Succotash!

On September 14 Ms. Palo's students made succotash. The main ingredients for this vegetable dish are corn, beans and squash. These are also the Three Sisters, the plants that the many Native Americans throughout North American planted and that most of these students planted when they were in 3rd grade. (The corn stalks are still visible in the edible garden).

We reviewed the names of the tribes that the students had studied that planted the Three Sisters. The Iroquois is one. There were many varieties of corn, beans and squash used. The squash kept the ground cool, the beans provide nitrogen to the soil and the corn provides the stalk that the beans grow on.

Children worked at their seats preparing the corn, zucchini, beans and other ingredients cutting them into small pieces. The ingredients were then cooked in an electric skillet.

Thanks to Gelson's market for donating the ingredients!

Succotash

1/4 c. olive oil
3 T. unsalted butter
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1 yellow pepper
1 red pepper
4 ears of corn
3 zucchini
1 c. green beans
1 package lima beans thawed
salt and pepper to taste
1 T. thyme (not used in class)

The olive oil and butter were first heated in the skilled, next the garlic. Everything else was added together.  Cook approximately 10 minutes. Can be served al dente or more fully cooked.

2nd graders learn about borage, meet a caterpillar, and work in the garden

Today's garden lesson on borage dovetailed nicely with a story the kids have read in class about bees.  Here are comments from our guest bloggers from Ms. Yoshida's class and Fein's class:


We learned  about borage. We saw some carrots. We learned about snapdragons. We saw rosemary and lavender. We looked for grubs.  We made a salsa garden.  Clay soil is better for planting. We found 30 grubs.


Today we learned about the plant borage .  Borage attracts bees. It has these white small stick things that are very spiky and  they hurt us. Borages flowers are purple.    We also learned about 2 different types of soil one type was clay soil the other type of soil was sand soil.   We also learned that clay soil is better for planting.  We also learned that sand and clay together is silt. We found 40 grubs and a hairy caterpillar.

To see information about borage, which has edible flowers, go to: http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/borage. The kids passed around some borage from my garden. Some perceptive kids mentioned that the flowers looked like those of lavender, which we do have in the garden.

We continued discussion on soil. I mentioned that clay soil is better than sand for our plants but that silt, which is a combination, is best. (We add amendment and compost to our beds to improve drainage.)

Some children in Ms. Yoshida's class planted peppers in our Salsa bed. They join tomatoes and cilantro. The kids will get to eat salsa at the beginning of next school year.

The children loved the black caterpillar which I had found at home. They do love bugs!

Children in Ms. Conner's class and Mr. Jacobs' class added beans to their Three Sisters Gardens. They also picked a huge radish. The kids learned that when arugula and radishes go to seed, or are finished, they produce flowers. The white arugula flower is edible as is the blue/purple radish flower. (A reminder, only eat flowers that you know haven't been sprayed with pesticide).

Soil study and planting

Today we discussed soil and continued with other garden tasks. The children observed two different soil samples and voted on the "best" soil for planting. They then answered the question, "what is in soil?" Their responses included: air, water, rocks, leaves, small sticks, earthworms, pill bugs, compost, humus. Our volunteer Gretchen introduced perennial and annual plants to Ms. Conner's class through her discussion of pansies. Gretchen also brought a terra cota saucer that we are using for a bird bath.

Their other garden tasks included:
- transplanting seedlings from small containers to larger ones;
- adding cilantro and peppers to the tomato bed--now the salsa garden;
- starting the Three Sisters Garden by planting corn (Jacobs and Conner's class)
- planting basil, bean, lettuce and carrot seeds;
- adding to the compost bin;
- watering, and
- digging for grubs.

Thanks as always to the garden volunteers! In addition to some parents and Gigi (Gretchen), we had two students who were on spring break that helped today.