words. Then we’re seeing if their predictions are correct. It’s a fun way to get them introduced to what we have at Crestwood and to use more descriptive words, like scientists.”

Once at the orchard, students took turns picking their own apples, which they could eat as a snack then or take home to enjoy later. Crestwood’s orchard, planted in 2013, includes three apple varieties: Enterprise, Liberty and Crimson Crisp.

For Margie, a longtime Crestwood volunteer who’s been connected to the school since 1990, the orchard represents years of community effort.

“We had a dedicated orchard crew,” she said. “Different grade levels had different responsibilities. Some of the kids helped with pruning. Some were helping with hanging soap on the trees to deter the deer. Some were bagging apples to do an experiment on pest and insect activity.”

Margie said the orchard has been a highlight for students every year since it was planted.

“The kids love it. They love planting. They love harvesting. They love the woods.”

Belter said that legacy is what makes Crestwood’s outdoor learning spaces special.

“Crestwood has a really long legacy of outdoor education,” she said. “They have many areas of different types of outdoor education — garden and food, pollinators, the woods. There are trails [in the school’s woods], and classes do scavenger hunts and things like that. It’s all kind of due to the volunteers that work here. They really work tirelessly on their own schedules to come out and be with the classes or do garden maintenance. Having that support from Rooted as well is really cool. It’s part of our mission of Farm to School and interconnectivity.”

As the third-graders bit into the apples they had picked, there were smiles all around.

“Yummy,” one said, showing off her half-eaten fruit.

Another looked at her apple closely: “A little bit of discoloration on the skin, but it still tastes really good.” The simple act of picking and tasting brought many of the students’ earlier predictions full circle, and left them with a delicious, crisp memory of a lesson co-led by Mother Nature.