The Orca K-8 School Garden Blog!

Let us party aka LETTUCE PARTY! It is a record salad year this season. When our spring lettuces flowered & seeded, we shook the plants vigorously and the seeds spread everywhere in that garden bed. Then…..amazing amounts of salad grew up. 10 different kinds plus spinach & arugula to boot. These stainless steel bowls we have are perfect for kids to harvest their own customized salad from the garden. We then made a paper salad art creation. It’s a cool piece to carry home to families and share the day’s activities. We are sure parents appreciate the eating of greens by kids! Plus we really explain & remind kids of FRESH ORGANIC LOCAL FREE aka F.O.L.F. for short.

What a fun, colorful, engaging, and delicious week in the garden. We collected leaves for mulch to cover our garden from the cold fall/winter weather. This really helps protect the soil and protect it from the elements.

We also got the chance to eat some delicious fried green tomatoes. These tomatoes didn’t finish ripening in the garden & we pluck them and fry them up in a vegan batter. It’s a yearly tradition around here that kids enjoy a lot. We also enjoyed some mint tea that was extra delicious w/ this slight chill in the air. Students got to make a lavender wand too w/ lavender from the garden. Busy day!

It was an incredibly sunny and gorgeous day as we commenced w/ another legendary Harvest Festival. Let the fun begin!

We got the cider press juicin’ & had tons of fun activities including lavender wands, corn husk dolls, an impressive potluck, face painting, and leaf crowns. This highlight of the year is a source of joy here at Orca & is an absolute blast every year.

Middle School Harvest Festival was an awesome celebration yesterday.It was great to see all the 6th-8th grade in the sunshine of a beautiful fall day, having a blast!

We had the cider press flowin’, the snacks were delicious, the leaf crowns were fantastic, face painting was off the hook, & the revelry & celebrations were strong.

Delicious week of harvesting monster kale leaves and filling them full of many tasty ingredients. We had daikon radish, carrots, lemon cucumbers from the garden, rice, soy sauce, and sweet chili sauce. Students got to pick their own leaf out of the garden, rinse it off, and head into the greenhouse to fill it full of the ingredients. The rolls were a hit! Kids went back for 2nds, 3rds, 4ths, & 5ths.

Ahhhh the smell of fryer grease in the garden, it can only mean one thing- Orca Fries! It’s a delightful Orca tradition that kids & teachers look forward to.

We harvest potatoes from the garden, chop them up, fry them, and eat them. We also manage to throw in some fast food vs. Orca comparisons and get a better understanding of what fresh food tastes like.

Though we don’t like to fry everything in the garden, french fries (and some future green tomatoes) get the royal treatment. We use old fashioned elbow grease to dig them up and wash them off- then while they are cooking we engage students w/ art and science.

A common and all too easy target is the average McDonald’s french fry. A mere cursory glance can make you raise your eyebrows at 17 ingredients?!? Our fries are local, organic, fresh, free, and really located only 40 feet from where they will be cooked. And they only have 3 ingredients! Kids love them & this yearly tradition drives home the beauty of eating local.

This last week was busy as we worked in the garden, harvested mints & herbs, and got a chance to be outside in the lovely PNW September air. This last bit of sun was a chance for us to collect all the herbs, medicinal flowers, tomatoes, and other plants that need to be collected before the rain sets in. Getting a shovel in a kid’s hand is serious fun- the elbow grease, the teamwork, and the camaraderie were in full effect and the students loved it. We drank mint tea after harvesting mint for the fall & winter, collected calendula flowers for a medicinal balm we will make later, collected fennel seeds, and we even dumped fresh compost in our garden.