Watermelon excitement

Today I was at Durkee working in the garden with one of our volunteers and we were able to harvest our first watermelon. Since there was only one we cut it in half so we could each take some home. As I was walking through the school to leave I was mobbed by a bunch of 4th grade students (this was just after lunch). A few had been in my class last year and so were saying hi, but then they saw the watermelon and holy cow were they excited. They had tons of questions. "Why is it yellow?" " Can I smell it" "Can I have some of the seeds to grow my own?" "Did you really grow this at school?" "I'm going to be in gardening after-school, can I come everyday?" "Are there more watermelons?" "Can we go see the watermelon in the garden?" This went on for about 15 minutes. It was such a neat experience to see so many students excited about the garden and I think I may have very big classes this year. Which is a good thing!

Green Tomatoes and Sweet Potatoes

Yesterday my class discovered that some of our tomatoes are ready to eat. Of course they got a little carried away and harvested some that were still a bit green. So we had a taste test. The overwhelming result was that green tomatoes taste"yucky and gross" and the ripe red tomatoes taste "yummy." Perhaps we won't "accidently" harvest anymore green tomatoes.

We also planted our sweet potato slips yesterday. It took the entire class period but we did take a break halfway through to play "Gardener Says" exactly the same as Simon says but a good way to help kids learn to listen carefully and good practice for "Gardener (student name)" to practice speaking clearly in front of a group. My gardeners had fun with the game but were thrilled when the day was over because they all agreed that preparing the sweet potato bed is hard work, especially because our bed edges keep falling over.

On Thursday we will be tasting sweet potatoes since many of my students will not be around next fall when we harvest. I hope to have some pictures of our tasting. I will post them if all goes well.


Happy Planting
Becky

Pineapple at Durkee

Just had to share the current excitement at our school. We planted a pineapple top in the garden 3 1/2 years ago. This spring it started grow a pineapple--finally!

Here are some pictures:

This one was taken 3/5/08

This one was taken 3/27/09

This one was taken 4/22/08--notice the pup growing below and to the left of the pineapple.

Garden Salad

Yesterday, the students at Port Houston made a salad from the vegetables that they had grown. Each of them gathered pieces for the salad, so that they all got first-hand experience. Everyone had their own paper bag to gather material in. One student commented that "it's like we are grocery shopping in the garden. Right outside!" They loved eating the fresh greens.

They learned:
- How to tell when lettuce, carrots, and broccoli are getting ripe
- That insects live in the plants that they are harvesting, but that we can all coexist.
- How to clean fresh produce.
- How to prepare a fresh salad
- That a little bit of some herbs goes a long way, and to use them sparingly.

Sesame Greens

2 lbs greens (collards, mustard, chard, kale--whatever you've got)
1/4 c olive oil
4 cloves garlic minced
Braggs or Nama Soyu to taste
1 lime squeezed or more if you like
1 teaspoon ginger minced
sesame seeds to taste
sea salt to taste

Wash greens and remove tough stems. Tear leaves into bite sized pieces. Whisk remaining ingredients together. Toss greens in marinade. Let sit 1 hour to "marry" the flavors.
Add-ons: sunflower seeds, peas, cranberries, pecans

cabbage recipes the kids loved!

happy new year all . . . yesterday we harvested our first cabbage at Garden Oaks (i'll post photos when i get them). the kids were extremely excited! the cabbage weighed about 2-1/2 lbs. and was 22 inches in circumference. 

after the harvest, we prepared the following two recipes that the kids really enjoyed! FYI . . . the recipe with the fruit should be prepared at the beginning of class (if possible) and then eaten after about an hour to give the cabbage a bit more time to marinate.

happy gardening!

irene :)

Patterson Elementary: New Garden 2008

This is my first blog post... I haven't had the opportunity to say how proud I am to be a part of such a great group of people. Each and everyone of you have so much to offer and I want to thank you for sharing.

Last semester, I had the honor of building a new garden at Patterson Elementary. The kids and I had so much fun building the foundation of a humble garden that will be teaching us so much for years to come. Above are some picture of the day we began the garden.

I'm so excited and can't wait to get back and begin planting with the kids. This year I'm hoping to learn something from all of you. I will also be check this blog more often and add entrees.

I wish everyone a great year full of enlightenment and health. Hope to see all of you soon.

Peace