Week 4

Hello! Here it is, another rundown of our past week in Farm Food Forest!

So glad you could join us!

What was up in Story Time this week?

This week, we welcomed Sophie, a new teacher, to Story Time! We are so excited to spend lots of time with her.

Sally read us a story all about fall called Fletcher and the Falling Leaves. Throughout the fall, our teachers have also told lots of folk tale stories on our nature walks or in the classroom.

The Dragonflies took a trip Shelburne Orchards last Friday and filled our bellies with so many apples!

Lastly, the Wild Grapes went on an awesome rainy day nature walk and spent lots of time observing, playing and adventuring.

Sophie knows the way to our hearts can be through a great book!

Sally deep into Fletcher and the Falling Leaves

Comparing our apples! 

We had some great woodland adventures!

This week, Nari's class continued on the farm!

It was everything chickens!  When we got off the bus, some students noticed a chicken was out of its fence.  We waited until Corie came and went over to help it get back in.  Corie asked us if we knew why it would have wanted to get out.   She had us look at the grass and noticed that there was a lot of poop on it and that the grass had been eaten a lot.  Someone also noticed their house was really close to the fence and could get on their house and easily escape.  

We all went into the pen and created a long line for a people fence.  We then carefully walked together to move the chickens closer to Corie who was helping them get inside their house.  It took a little while but we did it!  We put them inside so we could help with the next task which was moving their pen to fresh pasture.  

The pen sits on rollers so we had to do more team work to push the pen along and then stop to move the rollers to the other side so that it could keep moving.  It was quite a process but the Alphas were again up to the task!  We also helped move the flexinet so that it surrounded the pen without being too close.  

Once this was all accomplished we let the chickens out and got to see how excited they were for fresh pasture.  We had our expert sneaky catching skills and were holding chickens in no time.  We even remembered the 5 breeds of chickens they have.  After being with the chickens we came out for another project that involved chickens.  

A few of us went to the pig pen and gave them their breakfast, while the others got ready to make hanging chicken feeders.  Corie had toilet paper rolls,string, peanut butter and a multi seed mixture.  We strung the rolls, smeared peanut butter and then rolled them in the seed to create a feast for the chickens.  We headed back to the chickens and some of us tied the feeders to the pen while others sat quietly with their feeder and waited while the chickens discovered them.  It was really fun watching them get into it once they had a taste.  Corey noticed that they liked the largest seeds first and then would eat the others.  After all this work and watching  the chickens eating made us peckish and so we washed our hands and then ate our snack.  Corie brought over a raisin bread loaf and butter to share too.  We had a little free time before leaving so some of us went on a walk with Corie.  They found milkweed to bring back to school and enjoyed their stroll. Others spent time playing a game of tag.  Oh what a beautiful fall day at the farm!

Enzi holds a special egg, since the chickens have just started laying!

Our students show off their muscles before moving the chicken house!

It can be hard work taking care of the animals at the farm.

An example of one of our peanut butter seed treats for the chickens...

Let's see how Danielle's class fared in the forest!

We had an excellent time in the woods this week! Fall seemed to come upon us so suddenly! Students noticed that in one week’s time since we had last been to base camp, the trees around us (particularly Maple) had turned a FIERY red/yellow/orange and had fallen along the whole pathway to Fallen Oak. Beautiful!

Upon first gathering, we sat in the direction we most resonated with that morning. The folks in the East were asked to share something that inspired them from the prior week, the folks in the south were asked to share what had changed in the weather that day (southerly winds!!), the folks in the west were asked to recall some group challenges we worked on last week (such as silent walking) and the folks up north were prompted to share some solutions they had for how we could get better at those challenges. It was great to hear everyone’s ideas and stories.

We made our way into Turkey Field and played the beloved…FISH AND OTTER! Many rounds ☺ Then we walked in towards Fallen Oak, noticing frogs, snakes, leaves, sticks, and mushrooms along the way. At base camp we listened to the rest of Simona and Bumble and then got plenty of time to explore our newly expanded base camp! Some folks chose to climb and collect acorns while others joined in on Frog Academy, tending to and building a home for the many frogs in our small “pond” at the base of the Oak tree. We found out that we indeed DO HAVE a VERY prized mushroom growing right at Fallen Oak….Chicken of the Wood! We also have TONS of slime mold organisms…yes organisms, not fungi growing around. These small fungus-like organisms feed on decaying wood, bacteria, yeast and fungi and some actually come together in times of scarce resources, acting as a team! We saw  a lot of Wolf’s Milk slime (which is pink!) and various yellow slime molds. Really really amazing.

Finally, we had just enough time to go to our sit spots and spend some time before we headed back out of the woods. It was a lovely day.

Fish and Otter!

This leaf is as big as my face!

Channeling Andy Goldsworthy in the forest this week...

