UPDATE ON THE GARDEN

Radish Detail

Amazing that despite everything, we're still not through yet with the gardening. Above is a detail of some maturing radishes, ready to be harvested as soon as possible. They're popping out of the ground, begging to be picked! Amazing that they can get so big. Our carrots are doing brilliantly, drowing large with leafs. Hopefully we'll have carrots popping up soon as well. Finally, our topsy-turvey have granted us a miracle- strawberries!

Those peas are so happy

Even more amazing is how well the strawberries are doing! On tasting it the whole class agreed- the strawberries tasted beautiful, sweet and tangy and nothign ever tasted in the store! Perhaps something about organic grow-your-own food really is some kind og magic. I'm hungry just thinking about it! Along with our lettuce and brocoli, this garden looks beautiful in every way. I can't wait for our next major harvest, maybe we'll get tomatoes? They're flowering right now as I type!  The pas are doing splendis, those trellises really came in handy. I can't imagine how those things would grow without them!

Keep up the work, Village School!


 

Regards,

Lisa

SALAD TIME!

SALAD TIME PEOPLE
That's right, we've harvested again!


Yeah, the Village school has done it again. Last time we made that tasty organic radish chips, and today we've made a healthy salad with our lettuce from the greenhouse. Even though it looks like simple lettuce, it tasted amazing! It must be because we made it ourselves! 


Jeff spent most of the preparing, with slicing up the lettuce into manageable bits and adding in some fresh strawberries for a bit of sweetness to counterbalance the natural bitter aftertaste in green leafy veggies. This can be eaten with light Italian dressing or no dressing at all, it tastes fresh and natural even without the added flavor dressing would provide. If one needs to counterbalance further, one can add some mint or parsley to give it an extra sharpness at the end of every bite. 

Toby- perfect posterchild for the Salad

A tasty closeup!

It's unbelievable that such a simple recipe could taste so amazing, just because we raised it ourselves with no pesticides or chemicals. I can't wait to see what the next harvest shall bring!


Regards, 
Lisa

Radishes Food

 RADISH HARVEST!!
Look! Radishes! They really grew!

So it is finally time to harvest radishes. They're huge! They're the size of what you would buy in the store! Best of all, they're organic! Amazing! Here we've cooked the radishes in two ways, their leaves were tossed into a tasty salad and the radishes themselves baked into flavorful chips! 

Amanda with her Salad

Amanda here to the right with her salad! Just chop up the leaves into manageable bits and add salt, vinegar, and any herbs and spices as you see fit! Feel free to balance the sharp tang of the leaves with more subtle lettuce or spinach. Maybe add a few bread crumbs and some cheese for extra flavor! Great work Amanda, and we are so proud of making great food from our first ever harvest!

Lisa Slicing Radishes

To the right we have Lisa preparing the radishes. They have to be sliced thinly, then added with salt, pepper, and whatever chili sauce you'd like to add that extra kick! Be sure to add some olive oil or butter to the pan to give it some extra flavor and to keep it from sticking. Afterwards, put the radishes at the oven at 150 degrees, and keep it until they are lightly golden and crispy! Careful- they're hot!

Yum!

Anyone can do this- not just students at Village school! Just prepare the soil properly, water well, and add the seeds, you too could have organic radishes in your garden in as little is 28 days! If you grow them well enough, they'll even dwarf the kind you get in groceries- for less than half the price! Amazing that the Village School gardening class managed such a great harvest in so little time!It's exciting to see what we'll make next!

-Lisa

A Good Day, Great Pictures

Time to get to work!

This day was hard work. Everyone was outside, doing something, even Steve the principal, who technically graduated from highschool a long time ago (possibly when there were still dinosaurs). Steve the student and his buddy Max were working on building more raised beds, while Amanda and Sarah were working on more trellises for the pea plants, which are growing speedily and happily. 

A Pea plant embracing the trellis

The pea plant to the right are loving the trellis, using it to grow into the sunlight faster than can be comprehended. It's surprising that they are growing so fast, I expected it to take a month or so for any real progress, when really it's only a day or two. Amazing! 

  

Holy Capoli a Radish!

HEY! LOOK! BROCCOLI!

Not only are we growing pea plants, but some of our veggies are showing signs of fruition. To the right is a close up of one of your broccoli plants, showing off the little buds that are known to be the enemy of children everywhere. Above is a reveal of the radishes as they begin popping out of the ground, eager to be excavated. We will probably be harvesting the radishes within a week or so.

