We had quite a day at the Edible Schoolyard today. Our summer program is still running at full speed and they started off the day by playing Capture the Flag in the garden. This got the kids very excited as they ran, jumped, rolled, crawled and plotted to get the other teams flag. While the garden was teeming with running kids, Marsha, Joyce, and I were leading our monthly public tour through the garden and kitchen. We had thirty people visiting to see the program, and it is always inspiring for us to see how far and wide this type of work is spreading. We had guests visiting from two blocks away and from Oregon, Washington, Alabama, Virginia, and Australia.
After the tour was over, we had a chance to get down to business. All of the students participated in an incredible range of tasks. In the garden, a group put the finishing touches on our new Gigande trellis by fastening a metal trellis at the base for the beans to grab onto. Another group planted a new three sisters bed, substituting sunflowers for corn. Under the acacia tree there were groups working to braid our garlic. This annual tradition always takes place during the summer program. The garlic will be hung on the wall and kitchen classes will use it throughout the entire next school year! We also had a station set up to illustrate and write summer postcards to a student who was with us last week but is now at Camp Treetops in New York!
Lastly, we had an opportunity to do something new in the kitchen today. One of our garden teachers, Ben, grew up in Big Sur and his family has been keeping bees since 1965. Ben brought two bee boxes in and taught us all how to extract honey from the combs, spin it out, and strain it into jars. We had to heat the kitchen up so it was steamy and warm, and as the hot knife was opening up the cells of honey, the kitchen was filled with the purest, most simple and pleasing smell. The range of colors from tray to tray was astonishing and while we chewed the combs to taste the honey, students discovered the subtlety of tastes to different types of flowers. All of us went home with a jar of fresh, sweet honey and a big smile on each of our faces!
Students fashioning the metal base to our gigantic trellis
Planting the Three Sisters
Braiding our summer garlic harvest
The hot knife is opening up the cells of honey before they are placed in the spinner
A Day to Beat All Days!
We had quite a day at the Edible Schoolyard today. Our summer program is still running at full speed and they started off the day by playing Capture the Flag in the garden. This got the kids very excited as they ran, jumped, rolled, crawled and plotted to get the other teams flag. While the garden was teeming with running kids, Marsha, Joyce, and I were leading our monthly public tour through the garden and kitchen. We had thirty people visiting to see the program, and it is always inspiring for us to see how far and wide this type of work is spreading. We had guests visiting from two blocks away and from Oregon, Washington, Alabama, Virginia, and Australia.
After the tour was over, we had a chance to get down to business. All of the students participated in an incredible range of tasks. In the garden, a group put the finishing touches on our new Gigande trellis by fastening a metal trellis at the base for the beans to grab onto. Another group planted a new three sisters bed, substituting sunflowers for corn. Under the acacia tree there were groups working to braid our garlic. This annual tradition always takes place during the summer program. The garlic will be hung on the wall and kitchen classes will use it throughout the entire next school year! We also had a station set up to illustrate and write summer postcards to a student who was with us last week but is now at Camp Treetops in New York!
Lastly, we had an opportunity to do something new in the kitchen today. One of our garden teachers, Ben, grew up in Big Sur and his family has been keeping bees since 1965. Ben brought two bee boxes in and taught us all how to extract honey from the combs, spin it out, and strain it into jars. We had to heat the kitchen up so it was steamy and warm, and as the hot knife was opening up the cells of honey, the kitchen was filled with the purest, most simple and pleasing smell. The range of colors from tray to tray was astonishing and while we chewed the combs to taste the honey, students discovered the subtlety of tastes to different types of flowers. All of us went home with a jar of fresh, sweet honey and a big smile on each of our faces!
Students fashioning the metal base to our gigantic trellis
Planting the Three Sisters
Braiding our summer garlic harvest
The hot knife is opening up the cells of honey before they are placed in the spinner
Putting the trays into the spinner
Beautiful, fresh honey