Fall plantings

Fall is an exciting time in the garden.  We plant many different crops that will bloom in the spring.

Brian re-plants part of the ginger that we recently harvested.

Walter prunes brussels sprout leaves to promote ripening of the sprouts.

We grew this head of garlic last year, and set it aside so we could plant more.  Malachi separates the head into cloves.

Each clove will become a full head of garlic.

Walter digs a trench...

...then fills it with compost.

Brian places the cloves in the trench, and covers them over with soil.  They'll be among the first green to appear in the spring.

Fall landscaping

The agriculture club usually focuses on growing food at CJA, but since the old chicken coop has been moved to a new location, there's a spot on campus that needs new ornamental landscaping.  The crew dug holes for transplants and used our compost to enrich the soil.

Malachi and Ms. Lucy dig holes for our new plants.

Mr. Dwyer could not resist adding something edible to the landscaping mix.  We planted two blueberry bushes, which also have very attractive foliage in the fall.

Moving the old chicken coop

Since the chickens got a new home almost a year ago, we've been meaning to move the old chicken coop and turn it into a tool shed.  We finally got the job done!  It took eight people to pick up the whole structure and slowly walk it to its new location.  Many thanks to Mr. Tengel, Amari, Jonathan, Elijah, Prince, Mr. Lynch, and Mr. Gosselar for pitching in!

Now we'll be able to have tools closer at hand while we're working in the garden!

Another Friday harvest day and market

On Fridays, the Agriculture Club harvests produce during recess and sells it at our farm stand during dismissal.  Another bountiful harvest and a successful market!

In this video, Brian harvests Good Mother Stallard beans.  We wait until the pods have dried out to harvest the beans, which can be stored for months.

Here's a clip of Walter harvesting a cabbage.  You can tell it's ready for harvest when the head is nice and firm, even if it's still pretty small.

Brian demonstrates how to harvest shiitake mushrooms in this video clip.

In this video, Walter harvests a patty pan squash.  Everyone says they look like UFOs.

 Ginger is ready for harvest.

Walter cuts off the stalks, then we dig up the roots.

Brian and Walter show off the ginger plant.  We'll break off a piece and replant it so we can harvest again next year.

The weather is beautiful and we have a beautiful harvest to share with the CJA community.

Students smell the delightful aroma of fresh ginger root.

Pesto Update

A few weeks ago we made pesto sauce.  Malachi designed a label, and we've started to offer them for sale.

Planting sunchokes

Yesterday, we planted sunchokes, which are also called jerusalem artichokes.

Here's a picture of someone else's sunchoke flowers.  We took the picture from www.makeitmissoula.com

The edible part of the sunchoke is the tuber that grows underground, like a potato.  We ordered a bag from a seed catalog.

In order to grow sunchokes, we divide the tubers into parts.  Each piece needs at least one eye--the part of the tuber that will sprout a new stem--and enough of the tuber to provide energy for the growing plant.

Malachi divides a sunchoke.

Walter and Brian plant sunchokes by adding compost to the soil and covering the hole with mulch.

Brian and Walter show sunchokes to the boys and girls in Vocel, an early childhood center that is housed in CJA's building.

The sunchokes will be dormant over the winter.  In the spring they'll grow into plants with yellow flowers, up to six feet tall.  In the late summer and into the fall, we can dig up the roots to harvest the tubers, which can be eaten raw or roasetd.

Transplanting blackberry bushes

Today we planted blackberry bushes.

Malachi gathers wood chips and Brian gathers compost.  Both will be essential for creating a healthy environment for our seedlings.

Walter and Ms. Lucy dig holes for the bushes.

 After filling the holes with compost, we gently place the seedling in the hole.  Next we pack more compost around the plant, mixing it with the existing soil.

The last step is to put a layer of wood chips on the surface around the blackberry bush.

We'll water the seedlings to make sure their roots take hold this fall.  In the spring, they'll continue to grow, and within a few years we'll be able to harvest delicious blackberries here at CJA!