A lesson in running a small business

Before the 4th of July holiday, the CJA Garden Club held a farm stand outside the school.  Today, DuShawn and Kameron got a lesson in running a small business.  They counted the money we made from the stand, and compared the money we have made this year with how much we spent.  They connected the prices we charge for our produce with profit and loss.

Cooking our beets

Ms. Lucy took home a batch of beets from CJA's garden.  She reports that they had a unique white color and a delicious flavor!

More harvests

Robert and Jamari harvested crops for the Garden Club's farm stand.

Robert pulls a beet.

Jamari shows off carrots.

The team works together to harvest kale.

Look at the size of those Napa cabbages!

Hilling Potatoes, Caging Tomatoes

Potatoes grow more delicious underground tubers if the base of the plants are buried.  Curtiss, Isaiah, Kameron, and Kody put soil around the plants.  DuShawn is putting cages around young tomato plants to that when they get bigger, the fruit won't cause them to topple over.

Garden Update

There's a lot growing in the garden!

Wheat

Beets

Carrots

Cilantro

Collard greens

Basil

Bell peppers

Eggplant

Calendula

Garlic--check out the curly scapes!  You can chop them up and eat them raw like green onions.

Chinese cabbage

Red onions

Ginger.  Curtiss planted this weeks ago and it's finally sprouting!

Sweet potato vines

Our squash "patch" flourishing

Different varieties of squash have different flowers...

...see?

Some patty pan squash is already growing fruit.

Planting Corn, Beans, Sunflowers

Today, Jamari, Rakeem, Robert, Marvin, and Makhi planted a crop of beans, corn, and sunflowers.  We're excited to see them grow!

Transplanting Peppers, Tomatoes, and Eggplant

The CJA summer programs began yesterday.  It's great to have students back in the building and in the garden.  Summer is in full swing!

Today we transplanted peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant that we started inside from seeds way back in March.  We could have done this a few weeks earlier, but they should still produce a good crop.  It just goes to show that in gardening, as in life, very little goes exactly according to plan, and most of it turns out just fine anyway.

Ms. Lucy watches as Kameron and Curtiss transplant tomatoes.

(Check out the potato plants in the foreground!)

DuShawn and Isaiah work on peppers and eggplant.