Pickled Beets

I adapted this recipe from one I found my Ball Blue Book of Preserving (p85) "Spicy Pickled Beets"

Ingredients:
4 lbs Beets 1-1 1/2 inches in diameter (or you can cut them down to size in slices or chunks)
3 cups thinly sliced onions (optional)
2 cups sugar (or less if you like)
3 sticks cinnamon, broken
1 tablespoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon whole allspice (1/2 teaspoon ground)
1 teaspoon whole cloves (1/2 teaspoon ground)
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups water

Wash beets, leave 2 inches of stem and the tap root intact. Put beets in a large sauce pot and cover with water or roasting pan. Cook in pan until tender (either boiling or roasting at 350F). Drain (if boiling). Remove peel; trim ends. Combine remaining ingredients in a large saucepot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Add beets and cook until hot throughout. Remove cinnamon sticks (or leave in if you like). Pack hot beets into hot jars (that have been steralized) leaving 1/4 inch headspace (space between top of contents and top of jar). Ladle hot liquid over beets, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Remove air bubbls (slide a knife down along the sides of the jar to let the air out). Adjust lids (if processing use canning jars with 2 piece lids, otherwise you can use any jars you have collected). Either process 30 minutes in a boiling water canner or refridgerate for up to 8 weeks. Will be ready to eat in a few days.

Caution--this juice will stain so if making it with students make sure they are wearing aprons or some other covering.

Dill Pickle recipe

Ingredients:
4 lbs cucumbers (makes about 7 pints)
3 cups white or cider vinegar
3 cups water
1/3 cup pickling salt (must be pickling salt or bad things happen to your pickles)
12 peeled, sliced garlic cloves
21 peppercorns
7 dill heads or 14 tablespoons dill seed

Directions:

1. Wash cucumbers and cut into spears.
2. Combine vinegar, water and pickling salt and heat to boiling. Add garlic
3. Pack cucumbers into steralized jars.
4. Add 3 peppercorns and 2 tablespoons dill seed or 1 dill head to each jar.
5. Fill jars with the hot pickling mixture. Leaving 1/2 inch headroom (space between the top of the liquid and the top of the jar)
6. Adjust lids. If processing, place in boiling waterbath for 20 minutes for quarts. complete seals if necessary If not processing place in refridgerator, will keep for up to 8 weeks.

Fruit Salad Upset Game

Game set-up
1.Choose five fruits (for a class of about 25 you can use more or less depending on the number of students you have).
2. Have the students sit in a circle in chairs preferably but you can use differnt locations if you are doing this game outside with a set number of students per location.
3. Assign each student a fruit --they must remember the fruit they are assigned.

Game play
1. Call out one of the fruits. All students assigned that fruit must get up and find a new spot to sit or move from their location to another that has space. (no one is ever out this game is just about learning terms, observation and movement)
2. After calling individual fruits for a little while call out "Fruit Salad" when the students hear this they all need to get up and find a new spot or location. This WILL result in mass chaos don't be alarmed that should happen. Continue calling individual fruits with the occassional salad thrown in until you can't take it any more or it is time to move on to another activity. Be warned this will make the students a bit wound up but given enough space to run it may tire them out too.

Variations:

• Erosion: Use Soil terms-(Sand, clay, silt, humus, rocks, pebbles, etc). Call "Erosion" to make all students move.
• Stir-fry-Use veggies (carrot, turnip, bok choy, etc). Call "Stir-fry" to make everyone move.
• Storm-Use plant parts (seed, roots, stem, etc or weather terms-rain, flood, snow, sleet, wind, thunder, cirrus cloud, etc). Call "Storm" to make everyone move
• Bug Zapper or Insectory-use insect terms (head, abdomen, thorax, compound eye or insect names-stink bug, ladybug, lacewing, cucumber beetle, etc). Call "Bug Zapper" or "Insectory" to make everyone move.
• Potpourri-use herb or edible flower names (rosemary, lavender, parsley, nasturtium, calendula, etc). Call "potpourri" to make everyone move

I am sure there are more variations that can be done. Let me know if you think of one.

