Spring Garden Cleanup Day with the CJA Junior Board

CJA's junior board teamed up with the Agricuture Task Force and other students to prepare the garden for spring planting.

"I had to pick out green weeds from the ground.  While in the midst of doing so, I found lots of amazing creatures that I usually don't recognize"
--Laron

"We hadd a fun day on Saturday.  I know I did the best job I could to get our garden, compost, and chickens ready for the spring."

--Alzario

"One good thing we did was get our garden beds ready.  We took dirt from the finished compost bins and filled new garden boxes all the way to the top.  We also added compost to some of the boxes that were used last year."

--Alzario

"Lastly, all the groups had pizza!"

-Derrick

Chickens go outside at 8 weeks old

"We had one more good week in the Agriculture Task Force.  We did a lot to put our chickens outside.  They're all grown up now."
--Alzario

The Chickens at Six Weeks Old

"The baby chicks have changed so dramatically.  When I first saw the chickens they had patterns on their heads.  Now they look darker and you can't see the pattern anymore. I have learned that chickens can't live in any temperature.  When they're young you have to keep a heat lamp over them to keep that temperature.  Taking care of a chicken is almost like taking care of a baby.  I say this because you have to feed it, clean it, and bathe it"
--Dion

"Our chickens are growing and growing each and every day.  Our chickens are getting bigger and are getting their adult feathers.  Many of our chickens are getting different color feathers.  We put in a bigger branch so they can start flying a little bit more."
--Alzario

Serving Rose Hip Tea

"Rose hips are the fruit a rose bush makes.  Rose hip tea is sweet, and has much vitamin C. "
--Artis

"We served rose hip tea at our school by:
1. Picking the rose hips off the bush;
2. Skinning it and pouring out the seeds;
3. Boiling some water in a pot;
4. Putting the rose hips in the water;
5. Pouring the tea into cups;
6. Serving fresh hot tea to the school during dismissal!"
--Laron

"AND we didn't cause global warming.  All we had to do was walk out our front door and pick the rose hips."
--Alzario

The Chicks Are Growing

The chicks are just about one month old!

"We have done well taking care of our baby chickens.  They have changed a lot.  They have grown bigger, they are starting to fly and move around more.  They are doing a lot of things that adult chickens do."
--Alzario

"The Aurecanas' colors are changing.  The Rhode Island Reds are redder than the first time I saw them"

--Derrick

"The Buff Orpingtons are getting bigger and bigger.  They can fly only a little but they are trying."

--Derrick

"It's so cool when they come together"

--Derrick

New Baby Chickens

"We have got eight baby chickens.  We take care of our chickens by putting water in their bin.  We put wood chips in it, and we put their food in it too."
--Alzario

"When they are little they need to be in a 90 degree environment.  You need the lamps and the towel so the heat stays in."
--Derrick

"The different breeds are Rhode Island Red, Buff Orpingtons, and Aurecanas.  I can identify the chickens by the patterns of their feathers."
--Dion

Here's the group on January 17th, at 9 days old.

A Buff Orpington

A Rhode Island Red

An Aurecana, who will lay bluish green eggs.

The Agriculture Task Force taking care of the chicks.

Planning a market basket and retail product at Gourmet Gorilla

The Agriculture Task Force took two trips to Gourmet Gorilla, the company that supplies CJA's meals.  In Laron's words, "what we did was talk about products we are going to make and sell in a famous store. We also talked about logos and the market basket we hope to do.  A market basket has a lot of foods that we and our buddy Gourmet Gorilla will sell to families...I had fun and it was like Fourth of July all over again."

Derrick calculated profits for different products in our market basket.



"As we were there we took a tour"--Artis

"Our second trip to Gourmet Gorilla we had more time to be in the kitchen.  It was like we were chefs.  We made tomato soup and strawberry jam.  It took a long time to make."--Derrick

We flavored our jam with real vanilla from real vanilla beans.  Artis takes a whiff.

Everyone got to take home some jam we made, and we gave the extras to teachers who inspired us to do this work.

We also made tomato soup flavored with bacon, and everyone took some home as well.  We hope to sell the jam and the soup we created in a grocery store near you.