Bekah and co. observe a Chicken of the Wood Mushroom we found!

Mark's class continued in the kitchen this week.

We continued with our spice work this week in the kitchen with a recipe for mulling spices. We broke into three groups and rotated through three stations. Our first station harvested mint and hung it up to dry to preserve and use throughout the winter for various recipes. We think mint tea will be very popular! The second station involved helping Zach prepare lunch by combining spices for home fries and preparing them! Our third station involved researching a recipe for mulling spices, combining our spices and working to make spiced cider for a very successful taste test at the end of our FFF field day. 

Here are the recipes we used in the kitchen this week:

Homefries Recipe

16 potatoes, medium-sized

4 pinches asafoetida

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp ground coriander

2 tsp red chili powder

2 tsp mango powder

8 tbsp cilantro

Mulling Spice Research

What is in it? Cinnamon, cloves, allspice and nutmeg. Less common ingredients are star anise, peppercorn and cardamom. Ingredients can also include dried fruit (raisins, apple or orange rind).

Spiced Cider Recipe

1 quart cider

Half an orange slice

1 clove

1 cinnamon stick

1 allspice berry

A group showing off our mint bouquets!

Zach and crew figuring out our recipe for mulling spices...

Cheers to a great day in the kitchen!

What about the Deltas, you ask?

This week, we had a visit with the Vermont Commons School and went to the forest to look at possible spots for tree houses and other structures. We also hiked up Snake Mountain to see another forest and check out peak foliage in our gorgeous state! During our food time this week, we made apple sauce for the Deltas and for the teachers. We also made apple leather which we ate on our hike. About 50% of us like it! In the Autumn spirit, we used some apples from our Schoolhouse tree to do some apple bobbing! 

In the future, the Deltas will be working on choosing the next apples recipes for cooking and visiting an orchard before Pick-Your-Own season is over.

Meeting with our fellow students from the Vermont Commons School...

Really going in for the catch!

We made it to the peak! A group shot...

Showing off our muscles during our hike up Snake Mountain...

What a great week here at the Schoolhouse Learning Center!

Week 3

Hi there! Thanks for joining us for another edition of our Farm, Food and Forest blog. This week proved to be quite eventful!

An update from the entire school: We had some lovely friends come to our school from UVM extension to talk to us about Milkweed! Did you know that Milkweed is as warm as down but lighter and is very oil absorbent but water resistant? Canada has replaced all of the polypropylene oil spill kits they use in national parks with Milkweed kits! Farmers in Vermont are starting to grow Milkweed commercially to promote Monarch butterfly migration and to use for oil spills and insulation. The whole school has been working together to collect milkweed pods on school property to donate collected seeds to VT farmers.

Send Emily an email at ecseh@theschoolhousevt.org with any questions about Milkweed or if you would also like to donate some from your property!


Let's check out what happened in Story Time this week!
We did so much this week in Story Time! First, we made applesauce and practiced using a grinder to mash our apples. We planted bulbs with Sally that had been donated to our school. We collected Milkweed pods for our friends over at UVM extension. We took a trip to the forest and had lots of time to observe and adventure! We harvested so many potatoes from our very own garden and Mark's class used them in their FFF field day in the kitchen. They were then served as an option at hot lunch as a yummy potato curry! Lastly, but most definitely not least we used a very special mix of grape and choke berry ink to use with goose quill pens! The ink got sucked up into the quill and when you touch the pen to paper it comes right back out! We made some really beautiful art!

Potato harvesting!

The ink is really quite vivid!

Nice Milkweed!

During our FFF field day, Nari's class was on the farm!

We started our morning with introductions and thinking of a food that we had tried that was new to us. Quesadillas, meatballs, leeks, fake eel and pears were some ideas we had. 

We then split up the group into pig chores and hodgepodge chores (feeding cats, bringing things to the compost pile). We had apples and bread to give to the pigs as well as grain that we had to be careful getting into their dish. 

We all met up at the pigs after and while we waited for Corie, we had a wood chip climbing and jumping session. Lookout for the Burdock at the top! We still had lots of energy so we sprinted to the chicken pasture. Corie taught us the names of 5 different breeds that live at Bread and Butter: Rhode Island Red, Buff Orbington, Barred Rock, Speckled Sussex and Araucana. We headed into their space and tried to be sneaky to get close to pick up chickens. Some of us were better than others so they helped friends hold chickens they had caught. We found lots of loose feathers and were matching them with the different breeds. Corie let us take some grain and offer it to the chickens from our hands. 

We all went and washed our hands and Corie brought out some raisin bread and butter to have with our snack. We then helped to harvest pumpkins in the raised beds and Corie let us pick bouquets of different flowers to take home. Super fun day with the Alphas!

Uli and Sally tag team feeding the pigs!

