Roasted Fall Veggies

digging for potatoes

Fall is a wonderful time to roast vegetables! And the garden is a perfect place to find delicious vegetables to roast and eat. Kids from Lincoln and Northgate Elementary Schools were able to harvest some pumpkins and squash, leeks, carrots, beets, and potatoes and make a tasty snack.  Here is the recipe!

Fall Roasted Vegetables

-  Peel the potatoes, carrots, and beets and cut them into pieces that are about as wide as a finger and about 1 ½ inches long. 

-  Scoop the seeds out of the squash and small pumpkins, and cut them into pieces about ½ by two inches long.  You can take the peel off or leave it on if the skin is thin. 

-  Cut the root and dark green leaves from the leek and cut it the long way.  Use scissors to cut the leek into 1-inch pieces.

-  Toss all of the vegetables with olive oil and place them single layer on a baking tray.  Bake them at 375 degrees for about 30 to 40 minutes.  You should watch them closely and have an adult help you check if they are done by poking a fork in them.  They’re ready to eat when they’re soft and lightly brown.  Delicious!

What else could you roast in the oven?  What about zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, or yams?  The answer is yes!  Very hard vegetables (like yams) may take longer to cook, so you can chop the pieces smaller, or put them on their own baking sheet so they can stay in the oven a little longer.  This is a wonderful time to experiment in the kitchen and find out which veggies you love the most.  Enjoy!

Celebrating fresh food and fun cooking!

A Greenhouse Stewardship Project--Part 1

A beautiful tomato harvest from the greenhouse

In the IslandWood garden, we have many cycles.  We have our soil-to-snack food cycle, our compost cycle, and even the cycle of our seasons.  But one of our most important cycles, is the Stewardship cycle.

Pulling out the old tomato vines

When an IslandWood SOP Team does a stewardship project, they are actively engaged in the stewardship cycle.  Whether they are planting, weeding, composting or slug hunting, they are helping to care for our garden and ensure that we have a healthy garden-- full of yummy food-- for the next groups of students.

A wheelbarrow full of old tomato vines and proud smiles of a job well done!

Harvesting peppers

We gave Team Lightning, from Madrona Elementary, a big stewardship project.  We've been working to replace our rotting garden boxes inside our greenhouse, and we still had some plants to harvest and soil to move before we could begin work on our new garden boxes.  Team Lightning had tremendous teamwork and their hard work helped us to make huge progress toward our goal.

Plus, they got to harvest some delicious tomatoes, planted by some previous groups of students, while they worked.  They tasted green zebra and stupice tomatoes and sweet peppers--yum!!

Super strong, and happy, students moving out old soil.

Great Teamwork!

Team Lightning had so much fun digging and moving soil that they stayed long past their scheduled time!  Digging in the dirt can be really fun--especially when you are working with friends.  And when they were done, we were much closer to being able to build new garden boxes.  Thank you Team Lightning--great job and a great stewardship project for IslandWood.

Next blog post:  New Garden Boxes!!

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!

What's growing in the garden?

Team Wave wearing stylish and edible pea hats!!

Everything is growing in our IslandWood garden--including the children!  Team Wave from Sheridan Elementary School in Tacoma, Washington, enjoyed sampling garden veggies, wearing garden veggies and planting garden veggies.  A fun, full morning in the garden.

This past Spring our SOP students have been helping us plant seeds in the greenhouse.  Those seeds have grown into beautiful vegetable starts, which have all now been transplanted out into the garden.  The garden is looking so lovely and growing so rapidly, we just had to share a few pictures.

Here is a look at all things green and growing:

Scarlet runner beans climbing up sunflower stalks

Beautiful and interesting purple kohlrabi 

Red and green lettuces which have been tasted by both children and a few slugs...

Fresh garden broccoli tastes amazing!

Beautiful pea blossoms with pea pods coming soon

The kale have outdone themselves with huge tasty leaves!

The students have discovered that a drop of honey lives at the base of each Jerusalem Sage blossom--yum!

Here's to fresh and delicious garden food!

Emerging Sugar Snap Pea

Radishes, broccoli, sugar snaps, lettuce, peppers, and more! It is the time of year for planting seeds for our Spring garden. We have been getting lots of help from our SOP students and their instructors, so here is what's sprouting in the garden greenhouse...

This last week with our students, we planted two types of broccoli, sweet peppers, lettuce varieties, and sugar snap peas. Many of them are already sprouting, less than a week later! Check them out....