Lemongrass

Hi Everyone,
I've got a huge clump of lemongrass at home that needs dividing. I will start clumps for your school if you want one. Please let me know so I can have them ready for the Feb. meeting (plant in March). Just send me an email rblantond@yahoo.com to let me know if you want some by Jan 31.
Becky

Site Visits

Cooking Demo at Durkee Elementary.
November 6, 2007










Hello All,
I am going to try and visit these schools in before Thanksgiving week.
Durkee
wharton
Janowski
Port Houston
Whittier
Dodson- Nov 14th Community Workday with afterschool students!
Harvard
Browning

Michael is covering the rest- Chavez Cluster (What is the Chavez Cluster? Rucker Elementary, Park Place, Davila, and Patterson) & Remaining South Schools.

Completed Durkee site visit with Becky. Students harvested herbs from the garden and prepared the herb dip. Teo named it 'leaf dip'. Students also enjoyed delicious tangerines from a local garden and sweet potato chips Becky made from a sweet potato students found in the compost!

On Wed with Fred at Wharton, Students planted carrots. They have all beds dug up from sweet potato harvest. Students dug and pulled out remaining weeds.

It is still pretty hot and dry outthere.Try to get in the watering and really soaking your beds on the days that you meet.

Any stories on solutions to help with watering?

Here They Are...

Hello Again! Here are some simple sweet potato and carrot suggestions, both of which also use citrus and sunflower or pumpkin seeds, roasted, seasoned, sweetened, salted, plain, or raw. Delectable Lemon Sweet Potatoes Bake sweet potatoes in a toaster oven or microwave with olive oil or butter rubbed lightly into the skin. If you do not have a toaster oven at your school, you can use a hot plate and skillet. In the latter case, chop and sautee sweet potatoes in oil or butter. Add the following to your sweet spuds: Fresh squeezed citrus juice (lemon or orange, grapefruit is more bitter) Pad of butter or teaspoon olive oil Pinch of Salt Handful of Sunflower or Pumpkin Seeds Serve and Enjoy! Rainbow Carrot Salad Shredded or Julienned Carrots Thin-Sliced Radishes Thin-Sliced Apples (green, red, golden, or a mix) Shreds of red Cabbage (optional) Handful of Seeds Pinch of Salt Fresh-squeezed Citrus Bit of Honey (optional) Depending on the age of the students, time alotted, and equipment available, you can choose either to prep the foods independently or as a class. Here are some links to more complex Sweet Potato recipes: www.grouprecipes.com/2078/sweet-potato-casserole.html www.grouprecipes.com/21814/mashed-sweet-potatoes-with-dried-apples.com Hope you enjoy! Amber

Recipe Resource

Hello All,

I have some wonderful sweet potato and carrot recipes to be posted later on in the week. Another great resource for fresh garden recipes is www.recipe4success.org. Once you arrive on the website, go to The Dish and click recipes under Topics. All of these recipes are adapted for use in 1 hr of time, with multiple beginner level tasks ideal for children. Thanks:) Amber

sweet potato harvest

hi all, how is everyone's sweet potato harvest this year? the Garden Oaks harvest was miniscule (a handful of very small potatoes)! :o

November Nutrition

Hello Instructors,
If anyone has any great raw food, herb, or current harvest recipes that they would like to share, please feel free to post them on the blog.

Welcome

Hello Urban Harvest After School Instructors,
My name is Michael Godoy, and I am the new Youth Project Manager. I look forward to a rewarding and productive year working with the Urban Harvest Staff and all of the after school instructors. I have begun this blog in hopes of handing it over to all of you to continue. The purpose of this blog is to help everyone maintain contact with one another, share ideas, successes and failures, and gain a fresh perspective on our main goal, teaching youth through the use of an outdoor classroom.