Catching up

 I looked back through my photos and I found a bunch that I need to share.

Above is Lucy (and a boy in her class who couldn't keep his wig on) in her class play, The Brementown Musicians. It was a fabulous show, great music and funny lines.

Mae was in Treasure Island a few weeks later, but I forgot my camera. Argghhh.

She was amazing. Lots of lines delivered with an accent and good timing.

 It was an epic year for wisteria. 

 I took lots of pictures, both with and without people.

 It was also an epic year for cauliflower. 

This one weighed about 9lbs and took 3 meals to eat it.

Good thing we all like it.

 Yep, scootering in a wedding party dress.

She would have been wearing heels if she had them.

Mae has been super sporty, she played basketball and softball again this winter and spring.

This is the only picture I took of either sport. I kept thinking I'll bring my camera next time, and before I knew it, it was over. Aarrghh!

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We also had a visit from Grandpa Dave and Grandma Carol, a few volleyball tournaments, an anniversary (15!) and a birthday (44!) and I don't have pictures of any of that. 

All were thoroughly enjoyed, lots of dessert (not at vb).

Sugar cane

 Yep, sugar cane. 

Grown in our own yard.

I think I planted it around the beginning of last summer. I got a small stalk from a friend.

It is now taller than us.

A few weeks ago, we decided it was time to see if it was sweet.

We cut one cane and stripped off the leaves.

It was sweet, very fibery, but sweet.

We won't be able to make actual sugar because that process is pretty intense (see here) and requires chemicals. And an ox.

Squirrel cookies

 One the most satisfying parts of my job is eating what we harvest. And I like to eat.

This year, with help from Lucy's classroom teacher and a school grandma who is Native American, we collected a bunch of acorns and then used the flour to make cookies.

Lucy's class made a bunch of batches and then we made them again at home.

 No kidding.

Acorns were (and continue to be) an important part of local Native American Chumash diets.

Here is more than you probably want to know about acorns.

 So after drying the acorns (or lightly cooking) we had to peel them. I remember trying to sell, yes sell, peeled acorns for $0.10 at the lake. Who knew I was actually supplying the neighbors with food.

After peeling and then gently chopping, the acorns have to leach out all their acids. This involved soaking in water for many days. And then the acorn pieces had to dry out again.

This is where the fun starts, the other stuff was a lot of work. Sadly, I don't have a picture of us grinding actual acorns. The above picture is Henry grinding wheat. Same idea, same amount of fun as you can see from his face. I grow wheat in the school gardens every year. That is why we have a grain mill to begin with. We haven't baked with wheat flour yet.

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Acorn flour is darker and nuttier tasting that regular wheat flour. We made traditional chocolate chip cookies and used half acorn flour. They tasted great. 

Tomatoes!

And a few lemon cucumbers. 

Perfect timing. School is about to start (on Monday, ugh) and the tomatoes are beginning to ripen. 

Even though I am not eager to change our leisurely summer routine back to the hustle of school, I am excited to share this incredible bounty with the students. 

I wonder if algebra teachers feel the same way about equations?

I imagine so, and am grateful.

gourds and garden girl

 It seems that every year (or season) I try something new and fun. This summer it is gourds. Above is a baby birdhouse gourd. This should grow to about 12 inches top to bottom! I think we'll try to make one into a birdhouse. I'll keep you posted on how it works.

 This crazy gourd is called Turks Turban and I just found out that it is great for baking! Yay!

This is my garden girl. She accompanies me and is cheerful almost every time I go to the gardens, which is a lot. Every other day to be exact. Look how tall they are, Lucy and the corn.

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I never reported on Mae's softball trip. They did pretty well, made it to the 2nd round of playoffs which meant 13th place out of 32 teams. She came back with tons of cool pins (google softball pins and you'll see what I'm talking about) and lots of good memories.

August garden

 This summer has been a stellar year for sunflowers. These grow year 'round here and all were volunteers! Lucky me. You can see how big the heads get, that is John's shoe and he wears size 13. Huge. I save them, the sunflower heads, not John's shoes, for the kids at school. We remove the seeds, eat some, do multiplication with some and send a lot home. 

 They are perfect for attracting pollinators to the garden. 

 I couldn't resist taking this straggly one's photo. 

Another shot of how big these get. I think this one was about 9' before I cut it down.

Homemade

This is one of the many cool projects we did in the garden this year at school. Above are hand salves and lip balm. Lucy's class picked plantain leaves and calendula flowers. Both have medicinal properties and both are plentiful weeds in the garden. We steeped them in olive oil for 6 weeks. The olive oil was strained and melted together with beeswax and coconut oil. The result is a very soothing salve for any body part that needs a little more than lotion. It can be used on bites or stings, too.  Each child took home 3 of those little tins as Mother's Day gifts. The lip balm I made at home. Similar ingredients but I added some color from an old lipstick and some honey and vanilla. Yummy!

Summer Veggies!

 I am very excited about what I've got planned for the gardens this summer. Four different kinds of popcorn, six varieties of pumpkins, six types of peppers and oodles of tomatoes. I just started a bunch of beans, too. 

Above are tomatoes, all started from seed (buying plants is too expensive and I get a lot of seeds donated). I think I've got about eight varieties and over 100 plants! Some of these are going in the ground tomorrow. Hopefully, they will be ready about August 27th, the first day of school.

