The Student View

Today students spent some quiet time updating their garden journals. A few students gathered in the computer lab to add comments to our blog. Click on “comments” below on this post or earlier posts to read about their experience in the GLGG program.

Winter in the Garden

All outside is dark and cold

But just beneath the earth

Sleep seeds from which new life springs

Bringing nature’s gifts to birth

—Betty Jones

It’s winter in the garden. Students have given the remaining winter-friendly vegetables a straw mulch blanket. Brassicas especially enjoy continuing to grow after it begins to frost. Their flavor becomes richer and sweeter. Brassicas include broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, collards, kale and rapini among others. In the LIONS Garden we still have cabbage, collard greens and kale growing as well as a few Swiss chard plants. Aphids have found us and we’re trying to get them under control with the help of a plant-based organic pesticide from Farmer John. The term pesticide doesn’t always refer to harmful chemicals. Man-made plant-based pesticides can be used in organic gardening to control the pests that like to feast on vegetables.

The students used the water cycle model to understand why when the weather turns colder there is no need to water the garden until Spring. When the sun isn’t heating up the water in the soil, evaporation is significantly lessened. The soil retains its moisture.

At our last meeting, the Green LIONS Garden Group worked to balance our aphid assault by encouraging life in other species—birds and squirrels. We made edible ornaments to feed the birds and squirrels in our community to celebrate the winter solstice. We learned about the history of the solstice and how many aspects of early winter solstice celebrations have been adopted into Christmas and Hanukkah, like decorating with evergreens and using symbols of light through candles. The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year and it’s a celebration of the return of the light and thus a return of bountiful harvests. Seemed pretty apropos for our garden group!

After taking care of our feathered and furry friends the students also learned steps we can take to keep ourselves healthy during the winter. While we’re not outside in the sun as much as we are in warmer months, our production of Vitamin D, which is stimulated by sun exposure, is lessened. Consider talking with your pediatrician about adding a Vitamin D supplement. Chewable supplements can be found easily at places like Heritage Natural Market on Laskin here in town. See their link in our Green Links section.

Adding an Omega 3 supplement is also a great idea especially in cooler months. Not only does it support brain health, great for growing kids’ minds, but it also helps to regulate moods which can sometimes fluctuate in cooler months. Historically, we got plenty of Omega 3’s from eating wild fish, wild greens, and wild game. Our food production has changed significantly and Omega 3’s are not as prevalent. As always, talk with your pediatrician before starting any new supplements.

Using humidifiers in our homes can also help ward off colds and allergy symptoms when the temperatures drop outside and the heat kicks in inside. The heat in our homes and schools can dry out mucous membranes in our nasal passages which help to block out viruses and allergens. When these linings are thinner, we’re more prone to respiratory ailments. Adding humidity can help and also keep our skin from getting dry and itchy.

Involving our children in these healthy steps is a great learning experience. An interesting lesson on using herbs for health with children can be found at http://rhythmofthehome.com/2011/11/teaching-kids-about-herbs-healing-herbs-for-winter/. We’ve recently added this site and Soulemama.com to our Green Links. They’re nice sites to explore to get ideas and inspiration for embracing home and togetherness in these colder days. We’ve also added Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne to our book list. While not technically a garden book, it gives wonderful direction on how using simple practices like being in nature and adding more rhythm to our children’s lives can benefit the whole family.

Restless Radishes

Parent representatives were doing some garden maintenance today and we noticed the radishes were ready now and wouldn’t wait until our next meeting to be plucked from the earth. Our Green LIONS Garden Group meets two times a month and sometimes the timing for harvesting doesn’t work out perfectly. We will happily store these for the next week for the students to sample. We left a few smaller ones to grow a little longer and to be pulled up by the students. Large radishes that are ready can get fiery hot in flavor if left too long in the earth, can split and just not taste too great. These radishes wouldn’t wait, but oh how pretty they are!

Goats Can Be Teachers Too

Maureen Anderson from Hearthside Farm and Tasha’s Own Soaps came with members of her family to share her Lamb to Shawl Presentation with the Green LIONS Garden Group on Monday afternoon. Ms. Anderson engaged the students with homesteading lessons and samples of the many items grown or created on her farm. Hearthside Farm raises sheep and goats and uses the wool for knitting and the goat’s milk for making soaps. Their Tasha’s Own soaps can be found at numerous retailers in the area, including Stoney’s right down the street from our school. See our link to her farm under our Green Links section.

Ms. Anderson shared lessons from her family’s sustainable lifestyle. She brought one of her goats to teach the students about all the gifts nature can offer us through its cycles. Her goats happily eat up all their kitchen scraps producing manure to fertilize their farm and then provide milk to make their creamy soaps. The fertilized soil grows wonderful organic vegetables for their family to eat and sell and the whole cycle starts over again.

She taught the students about the connection between where our food and clothing materials come from and how they’re grown and the impact it may have on our planet. She helped the students understand the importance of supporting local farmers and taking responsibility for trying to lessen the gap from farm to table. She also stressed the importance of eating seasonally as much as we can. Local food systems thrive when we commit to eating seasonally instead of buying food grown miles, even oceans away.

The students also had the opportunity to work with, not only a fresh piece of Tasha’s Own soap, but wool that Ms. Anderson’s family sheared, cleaned and dyed from their own sheep, turning them into....

.....a special gift to take home and share. Thank you to Hearthside Farm for a wonderful afternoon!

Tat Soi and Blogging

We harvested and sampled our tat soi and some of our swiss chard today. Students took home bags of tat soi to share with their families. If you’re new to tat soi, it’s similar to spinach so it can be eaten raw or cooked. If cooking, the stems can get a little chewy so some prefer to cut them out prior to cooking as shown above. Either chop the stems finely to add to your saute or stir fry, or compost them.

Students also posted on the blog for the first time today answering one of the following questions:
What have you learned so far about organic gardening and why is it important for the health of our planet?
What have your learned about the importance of recycling or water conservation?
What have your learned about eating healthy and why it is important to your body?

Stay tuned for delicious recipes for using tat soi.

Green Harvest

Our lettuce and arugula were ready to be harvested. The students sampled a lettuce bowl of mixed lettuces and arugula they grew themselves along with organic radishes and carrots, and New Earth Farm Farmer John's red peppers. We offered a Balsamic Vinaigrette and the recipe follows. There were smiling faces all around. The Garden Group members each took a bag of mixed greens home to share with their families.Balsamic Vinaigrette: Shake together in a tightly closed jar 3 T balsamic vinegar, 1 T Dijon mustard, 2 T extra virgin olive oil, 3 T canola oil, 1 T finely chopped fresh basil, salt and freshly ground pepper to taste, pinch of minced fresh garlic. Enjoy!

Nature-Inspired Holiday Turkeys

Our students repurposed pine cones dropped from neighborhood trees into natural holiday decorations in lieu of store-bought. Bringing natural elements into our homes can be calming and reconnect us to nature.