Farm Food Forest at the Schoolhouse: Week 5

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.