New Birds!

Black-headed Grosbeak and American Goldfinch! -Farmer Brian

Black-headed Grosbeak

American Goldfinch

The high school farmstand is restocked!

Our students harvested and stocked the farm stand today (Thursday 5-9) with radish bunches, spinach, arugula, bok choy, lettuce and salad turnips! I didn’t have time (translation: forgot) to take any pictures but it all looks great. Something salad this way comes! -Farmer Brian

The High School Farmstand is Open!

Last Thursday our crew of high school students harvested some fresh vegetables from our gardens and stocked the farmstand for the first time this year! It’s been cold and wet and things are behind where they were last year but finally we’ve got arugula, bok choy, radishes, salad turnips, rhubarb, lettuce and salad mix all coming on now or very soon. I checked the stand today and we’ve still got arugula, radishes and lots of bok choy still available! We will harvest again on THURSDAY, and we’ll add more of all the aforementioned veggies. Vegetables are available by suggested donations, and payment is through a QR code, posted at the farmstand. Come one, come all!

Pine Siskins at the Bird Feeder!

So far we’ve had many many visitors from just a few species of birds at our feeder/camera. White-crowned sparrows, dark-eyed juncos, house sparrows, house finches and spotted towhees. We’ve had a few visits from some brown-headed cowbirds recently as well, but today I want to give a shout-out to our pine siskins! Lately we’ve had a lot of them visiting us. These are related to finches but they have really sharp bills – that you can see nicely in this little video here! We are looking forward to more new visitors as Spring and Summer keep rolling along.

Thanks for stopping by! -Farmer Brian

Enhancing bird life with help from the Whidbey Island Garden Tour! Plus, announcing our bird feeder cam!

Last year we received a generous grant from the Whidbey Island Garden Tour to help us complete a few projects intended to improve the bird life at the elementary school garden. The Whidbey Island Garden Tour is a wonderful local organization whose mission is to provide funding to local causes and nonprofit organizations supporting the improvement, restoration, education and maintenance of our shared Whidbey Island habitat. Every Summer they organize a tour of many of Whidbey Island’s spectacular private gardens. This year’s tour will happen on June 22nd. To learn more, please visit their website at https://www.wigt.org/.

We have three projects that we are using the grant money for. First, we installed a nest box for barn owls, which has yet to be taken by a breeding pair but we remain hopeful for this year and future years.

Our barn owl nest box!

Second, we installed a bird feeder with a motion-activated camera near our willow grove and with easy viewing from our solar barn outdoor classroom. Though we unfortunately won’t be able to embed a livestream page, we have added a link in the primary menu above where we will post our most recent and most interesting bird sightings.

Our new bird feeder/camera!

Here are just a couple images to get you started – click the link above to see more! So far we have had spotted towhee, black-capped chickadee, white-crowned sparrow, house finch and dark-eyed junco visit, but we expect many more!

Dark-eyed junco

Black-capped chickadee

Our last project we are just getting started on, installing a raptor pole! We hope this will allow raptors to visit our farm more frequently and take advantage of our vole population.

Thanks for visiting! -Farmer Brian

Pass the Plate 2024

In mid-January the fifth graders began the month-long process of planning, preparing, and cooking all the food necessary for our Pass the Plate event. They cooked four dishes from around the world and helped to feed all of our kindergarteners, first, second, third, and fourth graders a delicious and adventurous meal. The fifth graders planned and worked for weeks to make this event possible.

The fifth graders made pita bread and two different kinds of tzatziki (one with cucumbers and one with chard) from Greece, empanadas (with potatoes and squash from our garden) from Argentina, and atakilt wat (a vegetable stew with carrots, cabbage, and potatoes) from Ethiopia. 

The fifth graders signed up for time slots to serve all the younger farm classes. The younger kids went around to each country with their little DIY “passports” and received a stamp and a serving of the dish from that country. The fifth graders served over 350 students over the course of the week. The younger kids loved trying so many delicious and new foods and the fifth graders proved to be great servers and leaders! We are so pleased with our fifth graders and their dedication and hard work, and we can’t wait to do it again next year! 

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Recipes:

Pumpkin & Potatoes Empanadas

Dough

INGREDIENTS	MEASUREMENTS (yields ~ 24 mini empanadas)	x2 RECIPE (yields ~48 mini empanadas)
All-purpose Flour	2 cups	4 cups
Salt	½ tsp	1 tsp
Cool Water	⅓ cup	⅔ cup
Oil	⅓ cup	⅔ cup

Potato Pumpkin Filling

INGREDIENTS	MEASUREMENTS (yields ~ 24 mini empanadas)	x2 RECIPE (yields ~ 48 mini empanadas)
Squash Puree	2 cups	4 cups
Potatoes	2 cups	4 cups
Shredded cheese	1 cup	2 cups
Cumin	½ tsp	1 tsp
Chili Powder	½ tsp	1 tsp
Onion Powder	½ tsp	1 tsp
Paprika	¼ tsp	½ tsp

Instructions

Dough:

1. In a large bowl mix flour and salt until well combined. 
2. Make a well in the center and pour in the water and olive oil. 
3. Mix the liquid into the flour mixture until the dough begins to come together. 
4. Knead until everything is incorporated into a soft dough. Add a little more water or flour to help the binding. 
5. Wrap and set aside until ready to use.

