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Saturday 31 October 2015

Tomato and Basil - companion planting

We planted some John Dunn variety tomato plants in the planter boxes that had been filled with the Living Earth compost. In the planters we also put basil as this encourages the tomato plant to grow and improves the flavour. We will put basil in some of the tomato planters and not in others to see if we can see and taste any difference.

When you put two or more plants in the same space to work together you call it companion planting. This is what we do down in our food forest as well.

We have also put a tomato into the green house to see how that one grows compared to the ones outside.






We will keep you posted!!

Pumpkins

How heavy was the biggest pumpkin ever?? Go and have a look at the pumpkin patch and read the sign... I don't think our pumpkins will get quite that big!!!


Leeks

We have used lots of leeks in our cooking this year. They are much easier for the Juniors to cut than an onion so we have often been using them instead.

Seeing we have been eating so many we needed to get some in the ground for next years cooking!!

I had a team of senior boys very carefully separate and plant neatly into rows. There is a sign about leeks marking the planter box.

Strawberry Patch

I have made a strawberry pallet garden out of a pallet. The Year 7 boys filled it with compost from Living Earth and then they planted strawberry plants out. Its going to take lots of watering to keep them growing.

There is a sign on the strawberry patch with some interesting information about strawberries.








Thursday 29 October 2015

Persian Rice with Broad Beans

Today the Neptune Group was cooking. Luckily we had lots of Year 7 & 8 helpers today as we had to pod a big bowl of broad beans from our garden. While some students were doing that the others fried onion, cut up carrots and then added tumeric, cinnamon, salt, pepper, coriander and dill. Then the pre-cooked rice went in.

The smell was amazing. The students noticed that the tumeric changed the rice from white to yellow. We added the broad beans and let it all cook for a while. Then we put them into paper muffin cups.

We delivered to the office and the library, and then down to Mr Foreman and his class. We explained what we had done, and then shared our food with them. It's great to share food with other people.

Tomato Beds - Getting them ready

Despite the rain today I had some enthusiastic Year 7 & 8 helpers who shoveled compost into the raised pallet beds for us to grow tomatoes in. This is the compost that was donated by Living Earth.




Thanks for your help boys.  



Compost With Room 1 and 2.

Today I showed Room 1 and 2 around the compost that are making at Oaklands school. We looked at the new compost from Living Earth.


Then we went to the Pumpkin Patch to see how we are making compost directly on the ground.


The Food Forest already has some great compost being formed under our fruit trees. Then we looked at our compost bins and saw some plastic that shouldn't be going in there. 



Thanks for all the great questions you asked Room 1 and 2. Hope you enjoyed seeing our compost bins.

Planting Year 7 & 8 Boys

Today Mr Rush and I had some Year 7 & 8 boys come out and plant the native trees donated to us by Trees for Canterbury. The rain didn't put them off at all.

We have planted outside Room 26, Room 13, Room 6, Oscar and the Dental Clinic.

Thanks for the help.





Saturday 24 October 2015

Pumpkin Patch

We have created a new garden area behind the boiler which some helpers from Year 4 helped me plant some pumpkins. This space will have mulch added to it to help keep the weeds down, put some nutrients into help the pumpkins grow and will eventually turn into another food forest.



Compost and Spiders

We have our own compost bins at Oaklands School which we use to dispose of some food scraps and our garden green waste. I had some Year 7 & 8 boys come down and help me by moving the compost into the neighbouring bin to help compost break down more quickly. Some of the boys were a bit scared of the spiders in the bin but I wont tell who.


On a much bigger scale is the operation at Living Earth who have very generously given us a huge trailer load of their compost. They used a massive front end loaded with a 7 cubic metre bucket on it to fill the trailer.


Thanks heaps to the friendly staff over there who didn't seem to be at all concerned about spiders!!

Thursday 22 October 2015

Espalier Apple Trees

On the fence by the vegetable gardens we have got some apple trees that we are training to grow along the wires. This is called Espalier and is a way of maximising how much fruit we can get off a tree when there is only limited space.

The branches get bent over and tied to the wires using soft material. The branches then grow that way so that if the cloth rots away the branches stay in that position. It is a slow process!!



The students that watched me bending the branches and tying them down were worried I was going to snap the branches, but by doing this often the branches are moved when they are young and flexible.

I wonder if we will get any apples this year?


Ginger Carrots, Kale and Silverbeet

This was Mars groups cooking project today. Our juniors had to cut the carrot nice and small so they cooked through. We cut and then cooked the leek, kale and silverbeet till they were soft and then we added some ginger, salt, lemon juice and water. We stirred it carefully until the water had all evaporated and the flavours had been absorbed. Then we spooned it onto rice crackers to share with the parents who had come to pick up junior students. We also took some to the office, the library and left some in the staffroom for our cleaners.


 Thanks again to the awesome Year 7 and 8's who came and helped with the cooking today. They supported our Juniors in a positive and friendly manner.

Sunday 18 October 2015

Year 7 & 8 Helpers

We are very fortunate to have Year 7 and 8 students come down to our cooking classes. The Junior students love working with the "big kids" and the attitude and patience of the seniors is amazing - they are learning valuable skills relating to working with others.

Thanks to all our helpers so far this year. It makes a huge difference.


Thursday 15 October 2015

Beetroot Relish

Today it was the Venus planet groups turn to cook. We grated beetroot, cut onion and leek and fried it all up. Then we added vinegar, sugar, salt, mustard seeds and curry powder and let it simmer down.

Then we spooned it onto rice crackers and shared it with the Year 4 students in Room 8, 12 and 13.

Yum!!!