Solstice for the Birds

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth 
find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. 
There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of the birds, 
the ebb and flow of the tides, the folded bud ready for the spring. 
There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of 
nature—the assurance that dawn comes after night and spring after winter.”
—Rachel Carlson

The Green LIONS Garden Group celebrated the winter solstice in December by learning what this celebration of the “return of the light” means for growing plants and dreams of a spring harvest. After this shortest day of the year the light each day grows longer and longer reminding us of another growing season to come. It is also a time to honor this season of rest in nature and in our own lives.

During this quiet season when plants and some animals are at rest, those animals still emerging during the day in our communities may have trouble finding food. So a fun way to celebrate the winter solstice is by making edible ornaments that the birds and squirrels can enjoy. Green LIONS Garden Group members strung together organic dehydrated apples and oranges, organic prunes, and organic fresh cranberries to make garlands. They also re-purposed toilet paper tubes by rolling them in nut butter and then birdseed. Instant woodland animal buffet!

We discussed how important it is that if we are feeding these birds and animals fruits and nuts, that they be sourced from organic growers if possible. Just as the consumed chemical pesticide concentration can be much higher in children than in adults, these tiny animals are even more sensitive to the adverse effects of chemical pesticides.

Students also created a homemade holiday gift of garden lavender-infused bath salts for someone special in their lives. We used dried lavender harvested from the school’s LIONS Garden, epsom salts, baking soda and lavender essential oil to make our bath salts. They smelled heavenly!

The Green LIONS Garden Group hopes everyone had a happy and healthy holiday season!

Walking by a Winter Watershed

While a visit to our school’s nature trail isn’t exactly “walking in a winter wonderland” yet, our students donned their jackets at our last meeting to take a nice, long and enjoyable walk on our newly-renovated school nature trail with a representative from Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge at our last meeting. Since part of the goal of our program is to allow kids some much-needed time out in nature, this was a welcome outdoor purpose since our garden doesn’t need a lot of maintenance in these colder months.

Erica Locher from Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge came to speak to the students about how we can help protect our watersheds and why that is important, especially in our community. It just so happens that the little stream that runs through our nature trail feeds into the Lynnhaven Bay watershed, so the quality of that water is very important.

Students took a few samples of the water and then we headed back inside for the continuation of our lesson. But before we headed back in, Ms. Locher showed us some interesting features of our trail. She pointed out and identified different sounds we heard, and different interesting plants. She taught us how to spot poison ivy even in the winter when the leaves have fallen off the vine. The vine has a “hairy” appearance, and even touching the vine can affect those of us who are allergic to the plant. Great lesson!

Once back inside we divided up into groups to test the purity and pH levels of our water. We learned terms like “turbidity” which describes how much debris in in the water, or how cloudy it looks. We learned from our experiment that our school’s little stream is good quality!

What, however, could affect its quality? Students made “Pollution Soup”, using common household items to represent strong pollutants that could possibly find their way into a waterway and go on to pollute a watershed; think syrup for car oil, chocolate-covered raisins for dog waste, pennies for harmful metals, soy sauce for industrial chemicals, paint for, well, paint, just to name a few. We learned how washing our cars at a car wash may be better for the environment since chemicals from our car can run off into the storm drains and pollute the waterways. Keeping our communities free of litter and waste can also help. And of course, our marshes need protecting as they serve as a vitally-important buffer to protect our waters. Just look how “turbid” that water looks now!

And as with so many of our lessons for the students, we remember that small changes can make huge impacts.

Festive Fruitive

We were so excited to welcome Bruce Rozeboom from Fruitive at our last Green LIONS Garden Group meeting! Bruce and his brother own Fruitive together where they serve fresh smoothies, cold-pressed juices, made-to-order vegetable-loaded salads and soups with their own homemade broth. Fruitive also is a huge supporter of local farms. He especially supports our very own garden program farmer/mentor John Wilson of New Earth Farm in serving up his delicious greens and vegetables.

Bruce taught the students about eating healthy foods that fill you with energy and vitality, not foods that slow you down and make you feel sluggish. He illustrated the example of the damaging effects of sugar by getting the students on their feet jumping and dancing as if they had just eaten a lot of white sugar. He then divided up the group into those who represented the “sugar-loaded” and those who represented kids who eat a healthy diet. He challenged them to a tug-of-war, and yes, you guessed it, the tired sugar-eaters lost.

Bruce whipped up delicious smoothies made from organic frozen strawberries and peaches, organic bananas, organic almond milk, organic maple syrup and kale and chard from our very own LIONS Garden. The students gulped them down asking for seconds. They never knew greens could taste
so good!