Potato Pumpkin Filling:

1. Combine squash and potatoes in a bowl. Mix well. 
2. Add the spices and cheese. Salt to taste. Mix well.* 

Shape and Bake the Empanadas:

1. Preheat oven to 400F. On a floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/8 inch.*
2. Cut dough into circles. For mini empanadas, use 1 cup measurement to create circles. 
3. Place one tablespoon of filling inside each circle. Fold over to create a half moon, and use a fork to press dough together. If dough does not seal, dip finger in water and line the bottom edge. Freeze and use later. 
4. Place on baking sheet. Optional: Brush tops with olive oil or egg wash. 
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes. 

Makes ~24 mini empanadas 

*Notes: 

• If needed, use water in filling to facilitate mixing. Could use KitchenAid 
• May use pasta machine to roll out dough

Atakilt Wat

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 tsp minced ginger
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 tsp cumin powder
• 1/2 to 3/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1/8 tsp cloves powder
• a generous dash of black pepper
• 3/4 cup sliced carrots
• 2 medium potatoes chopped, 1.5 loaded cups
• 1/2 head of cabbage finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions:

• In a large skillet, add 1 tsp oil and heat at medium-low. Once hot, Add garlic, ginger, and onion. Mix and cook for 4 minutes.
• Add the cumin, turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and black pepper. Mix and cook for 3 minutes to infuse the oil and to continue cooking the onion to golden.
• Add the carrots, potatoes and mix well. Add cabbage and 1/4 tsp salt. Mix well, cover and cook for 15 minutes. Stir once in between.
• Add 1/4 tsp or more salt, and 1 tsp olive oil. Mix in. Deglaze at this time with water if needed. Cover and Cook for another 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

Pita Bread

INGREDIENTS	MEASUREMENTS (yields ~ 3 breads / 18 pieces)	x12 RECIPE (yields ~ 210 pieces)
Lukewarm Water	1 cup	12 cups
Active Dry Yeast	2 tsp	24 tsp → 0.5 cup
Sugar	½ tsp	6 tsp
All-Purpose Flour	3 cups, divided	36 cups
Kosher Salt	2 tsp	24 tsp → 0.5 cup
Olive Oil	2 tbsp	24 tbsp → 1.5 cups

Make sponge: 

1. In a large mixing bowl add 1 cup lukewarm water and stir in yeast and sugar until dissolved. 
2. Add ½ cup flour and whisk together. 
3. Place the mixing bowl in a warm place, uncovered to form a loose sponge. 
4. Give it 15 minutes or so, the mixture should bubble.

Form the pita dough:

1. Now add salt, olive oil and almost all the remaining flour (keep about ½ cup of the flour for dusting later). 
2. Stir until mixture forms a shaggy mass (at this point, the dough looks like a sticky mess and you can easily pull bits off). 
3. Dust with a little flour, then knead the mixture inside the bowl for about a minute to incorporate any stray bits.

Knead the dough: 

1. Dust a clean working surface with just a little bit of flour. 
2. Knead lightly for a couple minutes or so until smooth. 
3. Cover and let the dough rest for 10 minutes 
4. Then knead again for a couple more minutes. The dough should be a little bit moist, you can help it with a little dusting of flour, but be careful not to add too much flour.

Let the dough rise. 

1. Clean the mixing bowl and coat it lightly with extra virgin olive oil and put the dough back in the bowl. 
2. Turn the dough a couple times in the bowl to coat with the olive oil.
3. Cover the mixing bowl tightly with plastic wrap then lay a kitchen towel over. 
4. Put the bowl in a warm place and leave it alone for 1 hour or until the dough rises to double its size.

Divide the dough. 

1. Deflate the dough and place it on a clean work surface. 
2. Divide the dough into 7 to 8 equal pieces and shape them into balls. 
3. Cover with a towel and leave them for 10 minutes or so to rest

Roll the Dough & Cook

1. On a floured surface using a floured rolling pin, roll out each piece to be about 8-9 inches wide 
2. On a lightly greased pan, using medium-high heat, put the pita on the pan and let it cook for 30 seconds or until bubbles start to form. 
3. Flip it over and let cook for 1-2 minutes and then flip back over and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and enjoy!