Checking out our pumpkin harvest!

A friend lends a helping hand.

Munching on some kale!

What was going on in the forest with Bekah this week?

Danielle’s kiddos were back! Upon getting off the bus, we grouped up around the ropes laid on the ground, each one symbolizing one of the four cardinal directions. We stood where we felt like we belonged that morning:

North- Alert, Focused

East- Energized, Awake

South- Inspired, Strong

West-Peace, Calm

It wasn’t long before Bekah took out the special creature of the day that would become our morning’s challenge: to spot the aster-like flower as many times as we could! Walking into the forest entrance, we spotted about 52 different individual flowers! This flower really loves the early Fall.

Moving past Turkey Field today, we stood at the entryway to the forest under the Red oak tree. Half of us became hiders and the other half became seekers. Danielle sat in the middle of the forest path a ways into the woods and the hiders entered, trying to find the best hiding spots just staying within 15 feet of the path. Some of us put leaves, sticks, dirt on our bodies and some of us even used DECOY clothing articles to trick each other. When all the hiders were ready, Bekah brought the seekers in. They had to do their best to fox walk silently on the path, never allowed to walk backwards, and count how many people they had noticed by the time they got to Danielle! Don’t forget to look behind you!! We realized that moving slowly allows our other senses, be it sight or maybe hearing, to sharpen and see things we may not have otherwise, perhaps when “city walking.”

We made our way into base camp silently walking to the beat of Tippy Tap and gathered at the fire pit for a snack and a story: Simona and Bumble! (chapter two for next week!). During explore time, many of us mined with our sticks at the root ball of our dear Fallen Oak, some of us hunted for mushrooms to identify, and some of us helped Bekah build the sweet fire. We found tons of birch bark and small dry twigs and when the fire got big enough, we threw on “firecrackers” (branches of hemlock) that made awesome crackly noises and neat color flare ups!

Soon enough, it was time to gather for Sit Spot. It’s amazing to watch everyone go to their favorite places and be still enough to hear the birds, the wind, and see the silent things living around us. After Gratitude Circle, we made our way back to the entrance. Thank you for another wonderful morning in the woods!

Starting off with our opening circle...

Here we are tending to the fire.

How many kids can you spot in this fallen tree?

We think this mushroom is Chicken of the Woods but we are not totally sure! Are you an expert on mushrooms? Let us know what you think!

Mark's class really went for it in the kitchen this week. 

Our new chef, Zach DeFranco, has a lot of experience cooking Indian food. Since this was his second day joining us during FFF and since we are still getting to know each other, we decided to make an Indian spice blend called Garam Masala. 

Zach’s Garam Masala

2 tbsp coriander

2 tbsp cardamom hulled

2 tbsp peppercorn

1 tbsp ground ginger

1 tbsp nigella seed

½ tbsp allspice berry

3 inch cinnamon stick

1 tsp clove

1 tsp nutmeg

1 dried Kashmiri chili

Garam Masala: Garam Masala is a very popular Indian spice blend. The Hindi garam – meaning “hot” – and masala – meaning “mixture” – is a blend of fragrant spices. Garam does not refer to the spiciness of the blend, but instead to the intensity of the spices and the warming properties in raising the metabolism.

After mixing up our spice blend, we chopped potatoes that our very own Story Time kids had harvested from our garden and made a potato curry to taste test and offer as an option at hot lunch!

We also harvested fresh mint from our garden and dried the leaves to make tea! 

Zach is a master of facts and had lots to share about all of the spices we were working with!

Wow! That's a mountain of potatoes you have there.

Using Zach's mortar and pestle to grind up spices for our Garam Masala mix.

Working on drying our mint...

Finally, let's see what the Deltas were up to this week. 

We harvested a good chunk of the apples from the Schoolhouse apple tree to make apple sauce and apple leather. We read about different apple varieties earlier this and chose a selection of apple recipes that we would like to cook. We may take a trip to Champlain Orchards soon and pick some varieties of apple based on the recipes we chose. 

Showing off our beautiful apples from our tree.

He doesn't mind getting way up there to get to those hard to reach apples. 

Our bounty!

Using the food processor during our cooking session in the kitchen... 

That's it for another great week of Farm Food Forest at the Schoolhouse Learning Center. Thanks for reading!

Week 2

Hi there! Another great week here at the Schoolhouse for our Farm, Food and Forest Program!

Let's get started!

What a great week in Story Time! 
Some Wild Grapes harvested wild grapes this week! The grapes were used to make grape juice and some other treats. Did you know you can use wild grapes as a natural dye? The Wild Grapes and Dragonflies both did a grand apple test with nine different kinds of apples! Thanks to the Yates family who donated the apples to the our school.

 
Working together to carry some wild grapes!

Looking for critters in the dirt!

