2018 Garden

9/27/2018

• Harvested Today: 3.1-lb
• Harvested Total: 31.5-lb

Our second grade harvesters be small yet mighty! These ladies did a wonderful job gathering carrots, chives, kale, and nasturtium blossoms to share with their classmates at lunch. And boy, you've never seen a flock of kids descend on vegetables like we saw today. Within the first 60 seconds they hoovered up 1.5-lbs of carrots and were already asking for more.

We hear you Red Rocks: Next year plant more carrots!

9/25/2018

• Harvested Today: 3.4-lb
• Harvested Total: 28.4-lb

Brrr, fall is finally here! We had a chilly harvest this morning but luckily no frost yet so there were plenty of vegetables still to pick. We had a great turnout of enthusiastic harvest helpers, and even more enthusiastic eaters. Red Rocks kids are the best!

Red Rocks Sour Cream and Chives Dip

• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup chives
• splash of lemon juice
• pinch of salt

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Enjoy with veggies sticks like carrots and cucumbers.

9/20/2018

• Harvested Today: 2.1-lb
• Harvested Total: 25.0-lb

Buoyed by our success with the 5th graders, we decided to make another batch of tasty garden pesto using our beautiful purple kale, red swiss chard, and green parsley. We had many requests for the recipe so here it is:

Red Rocks Garden Pesto

• 2 cups packed mixed greens and herbs
• 1/2+ cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
• Splash of lemon juice
• Pinch of salt

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Add more oil if needed to get the desired consistency.

9/18/2018

• Harvested Today: 1.5-lb
• Harvested Total: 22.9-lb

Summer continues to blaze on despite the changing fall colors all around us. The extra heat has made our greens a little bitter, but you wouldn't know it by the way the 5th graders gobbled up our homemade pesto. We blended kale, swiss chard, parsley, and thyme with some olive oil and parmesan to make this yummy dip. This was our first time doing more than the basic tasting cups and based on the enthusiastic response we'll definitely make it a new tradition.

Q: "What are we tasting today?"

A: "Deliciousness!!"

9/13/2018

• Harvested Today: 2.0-lb
• Harvested Total: 21.4-lb

The sweetest kindies came out to harvest with us on this hot, hot September morning. They were enthralled with the katydid that Mrs. Goostree spotted on one of the sunflowers (see our BUGZ! page) but a little shy of all the bees buzzing around the late season squash and mint blossoms. Our kindies found lots of good carrots to eat and they loved giving the chives a "haircut".

"I don't want to leave, I just want to stay and keep picking stuff."

"It smells like...gum!" (mint leaves)

"We love your garden food!"

9/11/2018

• Harvested Today: 3.0-lb
• Harvested Total: 19.4-lb

We had a fantastic group of first graders helping with the garden harvest this morning. They were so courteous and eager, it was a real delight working with this crew. Our tomatoes are tapering off now that it's nearly fall but our giant yellow squash is finally growing fruit as well as continuing to produce dozens of tasty blossoms. We loved watching the honeybees coming to gather pollen from the bouquets in our hands.

"I need another one. Wow!"

"Oooo I like the green grass."

"This is the best carrot I've ever eaten!"

9/6/2018

• Harvested Today: 5.8-lb
• Harvested Total: 16.4-lb

As crazy as that rain storm was yesterday it perked up everything in the garden, especially the late season greens and sunflowers. Our second graders had so much fun harvesting carrots and crazy radishes from the damp soil that we had to tell them to stop and leave some for the other grades! At nearly 6-lb of fresh produce our second graders had quite a tasty haul, including cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, kale, green beans, and chives.

"Are these for free?"

"My favorite is the carrots."

"Guess what? I ate ten chives at once!"

9/4/2018

• Harvested Today: 5.2-lb
• Harvested Total: 10.6-lb

Our little garden keeps on chugging! We had another bountiful harvest with the third graders this morning, and what a colorful collection it was. Red tomatoes, orange nasturtiums, yellow squash blossoms and corn, green cucumbers, beans, and chives, and purple kale. These students planted the corn as second graders in their Three Sisters bed last spring, so it's fantastic to see it come full circle. Word on the playground:

"I can't believe I'm eating a flower!"

"At first it tasted ok...but then after a minute...too spicy!"

"Can I save some for my teacher?"

8/30/2018

• Harvested Today: 3.0-lb
• Harvested Total: 5.4-lb

Another beautiful late summer day and another great harvest. Our students helped to pick over three pounds of carrots, green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, swiss chard, and nasturtium blossoms which made for quite a beautiful tasting cup. No one could decide on a clear favorite but the cucumbers, tomatoes and carrots were at the top. Here's what we heard:

"Can I have seconds? Because this is really good."

"The green beans are awesome!"

"I'm really hungry right now so this is amazing."

8/28/2018

• Harvested Today: 2.4-lb
• Harvested Total: 2.4-lb

We had a great kickoff for our Garden-to-Table program with the 5th grade class this Tuesday. Our Harvest Helpers picked fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, kale, and squash blossoms to share with their classmates. The students were so excited to taste the fresh veggies from our garden and kept asking for more, especially the tender yellow squash blossoms. Some of the rave reviews we overheard:

"Oh my gosh I love vegetables!"

"This is the best kale I've ever eaten!"

"Squash blossoms? Ok that's what I'm growing from now on."