Spring is here!!

Ok, so the weather is cold and wet, but what do you expect in Oregon in March? I was in Lincoln City this weekend and it was sunny and almost warm-ish Saturday. When we left Sunday morning it was snowing harder than it does in the Cascades. Huge, fat flakes of white snow. At the beach!! This--this is Spring in Oregon like all true Oregonians know. You just never know what you will get, especially in March. But you know what else happens in March? Bulbs start to bust through the cold earth, Daphne blooms their intoxicating flowers, snow drops burst forth and daffodils start to show their lovely faces. And the sun shines once in awhile.


And...Spring Break!! Teachers and students return to school eager to work and learn after a lovely week of relaxing, unstructured time. What better time to plant something in the garden!! Ask your kids what they are doing in the school garden. You will be thrilled and amazed. Then ask your child's teacher how you can get involved. Or ask me! I have lot of ideas!!  Here are some pictures to ignite your interest.

Daffodils--sure sign of Spring

This is a little pea from Mrs. Henneke's raised bed last year that slept all winter and sprouted this spring

What is this?
A perennial that comes back every year?
Yes!!
Artichoke! Wait until you see how big it gets...

March is National Nutrition Month

What a great time to eat a rainbow! Not only is there enough sunshine-rain-snow-sunshine-rain in the Oregon early Spring weather forecast, it's National Nutrition Month. We are encouraged to "eat a rainbow." What's that, you say? A rainbow? Well, look for foods--fruits and vegetables in particular--in every color of the rainbow. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. 


How many colors can you get into one meal?
Let's have a contest. The best rainbow menu will win a most delicious prize. 


Rules:
1. Must include all necessary food groups--grains, veggie, fruit, protein.
2. Must include as many colors as possible.
3. Must be a kid-friendly meal. (this is the most challenging, I think!)


Now here's a little hint. There aren't many followers to this blog, so your chances are pretty darn good of winning the above-mentioned most delicious prize. Of course, I might have to tell all my friends about this just to make it less of a cake walk. (great idiom for Mr. J's class)


Not sure how to post your fabulous menu to the blog? Just turn it in to the office and we will collect them and announce a winner before Spring Break. One entry per person. Good luck and good eating!!

March Pick of the Month

Cabbage

The Pick of the Month for March is cabbage. And how timely, since it is the month of St. Patrick's Day and we all know that Corned Beef and Cabbage is a fabulous way to celebrate that holiday, along with anything and everything green. Have you noticed all the green that pops up in March? Not only in the supermarket, but in the yard, on people's clothes...it's Spring! Well nearly.

So I have the great cabbage mystery for you. This incident took place this summer, when all water to the school was turned off and an industrious, dedicated group of garden tenders kept our lovely plants alive with lots and lots of buckets. The construction workers were gracious and helpful. But on to the story of the...

Disappearing Cabbage

This is a little cabbage plant that someone put in our garden this last Spring. Cute, isn't it? Well they get plenty big, let me tell you. And you know what loves cabbage? Fat little green cabbage worms. You will see how much they love them in the next picture. Pay attention to all the little holes in the leaves. The hungry caterpillar!

So, the cabbage plant got huge. And it had a really round, perfect looking head of cabbage on it. Until...someone cut it off!

Oh no! Who did this? It happened the week I was on water duty. One day it was there, the next it was gone. Now, I did tell the construction workers to help themselves to peas and lettuce, but the one, lone, lovely head of purple cabbage? 

Little did I know that cabbage are incredibly resilient plants. Just because the one, beautiful head of cabbage was gone did not mean the plant was done. Oh no. It sprouted several little baby cabbages as you can see in this picture. Cute, huh? Kind of like a cabbage bouquet! I bet those leaves would have been tender and delicious. But it was too cute to cut so I just took a picture.

The mystery remains unsolved. Somewhere, someone, enjoyed a lot of coleslaw, or braised cabbage, or cabbage rolls, or...

So, this month, enjoy some cabbage. Try some sauerkraut. Or whip up an Asian slaw with sesame oil, peanuts and cilantro. Toss it in your salad for some added crunch. Or do like the Irish do and make colcannon--mashed potatoes and cabbage. Delicious with lots of butter and salt. That's how my mom makes it and she's Irish and she knows. Of course, she puts lots of butter and salt in a lot of things. Experiment! Look for local cabbage at a farm stand, or at Roth's.

And come have lunch at the next 

Farm to School lunch.

Friday, March 16th

February Farm to School Lunch today!

Farm to School Lunch

Salem-Keizer Food & Nutrition Services and Sodexo and McKinley PTC have partnered to pilot a monthly Farm to School lunch this year at McKinley. There will be a special menu highlighting some of Oregon’s farmers and producers, and the Pick of the Month—pears for February.

 

Menu & Pricing

Teriyaki Chicken w/Leeks

Chez Gourmet Veggie Burger

Purple Cabbage and Apples
Wheatberry Tabouli Salad
Whole Bosc Pears

*The offering bar will include a variety of fruits & vegetables from local growers

Prices:        Adults        $3.00            

                         Students       $1.75 (regular price; free and reduced prices apply)

Time: 11:20-12:30

 

Planting trees on Valentine's Day

 So...what's going on over there in the garden? During recess on Tuesday we had a group of students gather around to watch the planting of McKinley's orchard. 18 students were selected by a raffle to help plant the pear and apple trees that were donated to us by Colin, a Willamette MBA student and generous school garden supporter.

Students helped place the trees and fill in the holes. There was a lot of muddy shoveling! I don't think I heard a single person complain about getting dirty.A finished tree! Look at how straight it is! As an espalier tree, that's important because the branches will grow horizontally. There are 3-6 different varieties of pears and apples on each tree. That's a lot of fruity diversity!