Bruce connected all the dots with his discussion of healthy eating, supporting our local farmers and producers, and protecting the environment in our choices and actions. He’s an engaging and entertaining speaker and we appreciate his visit greatly. You can find him and his brother at Fruitive at Hilltop. Stop by on the way home for school for a delicious treat!

Lessons in Lending a Hand

The students of the Green LIONS Garden Group harvested most of the remaining Fall produce from the LIONS Garden last week to donate to Potter’s House, a local food bank helping families in need. A representative from Potter’s House came to collect bags of bok choy, tatsoi, chard and cabbage and spoke with the students about how their donation can help. Part of the teachings of this program is how our connection to the earth deepens the connection to our community, in the decisions we make in how we live and how we purchase food and other items. Sharing our harvest is a powerful way to connect with our community during the holiday season.

We also prepared the garden for Winter by planting a partial cover crop of winter rye, and by planting seed garlic to harvest next year. We mulched and watered the seeds in and then rushed inside from the cold to enjoy a freshly harvested salad. The salad was made from LIONS Garden lettuce, arugula and radishes, Mattawoman Creek Farm peppers and tomatoes, and Chesapeake-grown carrots. We topped the salad off with a choice of homemade Buttermilk Ranch dressing, made with regionally-produced milk, homemade yogurt and LIONS Garden parsley, or homemade Honey Mustard dressing made with Virginia honey and onions from Mattawoman. It was truly a local salad! And as you can see the students devoured it and asked for seconds.

Our program’s worm bin was introduced at this meeting and students learned about their red and wiggly club mates. We explored the subject of decomposition and its importance in gardening and students learned how to take care of a worm bin. The bin will make its way around the school to six classrooms for the next few months so more students can have an opportunity to work with the bin and see nature’s recycling in action. We will work with the bin again in the Spring to harvest castings to fertilize the garden.

Mish-Mash Meeting

Sometimes weather demands a change in plans. With high winds and cold temperatures at our last meeting of the Green LIONS Garden Group we gathered inside to join in a variety of tasks. With our Fall garden begging to be harvested we prepared for a veggie sale at the school’s movie night. Students divided up into groups to work together on various preparations and other group needs.

One group gathered harvested herbs like parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano and marjoram into herb bundles.

Another group prepared harvested kale for kale chips by stripping it from the stems into small pieces ready for baking. On the day of the movie night we baked the kale chips to sell for $1 a bag. We sold out! See the recipe at the end of this post.

Any good sale needs advertising so another group created posters for the event.

With so much ready to harvest, we had to sample some. So another group created a homemade teriyaki sauce to pour over sautéd bok choy and tatsoi that students sampled over rice. A rare moment of silence in this group as cups were emptied into hungry bellies.

We also passed out eagerly awaited t-shirts that we can wear on meeting days and at events.

The movie night veggie sale was a success, bringing in needed money for our plans for two new garden beds for the Spring garden. Thanks to all who came out and supported our program.

Kale Chips

2-3 bunches of kale stripped from the stalk and torn into palm-sized pieces or smaller
olive oil
salt and pepper

Wash and thoroughly dry the kale, either by spinning it in a salad spinner or laying it out on towels. Toss in a large bowl with drizzled olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread out onto parchment-lined baking sheets in a single layer. Kale pieces can be touching but not overlapping. If they overlap they will steam instead of crisp up. It may take several batches to bake entire recipe. Bake at 350 degrees for 7-10 minutes depending on oven. Chips are ready when they crisp up and before turning too brown. Enjoy!

High Trashion

Do you hear the rustle of bubble wrap on the red carpet? Do you see the pop of color from the paint splattered duct tape and geometric details of a newspaper hat? No you’re not imagining things, it’s a Trashion Show!

Students from the Green LIONS Garden Group held a Trashion show at our last gathering of clothing and costumes created from trash and recyclables. After dividing up into teams and receiving a grab bag of trash, a frenzy ensued of measuring, trying on, draping, drawing, collaborating, smiling and laughing. The teams were separated during the creation process and it was so amazing to see how four completely different concepts evolved out of otherwise-thought-of disposable items.

“How does this help the garden?”, one student appropriately asked. Well, technically it may not. But in this program we are trying to help students see the complete picture of viewing our life on this planet. We want them to think before throwing an item out. While we are not trying to encourage a group of pack rats, we are challenging them to gain a new perspective on “re-purposing”. Can I reuse that gift bag, or mail something again in this box? Can this container be used as an interesting planter for salad greens instead of being tossed to the curb? Can a cereal box be made into a homemade journal with some paper and string? Can empty paper towel and toilet paper rolls be saved for craft projects? Can holiday cards be made into garland or gift tags for next year? Reducing our waste does help protect our water supply and reduce chemicals in our soil. So, well, this project does help!

So enough suspense. Here are our Trashion designers and models!