CJA Farmers’ Market

Reopens for 2012

Friday, May 25

From 2:30pm dismissal until 3:oopm

Eggs, parsley, cilantro, rose hip tea, and mint tea for sale!

All profits go to CJA's agriculture program

Thinning the garden

"Thinning is when you pull out some plants that grew a little and you leave the strongest plants.  We thin in order to give that strong plant a chance to grow properly.  If we didn't thin we'd have a cluster of plants mis-growing."
--Laron

"My experience of thinning was hard because at first I didn't know what to do.  But when I noticed the rest of my teammates doing it I got it.  It was fun because I learned how to do it."
--Alzario

Mustard greens benefiting from thinning

Thoughts on how we get our food

"We should get all our food from a local garden.  Why?  Because you know where it came from, it can be very fresh.  You planted it and not anyone else.  One example of this is when we planted cilantro.  I know who planted it, which was us.  So I took it home to my mother.  She cooked some tacos.  It was very good."
--Alzario

"I think a person should get their food by growing it in their backyard because you know if it's healthy or not.  And you know if it has poisons in it.  For example, I like to eat apples, and apples are healthy for you.  If we grow apples on the farms we are building the earth.  Using the seeds you can grow and regrow more apples."
--Derrick

Our Chickens Then and Now

"We keep chickens so we can sell eggs at the farmers' market and so we can learn how to take care of a pet."
--Derrick

"We keep chickens because as kids we should learn how to keep chickens.  It takes a lot of work, but we do it because we want to be genltemen one day."
--Alzario

The chickens are growing!  This is what they looked like in mid-January:

Three and a half months later, they're almost fully grown.

"Coco likes to have fun in the wood chips with her sisters.  She also likes to fly."

--Derrick

"Sarah is almost two years old.  She is always the first to get food and water."

--Derrick

"Daisy is a Buff Orpington.  When I walked up to her she ran away.  She's the smallest of all the chickens.  She's the last to get food and water."

--Alzario

Whitney is a Rhode Island Red

Tulip is a Buff Orpington.  She's medium-sized.

"Coretta is an Aurecana.  She is about three months old.  When I was watching her she was running around.  She's one of the last ones to get food and water."

--Alzario

Aretha is the biggest Rhode Island Red.  She's almost as big as Sarah, the two-year-old White Leghorn.

Mr. Farmer is named after one of our fifth grade teachers.  (He said it was ok.)  Despite her confusing name, she is a female.  She is the biggest of our three Buff Orpingtons.