East Port Orchard students from Teams Marsh, Rain, and Bog planted us some broccoli, and sugar snap peas. It is so amazing how these seeds sprout in such a short time when given the LAWS (light, air, water, and soil)! We also often put newly planted seeds on our heat mats in the greenhouse, to help them stay cozy to create ideal sprouting conditions.

Baby Pepper Emerging

Allen Creek students from Teams Thunder and Forest planted some lettuce varieties, and sweet peppers called Jimmy Nardello. We are so lucky to have so many happy hands helping us out...

Team Thunder planted some lettuce varieties, and they began sprouting in just three days! After they planted their seeds, they sprinkled a little forest soil on them to represent Team Thunder, and to leave a little bit of their experience here in the garden. Maybe it was magic soil that helped them sprout so quickly! 












In addition to all these new plantings, students from Catharine Blaine and Discovery Community School planted some broccoli and radishes that are growing up a storm. We are looking forward to transplanting the broccoli as soon as the weather gets a bit warmer, and the radishes should be ready to eat in the late spring. Thank you students!

Discovery Community School Radishes

Catharine Blaine Broccoli

 

Broccoli and Radishes!

February 14, 2013.....Happy Valentine's Day!

Here are some updates for the broccoli planted by Catharine Blaine students, and radishes planted by our visiting students from Discovery Community School. They are all doing fantastic, and with hope of warmer weather on the horizon, we may be able to transplant some into the outdoor garden soon. Take a look!

These radishes, planted on January 16th from seed, are growing so fast we actually had to thin them a little. Thinning means pulling out a few plants in each row, which allows for each plant to have a little bit more room. This often helps each vegetable to grow bigger. It is good to plant them closer at first to ensure you get enough that sprout. Thank you Discovery Community School Students!

Beautiful Radish Leaves

                                                          

Broccoli Babies

As for our broccoli sprouts planted January 30th by Catharine Blaine students, they are also flourishing and being a cooler weather crop, we may be able to transplant them as soon as they are big enough. Thank you CB students!

Catharine Blaine!

January 30, 2013

Go Broccoli Seeds!

We had a visit from Catharine Blaine K-8 School students in the garden today, and they were so kind to help us plant some broccoli from seed in our greenhouse! These seeds will grow to become small start plants, which we will transplant into our outdoor garden in the spring. We will update this link so you can watch the progress of your broccoli plants, and thank you for your help students!

Common Name: Broccoli
Scientific Name: Brassica oleracea
As a late summer, fall, and early winter crop there are many different varieties of broccoli, and differences in flavors and color (can be purple too!). It is very good for you providing many vitamins and nutrients such as Vitamin C. 
 

            January 29, 2013

Baby Radish Sprouts

Check out those radishes!

Here is an update for the radishes that were so kindly planted for us by Discovery Community School students. They are doing amazing, and we are so excited to watch them grow and eventually become the true radishes they are! To compare these radish seeds from just two weeks ago, see the pictures below....and thank you again Discovery students~

Discovery Community School!

January 16, 2013

We got a visit from the Discovery Community School students today, and were lucky enough to get their help planting some radish seeds in the greenhouse garden! This time of year, young radish seeds would only survive in a warmer environment such as a heated greenhouse, or other indoor space with good light. We are giving them a try!

We planted the seeds in individual rows, 1/2 inch deep and 1 inch apart. Then gently pinched our rows closed, gave them a little pat to help the seeds make contact with our soil, and let them do their work! Hopefully, we will see some baby radishes popping up soon. Thank you DCS students, and check back to see your radishes!

Can you see the seeds?

 

Thoreau Elementary!

We had a visit from Thoreau Elementary School, and were lucky enough to plant some seeds with some of their great students. We have been carefully caring for the Oregon snow pea seeds that they so kindly planted for us during their visit. They are doing great, and sprouting up a storm. Check them out, and thank you Thoreau students for visiting the garden!


Oregon snow peas:
Scientific name: Pisum sativum
Common names: Oregon Sugar Pod Pea, Oregon Snow Pea, Oregon Giant Pea.

Mature Snow Peas

A cool season crop, it is a hardy annual (surviving just one growing season) and is one of our nation's most popular pea varieties! However, if trying to grow in late fall and winter, they need to  be in a greenhouse.
Flavor: Tender and succulent, with a sweet flavor.