Mr. Jacobs' Class Plants in the Peter Rabbit Garden

On Monday, Mr. Jacobs' class visited the garden for the second time. We reviewed the lesson on plant parts that we eat.  We highlighted lettuce and kale (leaves), broccoli (flower), corn (seeds) and carrots (roots).  The students planted lettuce seeds in the Peter Rabbit Garden. Thanks to Laurie Vander Veen for laminating the picture of Peter Rabbit. The students had either carrots or chives for their snack.

Ms. Keller's Class Makes a Kale Salad and Gardens

Ms. Keller's Class Makes a Kale Salad

Ms. Keller's class made a kale salad this week and learned about the white cabbage moth whose caterpillars eat kale leaves. In addition, some students planted Brown Dutch Lettuce from Monticello in the Peter Rabbit bed and others took home red buckwheat seeds. Brown Dutch was the most frequently planted lettuce crop by Thomas Jefferson.

Kale Salad

• 1 bunch kale , stemmed and finely chopped or torn
• 2 cups grated carrots
• 1/2 avocado , peeled and pitted
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
• 2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds , toasted*
• 1/2 teaspoon reduced sodium soy sauce*
• feta cheese (our addition)

This recipe is adapted from a Whole Foods recipe. Mix everything together and let it sit if you want the kale to be softer. We did not use sesame seeds or soy sauce but added the feta cheese. The students made individual servings.

 

Ms. Palo's Class Learns about Cabbage Moths

Ms. Palo's Class Studies White Cabbage Moths

This week Ms. Palo's class learned about the white cabbage moths that lay eggs on kale, broccoli and cabbage. The resulting green caterpillars have infested Ms. Palo's class bed and eaten holes in every leaf. The students picked caterpillars and chrysalises with and without caterpillars inside. They looked at them with magnifying glasses. Several students found eggs on the white sage, however there were no holes on the sage. 

We discussed ways to get rid of the caterpillars including organic spray, picking them and using row covers. Row covers will keep out the moths but should be used when there are no caterpillars or eggs.

Ms. Connor's Class Visits the Garden for the First Time

On October 19, Ms. Connor's class visited the garden for the first time this year. We reviewed the parts of a plant, named the vegetables that we had on display and identified what parts of a plant we ate of each. Roots: potatoes, beets, carrots, onions; stems: celery and broccoli; leaves: lettuce, kale, chard, arugula; flowers: broccoli; seeds: corn, edamame; fruit: tomatoes, cucumber, peppers.

The children then wrote in their journals. The topic was "Parts of a Plant". They illustrated a plant and labeled the parts. They also wrote "My favorite vegetable is...".

They enjoyed a fresh vegetable salad for snack. Thanks to Gelson's for donating the organic vegetables.

Ms. Yoshida's Class Visits the Garden

On October 19 Ms. Yoshida's class visited the garden for the first time. We discussed the parts of  a plant after which the students discussed what parts we eat of vegetables that I'd brought. These included roots (potatoes, beets, carrots, radishes and onions); stems (celery and broccoli); leaves (lettuce, kale and swiss chard); flowers (broccoli); fruit (tomato, pepper, cucumber) and seeds (corn). During journal writing time the students drew the parts of a plant and labeled the parts. They also wrote about their favorite vegetable.

They voted for their favorite plant. The results may be graphed later...corn (7); carrots (3); broccoli (2); tomato (2), pepper, edamame, beets and lettuce (1 each).

They enjoyed a fresh vegetable salad for snack.  Thanks to Laurie Vander Veen, Caron Lewis and Sara Drake for volunteering today.

Thanks for a Great Garden Workday!

Over 25 people joined in to help in the garden on October 17. Special thanks goes to Zach Eastland who picked the edible garden for his Eagle Scout project. He designed and installed a large raised bed cover with removable panels that will keep the squirrels out of the vegetables. In addition, he coordinated volunteers who painted the garden shed a lovely shade of blue.

Other garden improvement done by other volunteers included moving heavy bags of soil, installing weed barrier fabric and new soil in two beds, painting signs, planting seeds, weeding and pruning.

Thanks to the Wahling family, the Burch-Roby family, the Eastland family and others for helping!

If you're interested in helping but couldn't help on Saturday, please email Ms. Marie at info@palisadescares.org. There's always something to be done. Next on the agenda is emptying bags of xerimulch and weeding in the next phase of the Native American Garden (to the right of the staff driveway).

Ms. Bihari's Class Makes Salsa

Today Ms. Bihari's class made salsa. The students remembered that they'd planted a salsa garden in the spring. One of the chilies in the salsa was from that garden. The rest of the ingredients were donated by Gelson's. The students liked the salsa so much that they wanted seconds but there were none-we'd given them generous servings after they'd done their cutting of tomatoes, chilies, onions; measuring of olive oil and lime juice and pressing of garlic.

Thanks to Laura for assisting!

Recipe

8 tomatoes
1 bunch cilantro-torn into small pieces
3 T. olive oil
3 T. lime juice
1-2 jalapeno chilies-cut
2-3 green onions-cut
2 cloves of garlic-pressed and cut

Basically, cut everything into small pieces and mix together. Wear gloves when cutting peppers. Add salt and pepper to taste if desired (we didn't). The salsa was very colorful due to the colorful heirloom tomatoes. (We discussed the meaning of heirloom and heirloom seeds).

After eating, the children and Ms. Bihari voted for their favorite vegetable. They'll plant seeds of the most popular. Cucumber was the most popular so they can plant that in the spring. Since some students like lettuce and carrots, they'll plant those and also some peas and radishes.