 With all the trees planted we still had some grapes to go in. These garden assistants planted the first grapes under the arbor that runs along the windows outside rooms 5 and 6. The first graders are going to see first hand how well this part of the garden grows.


Thanks to everyone that came out to help, and Mrs. Morton that made sure everything ran smoothly.

Those of you that didn't get to plant today, don't worry!!
There is a lot more planting that needs to be done once it's not so muddy and it's a little warmer...like in a couple of weeks. Is that wishful thinking?

Come out and see how things are coming along in the McKinley school garden.

Maybe you have noticed the hoop houses? Wonder what's inside? Good question!
We have some little baby greens growing in there. Maybe it's kale, maybe it's mustard greens...
They have had a warm, semi-dry home to weather the snow, wind, rain and flooding we've had lately. Eventually they will make their way into the cafeteria and a tasty lunch for McKinley students.

Does this sunny weather make you think about gardening as much as me?
Well phase two of the McKinley school garden is up. There's a fence installed. There's a grape arbor. There are posts to support some espalier trees. And guess what showed up last night?

Add caption

This is one of the 6 espalier trees that were donated by Colin, an MBA student at Willamette. There are 6 different varieties of apples on this tree! Eventually--these things take time and care and time and patience and time I hear--we will have a "fence" of apples and pears in our orchard. How cool is that?


Thank you thank you thank you to Colin and Justin!

Stay tuned for some fun-filled days of digging and planting in the garden in the next few months. Dates will be posted in the McKinley Messages.

Tasting Tables!

McKinley's first Tasting Table 

One of the cool things happening around the district this year is Tasting Tables. This is one of the many great Farm to School activities that is starting thanks in part to SKEF's Learning Gardens program. Brenda and Christopher (garden coordinator & Food Corps volunteer) are the two people we have seen the most of, but there are many others helping this program move forward, including Marion-Polk Food Share, Sodexo, Americorp volunteers, and on. Kids are getting the opportunity to try foods they may have never seen, let alone tasted. Thursday, they had delicata squash, carrots, pears and apples. 

Thanks to Lifesource for providing the delicious produce. Christopher and friends showed kids what a carrot can really look like, greens and all! I heard the squash just "melts in your mouth." I also heard, "tell 'em to bring Ranch next time." Sometimes the learning process can be slow...

Here, try this yummy carrot!

Did you notice the sun today? Makes me think that we can start planting peas soon!
The little plants in the hoop houses are still there, safe from the torrential rain and morning frosts.
Look for more information soon about planting and activities for this Spring. It will be here before you know it. Really!

CANCELLED***JANUARY FARM TO SCHOOL LUNCH THIS FRIDAY***CANCELLED

DUE TO THE RISING WATER LEVELS ALL OVER TOWN, AND THE CANCELLATION OF CLASSES, WE WILL RESCHEDULE THE FARM TO SCHOOL LUNCH.
CHECK BACK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION




DON'T MAKE LUNCH PLANS FOR FRIDAY.

NO WAIT! 

MAKE PLANS WITH YOUR CHILD TO COME EAT A TASTY, SEASONAL, LOCALLY-SOURCED LUNCH AT MCKINLEY!

PICK OF THE MONTH IS 

POTATOES

MENU AND PRICING COMING SOON...
Can't remember when the fantastic Farm to School lunches are? Check your cool garden calendar! Not only will you know when lunch is, you can learn all kinds of interesting things about the Pick of the Month.


(hint: it's always the 3rd Friday)

Want to learn more about the Farm to School program at McKinley? Come to the next PTC meeting Wed. night (Jan. 18), at 6:30. We will be giving an update about the farm to school lunches, and phase two that's taking shape outside the 1st grade classrooms.

First Farm to School Lunch this Friday!!

Phase Two takes shape

After all the rain this week, I was not very hopeful we would have a dry Saturday to do all the work we had ambitiously planned. The garden needed some cleaning up. The bed along the fence had some more shrubs that needed to go. The big, empty, composted bed outside of room 5 and 6 was a blank canvas. Of course it was leaving little dirt marks on the library wall since every time a butterfinger ball fell in the compost, it got thrown up on the wall. Kind of like polka dots.

We were lucky with the weather, lucky with our dedicated crew of volunteers and a big group of Willamette fraternity boys. There were teams raking leaves, digging out shrubs, digging post holes, cutting boards, and more. We have the start on a grape arbor that will run just under the windows of the classrooms. There will be a short fence around the outside to keep out those errant recess balls. There will be a path through two rows of espaldier trees. We have a huge expanse of sunny dirt to plant in.

Thanks to everyone that came out today to help work. There were kids here today, but you would hardly know since they were being entertained in the gym while the adults did the messy work outside. Thank you Erica for spending the whole day with the kids. Thanks to Sigma Chi for donating their time and energy. Thanks to Erica, another Willamette student who even helped move poo around. Thanks to Cheryl for the coffee that got us going this morning. And thanks to everyone that keeps showing up and giving up their weekend time to make this project happen. We have a truly amazing school community.
Check out a few pictures from today.
More to come later in the week as we finish the support structure.
We will be planting grapes and trees in early December.
Stay tuned for more specifics.

Fence posts and arbor are up

This will be the entrance to the orchard. The winding path will have fruit trees on both sides. Cool, huh?

Have you been wondering what's happening in the garden this winter? We're putting it to sleep! There will be some hoop house for winter greens to grow and the straw is keeping the soil nice and warm for Spring. The black compost bins? Cooking up some compost for Spring!

Look at the size of that drill! Makes digging those holes a whole lot easier. Thanks to Home Depot for donating.