For Gluten Free Pita: Replace the flour here with the same amount of an all-purpose gluten free flour. 

**Make ahead note: You can prepare the dough ahead of time. Once it has risen, you can store it in the fridge until you need it! If you don’t want to bake all 8 pitas on a given day, you can bake 1, 2 or however many you need at a time. Save the rest of the dough in the fridge for later (if stored properly, the dough will keep in the fridge for up to 1 week). 

Swiss Chard Tzatziki

• 3 to 4 large leaves of Swiss chard, ribs removed
• 1c plain Greek yogurt
• 1 1/2 T chopped fresh mint leaves
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1 T extra virgin olive oil
• 1 t lemon zest
• 1 T lemon juice

Preparation

1. Dice the stems of the chard and sauté them on medium heat for 5 minutes with olive oil. Chop the leaves of the chard and add to the sauté for 2 more minutes. Remove the leaves onto a paper towel and squeeze the moisture from them.
2. Combine the tzatziki ingredients: Put the Greek yogurt, chopped chard and stems chopped mint, garlic, salt, olive oil, lemon zest, and lemon juice in a medium bowl. Stir to combine. Chill until ready to use (can make up to 3 days ahead).
3. Toast the pita bread: Cut the pita bread into triangles and lay out in one layer in a broiling pan (use a sturdy sheet pan or broiling pan, not a thin cookie sheet or your cookie sheet will warp). Drizzle olive oil on one side of the pita wedges. Place under a broiler. Broil for 5 minutes or until the pita bread starts to toast. Remove and let cool for a minute.
4. Serve: Drizzle the tzatziki with a little olive oil and serve with toasted pita wedges.

MAY 4, 2019

The Water Cycle!

This year, we implemented a brand new water cycle curriculum for our 3rd grade farm students. This lesson plan spanned approximately 6 weeks so the students could meaningfully engage with the stages of the water cycle.

Week 1

The 1st week was all about introducing the water cycle to the students at a broad scale. At this stage, the students discussed what they already knew about the water cycle – most of the students already knew some of the phase changes: evaporation, condensation, precipitation. To solidify their foundation of the water cycle, each student drew a picture of what they know now of the water cycle.

On the 2nd half of the 1st week, when classes returned to us for the 2nd time, we started a discussion about PRECIPITATION. Many of our students brought great information and definitions of precipitation, so to ground this lesson in the scope of our farm, we studied a rain barrel! The rain barrel for this lesson was set up a few weeks beforehand, and it has steadily been catching our winter rain and melting snow from the roof of our solar barn. We had each student take a yard stick, dip it into the rain barrel until it touches the bottom, pull it back out and take note of the number where the water line stops. Once each student was done, we compared and shared our results and noted them on a whiteboard, to record for future reference.

This lesson is important for getting students acquainted with taking scientific measurements, learning water conservation practices, and planting the seed of the difference between rainfall measurements and rain barrel collection measurements.

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Week 2

Week 2 is all about EVAPORATION. We set up an experiment with 2 bowls, filled with a small amount of water, placed under our growing station. This location is important because of the grow lights positioned overhead that produce heat for this experiment (these lights will act as our representative “sun”). One bowl is left uncovered, and the other bowl is covered with plastic wrap. After setting up the experiment, we had a discussion on our hypotheses. A few students stated some ideas of water droplets forming on the plastic wrap – their minds are already stirring about condensation!

On the 2nd half of week 2, classes returned to check on the results of our experiment and to reflect back on our previous hypotheses, while conducting another discussion on the process that is happening between the 2 different bowls.

The before and after of one of our 3rd grade classes’ evaporation experiment! I have highlighted the water level in blue so it’s easier to see. Note on the “after” picture that the water has completely dried in the uncovered dish and left a layer of crust.

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Week 3

As the precipitation falls, some of the water may evaporate, but some of it may also go through TRANSPIRATION, our topic of week 3! This was a new one for many students – so we really honed in on closely studying this topic. To demonstrate the process of transpiration, we set up 2 different cups: 1 with red food coloring, 1 with blue food coloring, and even some with purple food coloring! Next, we put sticks of celery into each cup, to let them drink up until next class.

During this stage, we heard some spouts of curiosity of students understanding that plants drink water, but wondering what role the food coloring plays in this experiment. Some students were even connecting the dots to last week’s topic by hypothesizing that some of the dyed blue water would evaporate into the air!

The next time we saw the students, we checked on our celery to see what happened! The food coloring made is easier to see how water moves up a plant through the xylem, to fully hydrate the plant all the way to the leaves. We then discussed what happens when the food coloring reached the top of the celery plant, ultimately deciding that some of the water evaporates off the leaves, leaving the color behind!

