Yay Salsa!

Today Ms. Farrell's 3rd graders made salsa. Many of the students had planted the ingredients last year as 2nd graders. Two of the children harvested tomatoes from plants in the edible garden though the majority of the tomatoes, as well as the other ingredients, came from Gelson's. (Gelson's has donated a gift card to be used for purchasing food for our cooking projects).

Each child cut a tomato into small pieces and then helped get the cilantro, onions, garlic, olive oil or lime juice ready for the salsa. We used heirloom tomatoes to make the salsa colorful.

The recipe below has jalapeno pepper but we didn't use it today.

Thanks to Alyssa Gallagher, Jenny Lee, Carla Davidson and Joyce Wong Kup for helping!

The Parts of a Plant that We Eat

Today Ms. Gardner's 2nd graders reviewed the parts of a plant, naming them on an illustration on the white board.

They then matched vegetables to the categories: roots, stem, leaves, fruit, flower and seed.
Roots: onion, carrot, beets, radish
Stem: celery, asparagus
Leaves: lettuce, kale, chard, spinach, arugula
Fruit: tomato, cucumber, zucchini
Flower: broccoli, cauliflower
Seeds: corn, peas, beans

They wrote in their garden journals and had a snack of carrots-they all like this veggie!

Eating Vegetables

Today Ms. Yoshida's 2nd grade students reviewed the parts of a plant and discussed what parts of a plant some vegetables came from-roots, stem, leaves, flower, fruit or seed. Ms. Marie drew a plant on the white board and labeled it.

We organized the vegetable names under the parts.
Roots: onions, carrots, beets, radish
Stem: celery, asparagus, beets
Leaves: lettuce, arugula, chard, kale, beets
Flower: broccoli, cauliflower
Fruit: tomato, cucumber, zucchini
Seed: corn, beans, peas

The students wrote in their garden journals and then had a snack of baby carrots.

Thanks to Gelson's for donating the vegetables!

What Parts of the Plant Do We Eat?

Recently Ms. Fein's students reviewed the parts of a plant.  They then looked at several vegetables and organized them by what part of the plant they ate: roots, stem, leaves, seeds, fruit and flowers. Afterwards they ate samples of the vegetables, some with ranch dressing.

The vegetables and the parts:

Roots: carrots, beets, radish, onion
Stem: celery, broccoli, stems
Leaves: lettuce, arugula, basil, swiss chard, kale, beets (also spinach)
Fruit: apples, tomato, cucumber, zucchini
Flowers: broccoli
Seeds: beans, corn

Fall Marquez Parent Garden Workshop

What to do in the garden now?

- Harvest early in the day. Plants have more water content and are sweeter

-Water in the morning

- If warm season plants are finished, pull them out, compost them and prepare soil for planting.

- Preparing soil- add layer (about an inch) of coffee grounds (for nitrogen), compost and manure (if desired).  Add a bit of either Dr. Earth fertilizer or other general purpose fertilizer. Dig in with top inch of soil. Do this 2-3 weeks before planting.

- Start cool season seeds in trays-lettuce and radish germinate quickly.

-Replant tomato seedlings. Plant cherry tomatoes or others that have shorter period to fruit- approximately 60 days.

Cool season vegetables to plant: Sow beets, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, chard, chervil, chives, collards, endive, garlic, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce , green onions, short-day bulb onions, parsnips, peas, white potatoes, radishes, spinach, and turnips.

Benefit of planting seeds: greater variety than from nursery. More fun for the kids.

What kind of help do we need in the garden:
- watering in edible garden (Monday is open)
- watering the Native American Garden
- adding soil to beds
- assisting in children's classrooms
- cooking assistance
- grant writing assistance
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3rd Annual Marquez Garden Celebration

The 3rd annual Marquez Garden Celebration on June 6 was a huge success! Over 20 students from grades 2-5 shared what they'd learned during the year and toured guests around the edible garden. 2nd graders talked about the salsa garden, 3rd graders talked about the Three Sisters Garden, 4th graders gave reports on native plants and Ms. Chaides' class gave tours of the Native American Garden and 5th graders acted as tour guides.  Ms. Chaides handed out an iBook with reports on native plants that were done by her students. Students also planted seeds in reusable pots. 2nd and 5th grade students prepared salsa, salad and kale smoothies for the refreshments which were served by the 5th graders. These are some of the favorite foods that we prepare as part of our seed to table program. Music was provided by three members of the Marquez jazz band who played "Watermelon Man".

Ms. Marie thanked honored guests and other donors for supporting the garden program. Honored guests included Erick Hansen, Instructional Director Elementary of the West Region for LAUSD, Diane Goldberg of the Pacific Palisades Garden Club, Carolyn Haselkorn-community volunteer, Susan Pasco Editor of the Palisades News and Ben Meritt, Principal of Marquez School. Donors not present included Kellogg's Garden Products, Gibson International Realty and Gelson's. We also thanked the 3rd grade Girl Scouts and 7th grade Girl Scouts who decorated pots in the garden and 5th grade Girl Scouts who planted geraniums around school.

Parent participation is an essential part of a successful school garden program. A special thanks goes to Laurie Vander Veen who taught gardening to many 3rd graders this year and helped coordinate the program and to Sharon Agabra who taught two of the 2nd grade classes. Many thanks to all of the parents who have watered the beds this school year.

Last, but not least, thanks to the teachers, staff and Friends of Marquez for supporting the garden program. Five years ago, just the four 2nd grade participated in the garden program. This year, 13 classes from grades 2-5 participated in the program.

A Three Sisters Garden

Making kale/banana/mango smoothies

Making Salsa

Salsa (with heirloom tomatoes)

Marquez Native American Garden

Making salad

3rd Graders Plant Three Sisters Gardens

Third graders in Ms. Schwartz's class, Ms. Farrell's class and Ms. Bihari's class have been planting corn, beans and squash in their Three Sister's Gardens. Today Ms. Schwartz's students added corn seedlings and pumpkin and bean seeds to their bed. The bean seedlings were donated by Seed Saver's Exchange earlier in the year. They are heirloom seeds. We soaked them before planting. In addition, the students planted some sunflowers. Hopefully the plants will do well over the summer vacation1