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!
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