Dakota explains what's awesome about our tomato soup

"Harvest Moon Farms is an organic farm in Wisconsin.  They have a problem: there is a drought.  There was less snow fall.  There is less rain.  This means that there are not a lot of plants that grow.  The greens just crumble.  The greens aren't growing so they can't sell.  On the other hand, the heirloom tomatoes are thriving; they love the heat.  The problem is that Harvest Moon can't store the tomatoes without the money from the greens, so they might not be able to sell them.  We help that by buying lots of tomatoes to make our Smokey Bacon & Tomato Soup."
--Dakota

CJA's Smokey Bacon & Tomato Soup will go on sale at our farmers' market Friday, September 29th!

Recess Agriculture

Students sign up to work in CJA's garden during recess.  This group of 5th graders gets a chance to see what's going on in our garden.

Javion says hi to Sarah, our oldest hen

Kyle harvests some heirloom tomatoes

The group tastes a delicious treat: cherry tomatoes and fresh basil

Derrick and Nathanial harvest tomatillos

ATF visits Gourmet Gorilla's kitchen

CJA's Agriculture Task Force recently visited Gourmet Gorilla's kitchen to make tomato soup with tomatoes  from Harvest Moon Farms, where one of the driest years on record hurt revenue early in the season.  The ATF jarred the soup, helped design labels, and will sell their product at their farmers' markets, learning about economics and farming, delivering good food to our community, and helping a sustainable family farm all at the same time.

"Gourmet Gorilla was a lot of fun.  We really turned it up this time.  We worked as a team and never gave up, but it was one fun day.  I can't wait to do it again.  Thank you Gourmet Gorilla for helping us."

--Alzario

"When we got there, we walked in and washed our hands.  Then we put on our caps and started talking about the ingredients of our tomato soup.  Then we went to peel the onions."

--Dakota

"Our eyes watered as we watched the tomatoes and onions being cut."

--Dakota

Heirloom tomatoes from Harvest Moon Farms.

The ingredients were tomatoes, onions, bacon, garlic, salt, and sugar.

We help blend the soup.

  "We started to strain the soup."

--Dakota

"Then we grabbed the jars.  We took all the tops off the jars.  Jason explained why the tops of the jars are in two pieces.  The we put them in the oven to get rid of the bacteria that is living in there, and Jason explained why we do that."

"After that, Alzario and I poured the tomato soup into jars."

--Dakota 

Jason used a torch to get rid of bubbles before sealing the jars.  This will help the soup stay fresh longer.

Once the lids were on, they were heated again.  This seals the jars to they will stay fresh without having to be refrigerated, just like soup at the grocery store.

We saw the labels we helped design.  We also used math to calculate how much we should charge for each jar, and predicted how much profit we would make.

Some thoughts on Agriculture Task Force

"I like everything about ATF.  I like the chickens when they lay their eggs.  I enjoy planting fruits and vegetables in our garden.  I like having ATF meetings and discussing the blog.  I enjoy the extra knowledge about the corn and tomatoes in the garden.  I especially like making money for the ATF program from the farmers' market.  I love selling things."

--Cecil

"Task force is all about helping the environment; planting fruit and vegetables.  We take care of the animals we have.  Our food is all natural; we don't put things in our food that force it to grow fast.  All the food we eat is really healthy for you."

--Casimir

"Every Thursday the ATF does the chores for CJA. [Other students volunteer at recess the other days.]  We feed the chickens...

...harvest the garden...

...and do the compost.

Although harvesting season is almost over, ATF still plans to have farmers' markets."

--Jamari

Learning economics through agriculture

CJA's Agriculture Task Force sells our produce to community members.  In the process, students learn the basics of running a business.

Alzario and Jamari study ATF financial data

"Expenses for the Task Force is money going out.  We have to buy chicken feed.  Our sources of income are eggs and our farmers' market."

--Alzario

"Our current balance is -$30.00 because we had to pay for the chicken feed.  I think this will change next week because we are having a farmers' market and we don't have to buy chicken feed for a while."

--Dakota

After these statements were written, we made $19.00 at our Friday farmers' market.  Here's a picture of some of the produce we sold:

New Task Force Members for 2012-2013

Dakota, Alzario, Casimir, Cecil, and Jamari all joined the Agriculture Task Force for the 2012-2013 school year.

Some of the task force members have fun at the farmers' market.

Here's what they have to say about our food system and being a part of CJA's agriculture program:

"Some problems with our food system is the processed food.  E-coli is spreading from the cows being cluttered together.  We are feeding the animals the wrong foods.  This is making the food bad for us instead of good.  It needs to change."

--Dakota

"The food system we have at CJA is small.  I think we only have healthy things.  CJA grows healthy and unprocessed foods.  CJA's food system makes people stronger, not sicker.  CJA's food system is small, but it makes a big difference."

--Cecil

"I will do my best to do all my work and help out with the food.  I will do all I can to take care of the chickens, compost, and the recyclables.  I will always take care of the food here."

--Casimir

"I love agriculture.  I am very happy to be a part of it.  Agriculture calms me down through the day because I love doing it.

--Jamari

Jamari, Dakota, and Alzario in the garden.

More Summer Program Photos

CJA's Class of 2014 recently wrapped up a summer's worth of hard work with the chickens, in the garden, and compost piles.  They also held a farmer's market, selling their crops to families.  Check out some photos:

Terrence checks in on the compost bin.

Casimir and Mr. Farmer the hen smile for the camera.  Gregory and Elijah pulled weeds to feed to the other chickens.

The students water greens and herbs in this bed.

Parents choose the freshest produce, grown right here at CJA!