Tech Prep Students Experience “Cultivate the City”

Story by Aniya Burno. Photo from FTPA Instagram (@ftp_titans). 

DEC. 9, 2019: On October 2, 2019, our agriculture teacher Mr. Coy, took some of the Academy of Urban Ecology students on an amazing field trip to “Cultivate the City”. During this field trip, we participated in a rooftop garden tour and learned about many different things that we didn't know before, such as the worth of different peppers, trees that provide medications and herbs, and how hydroponic plants are grown. I even discovered that there was a sensitive plant! 

Cultivate the City worker, Niraj taught us about a newly discovered plant called the Pineberry. A pineberry is a strawberry that's light pink with dark red seeds. It's said that it tastes like pineapple and strawberry put together. According to Niraj, it took him a while to finally plant the pineberry but he found the little seed in his garden and with just that one seed, he's planted many. According to researchers, a group of Dutch farmers discovered the fruit in France but there was also a rumor that the pineberry was discovered in the wilds of Chile.

On the field trip, they also taught us about multiple different plants like the Mimosa Pudica, also known as the Touch-Me-Not Plant, Sensitive Plant or Tickle Me Plant. This plant gets its name because whenever someone or something touches it, blows hair on it or shakes it, the plant always closes its leaves and “goes to sleep”. 

We also learned about a plant that tasted like sugar! It's called Stevia, a good plant that sometimes can help people with diabetes and has low calories. But, it's also said that eating raw Stevia can cause harm to the kidneys, respiratory system, and cardiovascular system.

Lastly, Niraj let us take our own plant home to care for. We had the choice to take home Kale or a Vicks plant. I chose to take home the Vicks plant, an herb with many benefits. For instance, it’s a mosquito repellant. I know we all hate mosquitoes and wish that they would just go away! 

All things considered, I believe that this was a great and educational trip. I would recommend it if you are a person who is interested in agriculture because you would learn a lot about plants and peppers as I mentioned above. So in my opinion, pick a day you have nothing to do and spend your time learning different things on a beautiful rooftop.

Aniya Burno is a junior at Friendship Tech Prep Academy.