Magic Beans

Scarlet runner beans growing up sunflower stalks

Inside these brown, decaying looking bean pods is something quite magical.  And it is really fun to show our SOP kids the colorful surprise inside!




While exploring and tasting the garden, some of our students noticed the dried, brown pods hanging from their sunflower poles.  The kids were certain that what we were seeing was "dead peas".  Hmmm, I wondered, perhaps we should harvest and take a look inside...

I wish I could have recorded the 'oohs' and 'aaahs' that were exclaimed as we opened the bean pods.

Beautiful, brightly colored beans emerged from very "dead-looking" pods and truly enchanted the children. The bright pink, purple and navy blue colors were unexpected to find inside such a dull wrapper.

And with this kind of excitement generated by the harvesting of bean pods, we must truly proclaim them "Magic Beans".

Scarlet runner beans!

Welcome back SOP!

It's hard to believe that the first month of school, and of our School Overnight Program is complete!  It's been a busy month at IslandWood and we are thrilled to have so many children in our garden.  Here is a quick look at some of the fun we've been having.

Team Lightning from Bryant Elementary

Team Lightning helped us put together some potting soil and were both surprised and delighted that we asked them to "get dirty".  One member of the team said, "This is sooo weird.  I'm being asked to get messy and dirty by an ADULT!!"  Our motto here is that it is always fun to play in the dirt.

Mikaylah from Team Rain with her "baby zucchini"

Many of our zucchinis outgrew themselves during the month of August, and they are now on display for the kids to see.  We have lined them up along the garden wall and they make quite an impression when the kids enter the garden. Team Rain thought they looked like zucchini "babies" and promptly adopted one to carry around while at IslandWood.

Members of Team Wave from Armin Jahr 

Tea is always a nice afternoon treat and Team Wave made a beautiful pink tea using beets!  They steeped rosemary, mint, apples and beets and enjoyed their warm garden drink in the greenhouse.

We are just getting started with the school year but look forward to a year full of garden projects and lots of good tasting, playing and learning together!

A bounty of Irish Eyes Seeds!

The IslandWood garden was recently given a huge gift in the form of seeds!  Irish Eyes, a seed company from Ellensburg, WA, donated a box of about 800 packets of seeds.  In the box was everything from lettuces to lemon cucumbers, and kohlrabi to kale.  We are delighted to grow some of the beautiful heirloom varieties they offer.

Julia, Kate and Maxwell, our IslandWood garden summer volunteers

Thank you Irish Eyes for your generous donation!  And to anyone who would like to take a look at their beautiful offerings, here is a link to their webpage: Irish Eyes.  They have a lot of good planting information too.


And thank you to our awesome summer volunteers, for sorting and organizing the seeds!!

Beautiful Summer Produce

Summer in the garden has been glorious this year. We've had seemingly endless dry, warm days and the plants have responded with a bounty of produce. It's been a few years since we've had a summer this nice, and we are all enjoying this gift of fair weather.

lemon cucumbers

Every year it seems that one or two crops perform particularly well. This year that distinction goes to our cucumbers. Both the lemon cucumbers and the regular cucumbers have outdone themselves!  We keep harvesting them and they keep ripening more.

cucumbers climbing a trellis

The squash, tomatoes and tomatillos are doing beautifully as well.  We have several "Super Zucchini's"--those zucchini's that hid themselves amongst their foliage and grew into giants.  Too big to be good eating now, we are letting them grow just to see how big they get. When our overnight students come in September, they will be amazed at the giant zucchinis!

Tongue of Fire beans

Our Tongue of Fire shelling beans are looking extra colorful as well.  These beans are easy to spot with their bright pinkish red markings, and they've been climbing the sunflower stocks all summer long.  When the pods start to dry, the children will have a great time opening them up to discover brightly striped beans!

A mixed planting of shiso, lemon cucumbers, lettuce and cosmos

Cosmos add beauty and also help to draw beneficial insects

Fresh tomatoes always taste amazing!

Meanwhile, we have been busy planting out fall and winter crops.  While this summer's harvest has been delicious, we know that winter is right around the corner.

Cookin' up a Summer Garden Snack!

Soil to Snack Summer Campers 2013

We started our summer garden camps with Nature chefs--sweet first and second grade campers who loved to nibble in the garden.  Then we hosted fifth and sixth grade campers for a garden/cooking immersion week known as Dirt to Dinner. These campers learned many cooking skills while eating full garden meals.

