Crocus and Daffodil

The spring flowers are beginning to show their beauty!  Its nice to experience a 60 degree day while taking notice of all the pre-spring activity in mother nature!  Even the goldfinch are starting to put their best yellows on!

Low 20's and wind, brrr

Just as you get excited for farming you wake up to 21 degrees and a wind.  It is always interesting to see the soil in the garden heave though!  Those little monoliths of ice coming up through and with the soil reminds you of seedling that will soon be emerging in their stead.

Come on spring!

Counting down to Farming

Hot diggity dawg!  Growing season is upon us.  I started prepping the grow room in ernest yesterday and am looking forward to starting seeds with the students in the next few weeks.  I am also starting to formulate a plan for cleaning the garden, getting soil tested, and thinking of all the great organic soil amendments that we will be incorporating to grow great soil.

Third grade's composting is rolling right along.  We are still trying to get our ratios correct for a hot pile, but rest assured those good beneficial microbes and insects are hard at work, albeit slowly.

We will also be expanding and improving the pollinator garden on the hill this year.  Remember all of the bulbs we planted in the fall, like hundreds of them?  Soon enough they will be in their full glory and beauty...

Today we traveled to Africa during E3 Friday

We left China today and flew to Africa.  It was exciting to explore the entire continent while experiencing the vast cultures, ethnicities, customs and climates.  We sample food from all regions of Africa.

We had couscous with chickpeas and mixed vegetables.  We had ulgani (an African polenta) and a delicious greens stew.  We also enjoyed a flat bread and finished this culinary trip with a delicious apples or cherries baked in phylo with whipped cream.  Yum!  Everything was vegetarian as crocodile, antelope, and warthog were difficult to procure.

We took a final group picture with the students proudly holding up their passports from their four week worldly excursion.

Winter Composting

3rd grade is hard at work building their compost pile.  They collect fruit and vegetable scraps from lunches and are mixing them with shredded paper.  After a brief warm spell, the kids were excited to see a little steam coming off their pile today in these frigid temperatures.

The pile isn't the big yet, but it is exciting to see they are getting some composting action already.