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For 6 weeks, in tandum with our MSEA teens, we worked with 10 youth from Summer of Service, through Seattle Parks and Recreation. With 12 6-hour sessions we were fulfilling our goal of creating a full cycle of seed to table!
In the garden, after our introduction, we went to weed/water/watch; we planted for a quick harvest (lettuce, radish, cilantro and arugula) and for fall/winter (carrots, collards, turnips, beets, greens, greens, greens) while tending, harvesting, eating and inhaling the summer crops planted by our Madrona 7th grade science class (tomatoes, sunflowers, peppers, eggplant, basil and…..greens, greens, greens…..).
Afternoons in the garden were spent making a new murals and garden art-signage. As always we prepared prepared a “picnic” or “BBQ” with lots of roasted vegetables and garden salads for snack and lunch. Of course strawberry lemonade was a huge hit too.
And in the kitchen our projects and recipes ended always in a full-scale sit-down meal with flowers gathered from the garden. They learned to make omelets and scrambled eggs to add to our breakfast burritos with garden salsa. Our soup cook-off taught technique and the versatility of soup and the blind taste test gave eveyone the opportunity to taste without using their eyes (yes you do taste with your eyes) while using all their other senses. Breads and doughs included making pasta topped with a smooth carrot sauce with sage and our signature pizza dough for lots of vegetable toppings! In 6 weeks their knife skills were impressive and they learned to organize their work stations and perfected the concept “clean as you go” (we could all learn to do this a bit more).
The weather this year was a lovely garnish! Check out the mural on our back fence -this took weeks of planning and painting. it is ART!
Stay tuned for our fall/winter updates and thanks to all of you who patronized our farm stand on Friday, we raised over $600 and youth intern, Mancho honed his selling and money counting skills