Before and after of 1 of our 3rd grade classes, to show the change in color of the celery.

close up photo showing the food coloring collecting in the leaves

A close up photo showing the xylem of a celery plant

Example of food coloring collecting in a celery xylem in the absence of celery leaves.

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Week 4

The topic of week 4 is CONDENSATION. A few weeks ago, Farmer Hannah and Farmer Julian built a fog catcher on the farm comprised of a fine mesh, twine, PVC pipe, and a collection bucket. We went over how as a cloud of fog moves across the farm in the early morning hours, it gets caught in the mesh. As more and more mist settles on the mesh, it turns into larger water droplets and slides down the mesh, where it lands in the PVC pipe. The PVC pipe is slanted downward, so the water flows down the pipe and into the collection bucket. To demonstrate this, we played a game, similar to tag, where the person / water vapor who is “it” runs around collecting other water vapors in order to grow into a larger water droplet!

This lesson is great at showing the seemingly invisible aspects of the water cycle, and adds to the water conservation discussion brought up from the precipitation lesson. We are teaching our students that you can obtain water from a variety of different sources!

A photo of the garden’s fog net: fine mesh hung between two posts, a PVC pipe positioned at a downward slant, and a funnel system to drain into a collection bucket.

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Week 5

Week 5 has the students reflecting on their previous investigation into the soil cycle as we delve into SURFACE INFILTRATION. For this lesson, the students set up an experiment by putting 3 different types of soil into 3 different containers: 1 container has clay, 1 container has silt, 1 container has sand. After the containers are filled with their respective soil, we made our hypotheses on which would drain water the fastest / slowest. We then poured water on them to see how quickly the water drains from each type of soil.

As a follow up, we did a deep dive into the reasoning behind the difference of water flow with a classroom discussion. To get students thinking, I posed the question: “If you were a plant, which type of soil would you like to live in?”

For the second half of this week, we covered SURFACE RUNOFF – our last topic of the water cycle. This lesson builds slightly off of last week’s lesson as students will be investigating how water runs off different surfaces: grass, dirt, and concrete. We will begin our investigation with our hypotheses, then teams will be sent out to test our hypotheses. Each team will be responsible for locating a grassy downward slope, a dirt downward slope, and a concrete downward slope. Each team will have a small bowl of water (filled by our trusty rain barrel!) which they will pour down their slope, and then will measure how far the water traveled with a tape measure. Each group will write down their observations, and then share their findings with the class. During this share-out, we touched on the implications that surface runoff has on pollution and erosion.

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Week 6

For our final week, we returned to our 1st rendition of our water cycle drawings to create a more complete diagram of the water cycle. Since all the students are more familiar with each phase, and how they interact with one another, they have a more holistic understanding of the entire cycle.

We closed our water cycle lesson plan with a circle discussion. Students could pick among the following questions:

• What was the most surprising part of the water cycle?
• What was you favorite part of the water cycle?
• What was the most challenging part of the water cycle?

I had such an amazing time with our 3rd graders during these lessons. The kids were engaged with all the experiments that we did and so excited to learn and ask questions. It was a great opportunity to work with the students to combine such a staple topic in the scope of our school garden.

Bonding over Bagels

The farm celebrated Random Acts of Kindness Week with the Garden Buds Gift Exchange, a culinary event highlighting reciprocity between 1^st and 5^th grade garden students!

In preparation for the event, 5^th graders learned how to make bagels from scratch. They boiled and baked off plenty to share with their 1^st grade buddies at the gift exchange.

To show their appreciation for the special treat, 1^st graders picked salal leaves from the food forest they frequently tend to, and pressed them into a heart to make a garden-themed craft!

During the Garden Buds Gift Exchange, 5^th grade leaders exercised their culinary skills to teach a group of 1^st graders how to make a farm-sourced spread for the bagels they prepared weeks ahead.

After each team finished making the spreads, everyone sat down to enjoy some well-earned bagels together. The 1^st graders then handed their craft to the 5^th grader who helped them.

Both grades did a wonderful job making their gifts to each other and using materials from the farm to spread kindness and express gratitude. We hope these seeds of friendship bud and bloom well beyond the gift exchange!

Awaiting Spring with Microgreens

While the farm beds rest during winter, we continue to grow food indoors with microgreens! Preparing the young crop seedlings is a fun and simple process. We densely blanket seeds on top of water-saturated soil, then stack them to emulate the conditions in which seeds germinate underground. The weight, moisture, and lack of light exposure allow them to open after just a few days. The shoots that quickly follow their first root are what we enjoy as microgreens! Nearly any seed can be used for microgreens, though pea shoots are the students’ resounding favorite.  Sunflower and radish sprouts are also popular on the microgreens menu!