 
Sally, what kind of apple is that? Gala?


Nari's class spent their FFF field day in the kitchen.
We were so lucky to have our new chef, Zach DeFranco hanging out in the kitchen with us this week! We are still riding the apple train in the kitchen and spent the morning making apple sauce and apple scrap vinegar. We used a medley of apples left over from our awesome taste testing sessions last week and apples from our very own tree at the Schoolhouse. We split up into three groups, one group to harvest apples, one group to wash apples and slice and juice lemons, and one group to peel and core apples. After our applesauce was on the stove cooking up, we combined our apple scraps with sugar and water to leave in the kitchen and turn into apple scrap vinegar. Check it out in the kitchen if you happen to be passing through!

Showing best harvesting practice...

A crew helping to juice lemons!

Working on our slicing skills!

This applesauce was so good we licked the bowl!


Danielle's class spent the day on the farm.
We started out with introductions, names, a favorite fruit or veggie and a fruit or veggie we had never tried. We moved to chores first, making sure the pigs and cats had food and water and stocking the farm store.
After chores, we all gathered around the pigs. We fed them extra tomatoes, grass, clover, dandelions, and some of us went into the pen to visit with them.
After pigs, we journeyed into the greenhouse to taste test! We tried chives, scallions and chard.
The chickens were our next stop! We found a huge snapping turtle trying to get out of the chicken area, but its head was stuck in the chicken fence! Corie and Sally managed to free the turtle to the other side of the fence. Hopefully it finds its destination without too many more obstacles! After our turtle adventure, we went into the chicken area and handled different chickens, watched their behavior (dust bathing, eating, exploring, hidings from the humans) checked out their claws, feet, feathers, combs and wings.
After our time with the chickens, we had some free time for hay bale exploration.
We finished off our day with fresh bread!

Quality time with the pigs!

Taste testing in the greenhouse.

The turtle has been freed!!

Getting to know our chicken friends.

Some time for play!

Mark's class was in the forest this week!

As soon as Omega Sage exited the Schoolhouse bus, ENERGY was high! Right upon arriving, we gathered on the grass to sit in our Welcome Circle. To the beat of Tippy Tap, the drum, we gathered together and each shared our name and “forest name”. This year there are names such as Woollybeard, 8-Bit, Fox Trot, Ravenclaw and many more!

It was hard to sit outside the forest for too long, so after reflecting on our forest presence and definitions of respect for the land and one another, we made our way to Turkey Field! On the way we all saw brand new scat from the same character that, only by way of scat, the whole Schoolhouse has been seeing! We saw a range from brand new scat, moderatly old scat to decomposing scat all in one small area. There’s one creature around here that is big enough and bold enough to mark in such an open and exposed spot….the coyote!

Upon arriving to Turkey Field, five of the Omega-Sages were blindfolded becoming geese….while the rest were skiddish turkeys trying to run away and not be caught. The game was tricky and definitely honed in on the geese’s other senses beyond sight. We then transitioned to a game of the well-loved Fish and Otter!

With the more eastern (high, bright, new) energy out of us, we walked in to base camp to the beat of Tippy Tap. Eating snack at Fallen Oak and listening to the story, “Aida Returns”, most of us remembered aida and her best friend The Sundance Kid from last year’s stories. We took plenty of time to explore Fallen Oak, scout for special mushrooms, peel birch bark and wood to gather for kindling and fire wood, and some of us got to wittle with the help of Woollybeard (Mark ). Many Omega-Sages made tools to help them in their tasks, such as small spears and hammers. We intend to bring in more rope and tools for next time!

Gathering once again at the fire pit, we learned about Medicine Bundles. These bundles are small pouches/bags that contain a few important items which represent one’s spirit and particularly in past ancient cultures, could act as medicine physically. We are going to be slowly putting together our own medicine bundles full of a few precious objects, drawings, items from nature, that best represent us. Stay tuned!

Finally we took turns speaking during our gratitude circle (it’s a huge privilege to work with these kiddos) and made our way out back to the entrance.

Starting up with introductions.

Journeying along!

The whole circle in one frame.

Exploring the forest- fungus??

Some awesome free time to climb and adventure!

The Delta's week was all about brain power!
We read a New York Times article about whether or not schools should teach students to cook. We took a poll and the Deltas agreed that is in an important skill that all students should learn. We did a brainstorm about all of the things we want to cook as well as places we want to check out. At the farm, we spent lots of time with the chickens and collected soil with an auger. We talked with Corie about potential sites for the garden plot and the considerations in choosing a site. We also did some pig study sketches and observations in our journals.

Getting to know our friends...

Checking in on the coop...

Collecting soil with an auger...

Checking out the state of the soil on the farm.

Our food brainstorm!!

Thanks for another great week of FFF here at the Schoolhouse Learning Center!