Apple blossoms

This is an apple blossom.  It has to be pollinated by a bee.  You can think of it as the bee carrying the sperm cell that is fertilizing the flower's egg cell, which will allow the tree to give birth to, or produce a delicious apple.  

The first step is spring, which allows the tree to make flowers.  Summer is when the apples are pollinated by the bee.  And fall is when the apples fall off the tree.

I felt great after learning about the delicious fruit known as the apple.  It was interesting how I felt happy that the apple was going to be eaten soon.  

--Casimir, grade 6

The Garden Journal

"This is Mr. Dwyer's journal, which contains the plans for what we'll plant this year. Even the plans for 2012 are still in Mr. Dwyer's journal.  The plans for 2013 are important because if we didn't have the journal then we wouldn't know where we planted what, and what fruits and vegetables we decided to plant this year.  The information about what we'll plant in the future is important because if we didn't have it, we'd forget what we wanted to plant and what we didn't want to plant."

--Cecil, grade 6 

Readying the garden to plant

"We replanted the gardens and mixed compost, sand and peat moss to make soil.  We did that so we can get the garden beds ready for this spring and summer."

--Jaquel, grade 6

"I drove the wheel barrow to and from the compost bin.  Also I helped strain all the wood chips from the finished compost.  I helped prepare the soil for the garden bed by putting sand in the wheel barrow and mixing peat moss in it."

--Alzario, grade 7

The crew transports sifted compost to be mixed.

Jaquel pulled weeds before we cultivated the beds.

"My job during all of this was to stir and shovel the new soil so that it was ready for the garden."

--Cecil, grade 6

"I think we did awesome and we worked really hard to get things right and to get in on a great head start."

--Jaquel, grade 6

We also planted herbs and ornamental plants in pots.

Transplanting seedlings

"In ATF we transplanted baby cucumbers and eggplants."

--Jamari, grade 6

"We had to transplant the plants because some of their roots were getting very long.  Thinning is taking out the weak plants and keeping the strong ones.  We do that so that the weak ones will not drag down the strong ones."

--Terrence, grade 6

Terrence, Casimir, and Terrell sift compost to add to our potting mix

"I noticed that all the plants are foods we eat."

--Terrell, grade 6

Cecil shows off a cucumber transplant

Cleaning the Chicken Coop

"This week in ATF we cleaned the chicken coop.  I can tell you one thing: they poop a lot.  They pooped all over their house.  The chicken coop should be cleaned every two weeks, and you should give the chickens new straw to lay their eggs in.  What I did was take pictures so we could post them here.  It was a good week in ATF and we had fun taking care of the chickens."
--Alzario, grade 7

Old straw in laying nests

Fresh straw

Rakeem sweeping out the coop

Javion cleaning up

Jamari composting the old straw and chicken waste

How to make rosehip tea

"Today in ATF we made rose hip tea.  Rose hip tea is made from roses and water.  One interesting thing about rose hips is that they came from roses in our garden."

--Alzario, grade 7

"The interesting thing about rose hips is that they only taste good in tea, not when you eat them regularly."

--Jamari, grade 6

"You pick them in the winter.  The rose hips are cool.  They are red and look just like strawberries."

--Cecil, grade 6 

"We made rose hip tea by taking them off the rose bushes, then we took the stems off..."

"...Then we boiled them."

--Alzario, grade 7

"Rose hip tea is healthy.  It doesn't go through factories and processing."

--Cecil, grade 6

"Lastly, we drank the tea.  I have to admit the tea was pretty bitter; needs some sugar."

--Jamari, grade 6

"Rose hip tea tasted very good; I loved it.  It's good for you if you have a cold because it has vitamin C in it. Vitamin C is also in oranges.  Thanks a lot.  We had a lot of fun this week cooking again."

--Alzario, grade 7

Here are some rose hips sitting out to dry so we can store them and use them later.

Soup Sale at the African-American Heritage Celebration

Agriculture Task Force members helped provide healthy food to our community by selling French Onion Mushroom Soup at CJA's African American Heritage Celebration.  The soup and the celebration were big hits!