Gallery: Edible Schoolyard Benefit at P.S. 216

In addition to teaching classes to students, the garden has open community hours, when all are welcome.

At just under a half acre, there's room for way more crops than you'd think. Plus seven species of bees, and counting!

One of the most impressive crops at the Edible Schoolyard is their sweet and tangy Asian pears, which tasted to us as good as any from the Union Square Greenmarket.

The Asian Garden cocktail (pictured) consisted of Asian pears from the garden, agave, apple and lime juices, and gin, as well as a sliver of jalapeño which added more than a little spicy kick to this tangy concoction. Also available during cocktail hour was a refreshing Raspberry Mint Tom Collins, which was made up of muddled fresh raspberries and mint from the garden with a bit of sugar, rounded out with club soda, gin, and lemon juice.

No arguments here.

Little bites were served during cocktail hour. Pictured, left to right: ricotta crostini with radish from the garden; baccala and olive, with parsley from the garden; chicken liver mousse topped with thyme from the garden; eggplant spread topped with cherry tomatoes and basil from the garden; wedges of Asian pear from the garden.

This pasta course was our favorite of the evening. With canestrino tomatoes, eggplant, and just enough ricotta salata to balance out the sweetness of the vegetables, it was simultaneously light and rich, with the tomatoes taking the starring role.

The main course was a mixed grill of fennel pork sausage, dry aged beef, and pork ribs that were dry rubbed with rosemary and spices and slow roasted until meltingly tender. Any one of these meats would have made a fantastic meal, but together, they were a total knockout. Rounding out the plate were braised romano beans and patate alla contadina, or "farmer's potatoes," cooked until tender with plenty of tomatoes and rosemary.

They're not content with just garden-variety tomatoes: the green zebras are just one of many varieties of tomato growing in P.S. 216's garden.

Paul Grieco and Marco Canora, who cooked and chose wine pairings, respectively.

The Edible Schoolyard also boasts multiple varieties of eggplant.

An essential part of any organic garden. Students at the Edible Schoolyard are learning the ins and outs of composting.

We had a simple orange scented polenta cake. It wasn't too sweet or too rich, a fact that was balanced out by market plums and mascarpone with mint.