Lessons in Lending a Hand

The students of the Green LIONS Garden Group harvested most of the remaining Fall produce from the LIONS Garden last week to donate to Potter’s House, a local food bank helping families in need. A representative from Potter’s House came to collect bags of bok choy, tatsoi, chard and cabbage and spoke with the students about how their donation can help. Part of the teachings of this program is how our connection to the earth deepens the connection to our community, in the decisions we make in how we live and how we purchase food and other items. Sharing our harvest is a powerful way to connect with our community during the holiday season.

We also prepared the garden for Winter by planting a partial cover crop of winter rye, and by planting seed garlic to harvest next year. We mulched and watered the seeds in and then rushed inside from the cold to enjoy a freshly harvested salad. The salad was made from LIONS Garden lettuce, arugula and radishes, Mattawoman Creek Farm peppers and tomatoes, and Chesapeake-grown carrots. We topped the salad off with a choice of homemade Buttermilk Ranch dressing, made with regionally-produced milk, homemade yogurt and LIONS Garden parsley, or homemade Honey Mustard dressing made with Virginia honey and onions from Mattawoman. It was truly a local salad! And as you can see the students devoured it and asked for seconds.

Our program’s worm bin was introduced at this meeting and students learned about their red and wiggly club mates. We explored the subject of decomposition and its importance in gardening and students learned how to take care of a worm bin. The bin will make its way around the school to six classrooms for the next few months so more students can have an opportunity to work with the bin and see nature’s recycling in action. We will work with the bin again in the Spring to harvest castings to fertilize the garden.

Mish-Mash Meeting

Sometimes weather demands a change in plans. With high winds and cold temperatures at our last meeting of the Green LIONS Garden Group we gathered inside to join in a variety of tasks. With our Fall garden begging to be harvested we prepared for a veggie sale at the school’s movie night. Students divided up into groups to work together on various preparations and other group needs.

One group gathered harvested herbs like parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano and marjoram into herb bundles.

Another group prepared harvested kale for kale chips by stripping it from the stems into small pieces ready for baking. On the day of the movie night we baked the kale chips to sell for $1 a bag. We sold out! See the recipe at the end of this post.

Any good sale needs advertising so another group created posters for the event.

With so much ready to harvest, we had to sample some. So another group created a homemade teriyaki sauce to pour over sautéd bok choy and tatsoi that students sampled over rice. A rare moment of silence in this group as cups were emptied into hungry bellies.

We also passed out eagerly awaited t-shirts that we can wear on meeting days and at events.

The movie night veggie sale was a success, bringing in needed money for our plans for two new garden beds for the Spring garden. Thanks to all who came out and supported our program.

Kale Chips

2-3 bunches of kale stripped from the stalk and torn into palm-sized pieces or smaller
olive oil
salt and pepper

Wash and thoroughly dry the kale, either by spinning it in a salad spinner or laying it out on towels. Toss in a large bowl with drizzled olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread out onto parchment-lined baking sheets in a single layer. Kale pieces can be touching but not overlapping. If they overlap they will steam instead of crisp up. It may take several batches to bake entire recipe. Bake at 350 degrees for 7-10 minutes depending on oven. Chips are ready when they crisp up and before turning too brown. Enjoy!

High Trashion

Do you hear the rustle of bubble wrap on the red carpet? Do you see the pop of color from the paint splattered duct tape and geometric details of a newspaper hat? No you’re not imagining things, it’s a Trashion Show!

Students from the Green LIONS Garden Group held a Trashion show at our last gathering of clothing and costumes created from trash and recyclables. After dividing up into teams and receiving a grab bag of trash, a frenzy ensued of measuring, trying on, draping, drawing, collaborating, smiling and laughing. The teams were separated during the creation process and it was so amazing to see how four completely different concepts evolved out of otherwise-thought-of disposable items.

“How does this help the garden?”, one student appropriately asked. Well, technically it may not. But in this program we are trying to help students see the complete picture of viewing our life on this planet. We want them to think before throwing an item out. While we are not trying to encourage a group of pack rats, we are challenging them to gain a new perspective on “re-purposing”. Can I reuse that gift bag, or mail something again in this box? Can this container be used as an interesting planter for salad greens instead of being tossed to the curb? Can a cereal box be made into a homemade journal with some paper and string? Can empty paper towel and toilet paper rolls be saved for craft projects? Can holiday cards be made into garland or gift tags for next year? Reducing our waste does help protect our water supply and reduce chemicals in our soil. So, well, this project does help!

So enough suspense. Here are our Trashion designers and models!