Even more amazing is how hard the people are working in this garden. Watering, cutting, and thinning all for some harvests that have only been hinted at thus far. Is all our work really worth it? I don't know, but I sure am hopeful, and I know so is everyone else who is participating. I hear a rumor that Village School might be getting a public garden soon elsewheres, keep your ears open and your eyes peeled on this little school, we're gonna make a big difference!

-Lisa

So, the garden is doing wonderfully so far. The peas are growing, the carrots are beginning to sprout, and in the greenhouse things are blooming. The kids have been working on building trellises for the peas to cling to as they grow tall. 

A Sprouting Carrot

Strawberries Beginning to Grow

The strawberries, surprisingly enough, have already started to grow fruit. Their little white flowers have curled into themselves and have begun the process to some tasty little niblets. 

Look! Support! Hooray!

Meanwhile, the boys have been building trellises for the pea plants. A trellis is basically a way for plants to grow upwards while clinging to a structure for the sake of structure. Pea plants, being unable to support their own weight due to small stem structure, they curl around whatever they can find, like a vine.

Steve, the Strong Man, and his Raised Bed

Not only that, but Steve and Max have been working on a raised bed, basically another field we can work in. Toby says we're going to be growing tomatoes in them. A raised bed also makes it harder for weeds to grow, because it is higher than the weeds are. Take that, weeds! We'll be pouring in the suitable soil for the tomatoes when it's time to plant them- how exciting!

With so much happening at the garden, keep an eye on Village School's backyard, or else before you know it we'll have a while orchard out here!

Lisa

Planting Plot 4 with Beans, Broccoli, Lettuce and Cucumber!

Max and Steve at the Garden

 The students measure out the land to plant the seedlings! Max's back was sore from all that effort, but the plants sure are happy in their roomier homes. The effort of the few pleases the many small seedlings. 

Right After Planting

 After extensive measuring, digging and planting our final plot is planted! The seedlings are happy and are sucking in sunlight as this is being typed. Within a few months we should have a harvest of veggies in our garden! Patience is a virtue, despite how hard it is to perform.

Closeups! Strike your poses!

 Above we have red leaf lettuce, beans, and broccoli!

That camera is loving it!

 A nice and healthy broccoli plant! Doesn't it look absolutely overjoyed? If that plant had a face it would be ear to ear with a smile, so you could count all the (0) teeth it has!

The completed plot

The 4 plots are planted and fences...Now we wait for the harvest (with some hard work along the way)! We have  weeding, pest removal, watering, and thinning to do, all for the sake of an organic garden. No wonder such things are more expensive! We can't just put weed-b-gone everywhere after all!

-Lisa

Planting the Topsy-Turvey with Tomatoes and Eggplants

Seen here, plant surrounded by people like mothers to a newborn baby.

 We just opened up the Topsy Turvey, vertical planter. As its name states, the goal of a Topsy Turvey's is designed to produce more fruit from being upside down. The first step is to plant the tomato plant at the bottom and fill the  device with soil, so that the plants are forced to live in a state of inertness before they find out that their roots go against gravity. This doesn't kill or weaken the plant at all, and in fact they start growing to the sun almost immediately!

Topsy Turvey hidden from view. Not seen: Toby drilling a hole to hang it from. BZZZZZZZZ...

 Make sure to moisten the soil before adding it, so that the roots have plenty of nutrients to grow as they try to figure out what just happened to their world of roots down, plant up. However, unlike most things with brains, these plants figured out how to thrive upside-down within two or three days. Pretty adaptable! How would you like it if you had suddenly found yourself living upside-down?

Not seen: The plants screaming in terror before figuring out nothing was wrong.  Then we had awkward silence.

 It takes a team to make a strong topsy turvey! This thing weighed at least forty to fifty pounds. Here Amanda is carrying the device while Lisa is preparing another plant for the trauma of an upside-down living space. With water, the thing weighed even more!

There are only six plants added, despite at least nine holes.

The end result...A topsy turvey full of fruit in a month or so! Here we have two Japanese eggplant plants, two strawberry plants, and two cherry tomato plants. They've adapted quite well, despite the struggles to shove them in a world of vertigo. Hopefully they'll be living a world where people walk on the green ceiling without a problem!

-Lisa

Preparing bed 4 for plants!

Its April 27th and the Farmers Market students are tilling the soil and adding peat-moss to improve the moisture holding abilities of our soil. Its hard work but the students enjoy getting their hands dirty in the sun!