Our third and last garden camp was with curious and hard-working third and fourth graders.  It was aptly called Soil to Snack. These third and fourth grade campers spent much of their week in the garden.  They loved to water both the veggies and each other!  And they sampled new foods while creating healthy, delicious snacks.  They especially loved lemon cucumbers, "Space Broccoli" (really called 'Romanesco') and fresh figs!

Some beautiful and cool looking 'Space Broccoli'!

Chef Jim teaching the campers how to make gnocchi

There are potatoes in this soil!!

Mixing things up

Check out these giant zucchinis!!

We hope to see you again next summer for some more delicious garden snacks!

Cooking up a Summer Camp from Dirt to Dinner

Our Dirt to Dinner Campers--2013

How does dinner come from dirt? After a week of cooking delicious meals in the IslandWood garden, our summer campers can definitely answer that question.

Making fresh tomato sauce in the outdoor kitchen

Our 5th and 6th graders donned both chef hats and garden gloves this week as they explored the idea of "dirt to dinner".  Working with the IslandWood chefs, they chopped, stirred, mashed and whisked garden ingredients into gourmet meals.  They also helped to take care of the IslandWood garden.  They watered and weeded our garden--the source of much of their food for the week--and they also planted new seeds so we can continue to produce food through the fall and into the winter.

Chocolate-mint canolli--yum!

Since we harvested many ingredients from the garden, it was easy to see that good meals can come from dirt!

Campers relaxing in the shade of the Sunflower allee!

Our menu for the week was based on the theme of meals from "Around the World":

Monday:  Italy --Pizza with fresh garden sauce, Caprese salad and Cannoli for dessert
Tuesday:  Japan-- Sushi, Yakisoba noodles with veggies, Cucumber salad and Green Tea ice cream
Wednesday: Greek-- Roasted Chicken Gyros with fresh tzatziki sauce, Greek Salad, Tabbouleh salad and roasted plums with yoghurt and mint for dessert
Thursday: Bainbridge Farm -- Egg and Veggie Frittata, Garden Salad with homemade ranch dressing and Fresh Fruit Crisp for dessert
Friday: Mexico -- Shredded Chicken Burritos with Rice and Beans, Homemade Salsa and Tres de Leche for dessert

Beautiful homemade sushi

Learning how to whisk ingredients together

Having fun with Chef Morgan

Cheers to a delicious week of homemade, garden-grown dinners from around the world!!

Cooking up some Summer Camps with our Nature Chefs!

This past week, the IslandWood garden hosted some very enthusiastic (and hungry!) nature chefs. They harvested food from the garden and the woods, they cooked with the chefs and they ate delicious garden meals.

One of our goals for the week was to teach our young chefs that food comes from the garden.  And our kiddos learned that lesson very quickly. On the second day of camp, one young chef came running into the garden saying, "I'm sooo hungry!  Can you please take me to the kale?" That is music to any gardener's ears.

Our campers thoroughly enjoyed playing in the garden. Parachute men were made out of not-quite-ready tomatillos and snap dragon blossoms became dragon puppets, ready to eat someone's nose!

And of course they ate and ate. By the end of the week it looked as though a herd of deer had nibbled and munched their way through the garden. 

Chef John and Chef Morgan created an outdoor kitchen in the garden.  Here our young chefs created delicious garden meals, and learned some cooking skills.

Our Menu for the Week

Monday: Pizza with fresh, homemade pizza sauce, and Garden Salad

Edible garden flowers were added to the salad--Beautiful!

Tuesday: Kale biscuits baked in the cob oven, butter (shaken by the campers) and freshly made woodland berry jam

Shaking the cream into butter...a task that takes many hands.

Using the food mill to make the jam.

Wednesday: Garden Spring rolls

Looking for veggies for the spring rolls and checking on the Sun Tea

An enormous red beet!

Thursday: Potato Gnocchi with potatoes harvested from the garden and freshly made sauce.  Berry popsicles for dessert!

The sauce was so yummy, our campers needed to eat every last drop!

Collecting fruit for the popsicles...

Finding wild strawberries!

A container filled with wild strawberries, huckleberries, salal berries and trailing blackberries.

Friday: Fruit Crisps baked in the cob oven

Yum!!

Our Banana plant, spending the summer out of the greenhouse, sported our Nature Chef's hats on the last day!

Thank you Nature Chefs for a very fun week. Keep on cooking!

Nature Chefs, Summer 2013