End of the Year Banquet and a visit from Raw Inspiration

On May 22 one half of the second graders had an end of the year banquet in the garden. Mr. Jacobs' class also met Melissa and Brittany from Raw Inspiration, the operator of the Palisades Farmers' Market. The children also planted seeds!

Elisa Hunsiker, a former Marquez parent and a chef, organized the feast with assistance from the garden team.  The menu was based upon food we had grown or are growing in the garden. The appetizer was sugar snap peas, the main course consisted of a kale/banana/mango smoothie and a broccoli-tomato-basil salad, and dessert was a strawberry. Elisa had the children taste the individual components of the smoothie before they tasted the smoothie.  Most children loved the smoothie! As usual, most children wanted more broccoli for their broccoli salad! We served the salad with a choice of dressings-Ranch and a vinaigrette that Elisa had made. Recipes are in the next blogpost. Copies will be sent home with each child.

Melissa and Brittany from Raw Inspiration visited the garden and donated $2,000 to Friends of Marquez as part of their Gardens into Schools program.  Their mission is to bring organic gardens to schools in the communities served by their farmers markets and to help the children learn about growing and harvesting the fruits and vegetables. The Marquez garden team will use the funds to expand our program by planting more and teaching more of the students at the school. We look forward to our partnership with Raw Inspiration.

We had  two planting activities. The children planted seeds in paper pots that they made with the help of Jack Sanders, a Master Gardener volunteer.  Prior to planting we discussed why it was a good idea to use newspaper for the pots.  Children also planted sunflower seeds in the butterfly garden, which is a Legacy Garden, their gift to the incoming second graders in the fall.

Photos from the day can be seen on the Marquez Charter School Facebook page as well as below.

The children assembled their own salads.

A paper pot!

Children making paper pots.

The butterfly garden with the rock from Raw Inspiration. The rock states that this is a Jennifer McColm Certified School Garden!

Chef Elisa pours seconds of the kale-mango-banana smoothie!

Recipes:

Making Earth-friendly Paper Pots and More

Today the kids made paper pots and planted bean seeds in them. They are earth-friendly because you are reusing newspaper instead of recycling it and instead of using peat or other kinds of pots. This "recipe" is from "the book of Gardening Projects for Kids" written by Whitney Cohen and John Fisher of Life Lab. (This is an easy to use guide of fun projects that parents and kids can do together).
Instructions:
1) Cut newspaper into strips 3" x10";
2) Wrap newspaper around a frozen juice can, spice container, etc, leaving about 1 1/2 " on one edge for the bottom of the pot.
3) Fold in the part hanging over the bottom. (Use tape if you wish, but it's not necessary).
4) Fill the pot with either seed-starting mix or potting soil.
5) Plant seeds according to packet directions. Label the pots.
6) When seedlings are ready to transplant, you can peel away the paper or plant the entire pot in the ground-just bury all of the paper.

Note: the kids planted bean seeds so they can just keep the pot outside but don't forget to keep the soil wet. The plants should be watered as soon as they get home.  It'll take about 10 days before the plant will emerge.

Other things we did today: we observed the garden and saw what had changed. The kids liked the "new" seats that two second grade moms, Rachel and Christine, had sanded and polyurethaned. The kids also liked the newly painted vines on the shade structure! They also observed the wood chips, mulch, that had been added to the paths. They learned that mulch keeps plant roots cool, helps people water less often and prevents weeds from growing.

The kids also planted pumpkin and sunflower seeds as well as tomato and pepper plants that were donated by Life Lab.
One of the boys brought a caterpillar that his mom had found and let it go in the butterfly garden.

Finally, they learned what a banquet was--a feast--which is what we'll have next week!

Thanks to community volunteers Jack Sanders and Gretchen Arnold. Thanks to parent volunteers Hiroko and Jaylene.
We were happy to have a visit from Yvonne Savio, Common Ground Program Manager for UCCE.

Blogs from some of the kids follow in the next post.