November- This month we planted daffodil bulbs in the garden and collected leaves to be used for mulch over the winter. The planting area was tilled and organic bulb fertilizer was added to the bulbs during planting. We are hoping to have plenty of large, bright, yellow flowers to sell for Mother's Day next Spring.

For our last day, the kids first went outside by the garden and played parachute games. They then came in and had mulled apple cider, popcorn, starbursts, cookies and cinnamon bread for snack while they watched 'First Snow in the Woods' by Carl R. Sams and Jean Stoick. The kids also signed a bunch of Thank you cards for the School Lunch Chef team that helped us make muffins. (Thanks to Belinda, Deb, Eileen, T , Shira and Cyndi-great cookies, for your help! Michele- great popcorn and LOVE that Fiesta ware!)

For our last discussion of the year we asked the kids what they would like to see growing in the garden. Roses, tomatoes, grape hyacinths, cactus, fruit trees, a crab apple tree, donuts, carrots, blue pumpkins, white pumpkins, eggplants, turnips, blueberries, Lion tails and sunflowers were the sometimes surprising replies.

When asked what were the favorite things they did in Garden Group:

"Eating Watermelon." -Ariel

"My favorite part was planting things." -Lauren

"I enjoyed making the scarecrows." - Belinda

"Destroying the sunflowers." - Josh

"Taking down the corn." - Chris

"Working in the side garden." -Sean

"Planting corn and everything." - Nick

"Making muffins." - T and Leo

"I liked watching a bare piece of grass turn into a garden."- Shira (me too!)

Thanks everyone for a fun fall. I am looking forward to a bountiful spring and summer for next year's garden!

Pumpkin Muffins and Visit from School Lunch Chefs

Nov. 1st - We were thrilled to have Ann Cooper's chefs, Erik Ditzer and Deb McCormick come and help us make pumpkin muffins at Garden Group. Sunny Young, Grants and Intern Coordinator for the School Food Project was also there to take photos and answer questions. Many parents brought mixing bowls, muffin tins and other tools so that we could break out into 4 'baking groups'. Michele brought different colored eggs from her backyard chickens, and I brought pureed pumpkin prepared from a Cinderella pumpkin and a regular pumpkin from the Heatherwood Garden. (Baking a pumpkin is surprisingly easy. I just cut it in quarters with the skin on, baked at 350 for 1.5 hours, scraped the pulp away from the skin, let this drain in a colander, then pureed it in my blender. Both pumpkins yielded 6 cups of pureed, drained pumpkin.)

Thanks to Erik and Deb, we were able to use the Heatherwood Kitchen's convection oven.

The kids got a tour of the school kitchen and to see how an industrial dish washing machine works. We made more than 100 muffins and were happy to be able to share them with all the kids in SAC.

Deb let us know that organic Delicata squash from the CU gardens will be served in all of BVSD school lunches on Thurs., Dec. 2nd and Dec. 16. Organic Spaghetti squash from Isabella Farms will be served at school's on Tues., Dec. 9th.

Heatherwood Garden Pumpkin Muffins (Makes 24 muffins- adpated from Ellie Krieger's Pumpkin Muffin Recipe)

Ingredients

4 cups of organic all purpose flour (we used half all purpose and half King Arthur white whole wheat flour)

2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

4 large eggs

2 cups canned or cooked and pureed pumpkin

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups milk

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg.

In a large bowl, whisk the sugar, oil and eggs until combined. Whisk in the pumpkin and vanilla. Whisk in the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the milk. Whisk just until combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan with paper liners.

Bake regular muffins for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Eileen's Food Chain Talk

Heatherwood garden
October 28, 2010

Eileen Dolbeare
In an effort to integrate the Heatherwood Garden into the school curriculum, Ms. Jenkins and her second grade class hosted me for a garden lecture. The class just visited NCAR for a science unit about weather. Ms. Jenkins wanted to connect the weather series to a garden presentation. So, we talked about food chains and food webs. I read the class the book Who Eats What by Patricia Lauber. We talked about how weather is directly linked to how crops like wheat and corn grow and how these foods support a complex food chain that includes them and the foods we eat.

To illustrate the links and dependencies on a food chain, I had the kids draw pictures of their favorite foods on paper plates and then we made paper chains to represent the food chain of their favorite meals. A few class favorites were definitely hamburgers and steak. So, we created paper chains that showed how the sun helps wheat grow, which cows eat. We, in turn, use the cows for steak and hamburgers, and we eat the meat. Many of their chains showed: Sun - Wheat - Cow - Me! A few of the children were surprised to learn that the pepperoni on their pizzas was actually from pigs! We ended the craft with some homemade, seasonal pumpkin bread!

Sunflower seed packets

October 25th - Today we decorated little 'key bags' I purchased for pennies apiece from McGuckins to store our Sunflower Seeds for next year. We took several Mammoth Russian Sunflower heads that were drying in Michele's aerated garage for several weeks and had kids remove the seeds into a big bin. After decorating the bags and writing planting information on the back, the kids scooped up a handful of seeds and filled their bags.

To harvest seeds, the flowers or fruit often need to stay on the plant for a longer time than if you were to harvest them for eating. The seeds should be stored in a cool, dry place until they are ready to plant in the spring. Here is a good site with a video that gives a lot of great information about saving seeds. http://cookingupastory.com/harvesting-and-saving-seeds-from-the-garden-part-2

Mesmerized by the giant sunflowers and their spiral seed patterns, I decided to turn it into a Garden-Math class for Emika's 4th grade class.

Briefly, the number of spirals in a sunflower is almost always a Fibonacci

series number (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 56,90.....), ie. the sum of the previous two numbers equals the next number in the series. These spirals are also seen in pinecones, coneflowers and other natural forms.

Curiously, the angle at which seeds start forming in the sunflower head, 137.5 degrees, is related to the Fibonacci series and is called 'the golden angle'. If

this angle diverges by even a few degrees, less efficient packing of seeds is seen (in the figure below from left to right, the angle of seed appearance is 137.3, 137.5 and 137.6).

For the remaining 30 minutes of the class, Mr. Newby was able to stream a fascinating TED lecture I had recommended for the students about a sustainable fish farm in Spain. http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_barber_how_i_fell_in_love_with_a_fish.html

Mr. Newby eloquently tied in the idea of a sustainable fish farm with gardening organically and sustainably, which is one of the ideas we are trying to promote with the Heatherwood Garden.

Watermelons, cold frames and scarecrows.

Oct. 18 - The Garden Group harvested the mini watermelons growing in the garden.

Everyone was amazed with their sweetness!

After that they put up a cold frame for some lettuce and chard plants that were started under lights in September.

The kids had fun assembling a rain barrel as well as two scarecrows.