My home garden

 My home garden has a different crop of spring flowers than the school garden, and A LOT fewer vegetables. I've got bachelor buttons and larkspur.  

 The only things I've planted this year are a few sweet peas in January. Sheesh. I could have been picking beans and zucchini by now, but nope, didn't plant any yet. I did just put in 5 tomato plants yesterday. Maybe I'll see some fruit by August.

 Fortunately, the strawberries that went in a few years ago did really well. There is nothing like a warm, sweet, right off the plant juicy berry.

Again, my 'weeds' make me look good. But you can't eat them. The house looks pretty, tho, with vases in nearly every room. 

School Garden in spring

 This has been a fabulous year for my gardens. Both school gardens are thriving. The weather through most of the winter was warm and sunny with brief periods of soaking rain. Perfect. Above are the artichokes. This is the first time I've grown them, so I'm super excited! We've harvested and eaten about 10 so far. 

 These are my 'weeds'. No joke. If I didn't plant anything, this is what I'd get. This year I left a lot of California Poppies in the garden, meaning I didn't pull them out as baby weeds. They make me look good.

Luckily, some of the vegetables managed to persist through the spring flowers. We've picked kale, peas, green onions, lots of lettuce and broccoli, all for eating with the kids.

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I love my job!

garden critters

I've had a great time getting back into the school gardens swing of things. I gardened all summer, of course, but now the students and all their enthusiasm is (are?) back!

I can't begin to convey the excitement when the kids find creatures such as these.

This huge caterpillar is a tomato hornworm.

A recently hatched monarch butterfly.

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The best part is that the kids have to be pretty keen observers to find these. I love to see them so focused and quiet while in the garden.

Another garden

This was made on the third day of summer vacation. Can you believe it? I drag these kids to gardens all the time; after school, on weekends and school vacations, during the summer and what do they want? More gardens! Luckily, we don't have to drive to this one. It is right off the front porch.

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This little plot has a few tomatoes, cabbages, onions and violas. Hopefully, the sun will start to shine (we've had only 4 days of sun this month, that means 13 days of fog) and these plants will take off.

Wisterious!

We're in full wisteria bloom right now and I love it!

As we drive around town (and boy do we do a lot of this) the kids point out all the blossoming vines we see. But wisteria isn't the only great smelling flower blooming now. We've also got a lot of pink jasmine and pittosporum, too.

Winter is over!

At least for a few days it is. More rain and cold predicted for Friday. Today was a bit warmer than our snowy day, but not warm enough to wear shorts and a t-shirt. Mae wore them anyway. That is a giant (picked way past its prime) radish.

As you can imagine, I've been spending a lot of time in the gardens (both schools and at home). I finally remembered to take out my camera and use it today. I always have it with me, but while teaching or leading a class, it is sometimes hard to take pictures. Above is a new plum tree we just put in at the kids school (along with 12 other new fruit trees including pomegranate, persimmon and strawberry guava!).

This rainbow chard was just begging me to take its picture. We picked it and a bunch of its friends to bring up to the school kitchen along with beets, leeks and turnips.

Poppies have just started blooming, although most of these are calendula. They're both bright orange and I like them a lot! The best thing about these is that they reseed themselves. I've never planted either one. Flowers like this really make a garden (and gardener) look good.

my new garden

This is a short 5 minute video about the history of the new school garden I'm managing (not our school, the other one). Look closely, I'm in it, briefly (minute 3). I am so lucky to have such a great job and to work with amazing people.

click here if you don't see a link

School Gardens

I've been busy this month caring for two school gardens. Above is our school, OAS. The sunflowers are unbelievable. Below (the sunflowers, not the picture below, I should have said underneath but I didn't and here we are) are a few varieties of pumpkins. I'll take pictures of them next week.

Zinneas! They are about shoulder tall (on me!). We are lucky that we have such a great school garden.

This is my other school. Brand new garden, just installed last May. There are 7 raised beds and and 4 central perennial beds.

They designed it like a butterfly. Beautiful. Butterflies and hummingbirds often visit.
Behind is a golf course, teeming with squirrels. Bleh. Keeping them out is a big challenge. I hope to have some pictures soon that have a lot more green.

home garden update

I haven't been sharing too much gardening this summer, but I sure have been doing a lot of it. In addition to home, I'm still doing the garden at school. And I've been hired to manage one other school's garden! Yay! The picture above doesn't look too green, but I've been watering enough to get some great vegetables.

Banana pepper. Don't know how it tastes, haven't picked one yet.

Green Zebra tomatoes, my favorite!

Tomato-licious!
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I'll take some pictures at school and post them here soon. That garden is looking great, but boy it is big. Thankfully, Henry has been a big help this summer.

Flowers

I am so excited by these flowers because they are visible from the kitchen window. Every time I'm doing dishes I get to see them. And since I wash a lot of dishes, the view is very much appreciated. The pink flower above is the perennial sweet pea that I planted two years ago. It is still going strong.

This is a hollyhock that I put here about two years ago as well. They are slow, but so worth it.

And the lovely lavender that I shared in my very first blog post over three years ago. It is getting bigger are purplier every year. I've got to get some more of it.