Edible Schoolyard Pittsburgh 

 

November 2013

 
Greetings!
We're glad you're here. 
 
 If you are interested in more information on food education or school gardens, we welcome you to visit our website:

  

 or contact us:

 

 

 

 

 

 

In This Issue
Faison and Montessori
Dilworth and Urban League
Colfax and ECS
ESY PGH Recipe of the Month

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ESY STATS
2013-14 SCHOOL YEAR
 
Students Reached
815

Student Hours in the Garden: 109

Student Hours in the Classroom: 23

 

Volunteer Hours: 160
 
  
ESY QUOTE 
OF THE MONTH
 
"I'm afraid of worms! (Deep breath.) But they are a part of Nature. So I'll hold it."

-Urban League student


   

WHAT WE'RE READING
 
 
And the Good Brown Earth
by Kathy Henderson 
 
"Gram and Joe love to spend time together taking care of the vegetable patch, but it takes a lot of patience. There's digging time, planting time, weeding time, watering time, even thinking time. Meanwhile, the seasons change, and while Gram does things her way, Joe does things his way. But come harvest, each will find wondrous surprises, thanks to the benevolence of the good brown earth."
 
 
Book Suggestions Wanted! 
 
What gardening or food-centric books are you reading with your child or student?  We welcome your input and suggestions!  Just reply to this email and we will try to feature suggested books in upcoming newsletters!

 

 

 
Fall Bulbs 101
 


It's bulb -planing season!  Garlic as well as flowers such as Tulips, Crocus, and Amaryllis grow from bulbs.  Plant the bulbs about 6 inches deep in November and you can expect to see them sprouting up come spring.  This is a fun activity to do with children and a reminder that nature has its own trusty timeline.

For more information on planting bulbs, see the Urban Harvester link at the bottom of this column! 
  


Join, Support and Learn with 
Grow Pittsburgh!

Check out some of our upcoming events, opportunities and resources:
 

  
LET US EAT 
DINNER SERIES

 

 

 

 This month's Let Us Eat dinner in support of Grow Pittsburgh is going to be held at The Porch at Schenley on November 14th.  Let us eat!

  

 

_____________

 

 

 

VOLUNTEER WITH GP

 

Would you like to volunteer with Grow Pittsburgh this fall?  Serve your community and learn a few new gardening skills along the way!

 

 

-------------------- 
 
 
 
 
 
The Urban Harvester: 
Spring-Flowering Bulbs

 

Each week, Grow Pittsburgh's Director of Agricultural Production, Susanna Meyer, shares her knowledge of urban growing, harvest and eating!

Click here to check out the latest Urban Harvester on fall bulbs!
 

 

Autumn Abundance!

 

 

   "A corn-a-what?" asked a student recently.   Historically, the image of a cornucopia or "horn of plenty" has been a woven, horn-shaped basket full to the brim with vegetables, nuts, fruits and other wild edibles.  In mythology and in many historic artistic depictions, the cornucopia is a symbol of abundance which surfaces around Thanksgiving.  This time of year provides us the opportunity for two important actions: appreciation and enjoyment.  Appreciation for another season of growth and learning in the garden and enjoyment of the fruits (and vegetables!) of our labor - and the food-labor of folks in other parts of the state, the country and the world.

 

   The school garden cornucopia rarely takes the shape of a horn -- but it surely exists!  Our ESY cornucopia looks like children harvesting kale by the arm-full, parents and teachers heading home with bags spilling over with parsley or our Garden Educators smiling widely at their ears of popcorn with jewel-toned kernels.  

 

   Read on to explore more ESY "cornucopia" stories and photos!

 


The Environmental Charter School
Located in Regent Square

School Garden Farm Stand at ECS
   Each week, in addition to my scheduled lessons, I am able to pull a small group of students for some extra work in the garden. In addition to helping with garden work, these students are responsible for writing the weekly Garden Update, and for preparing any produce for our weekly Famer's Market. This added time has really enriched the students' and my own experiences with the garden. Not to mention, it's wonderful to see how excited these kids get over fresh veggies.
   
   It's also been a pleasure to work with the cafeteria team. These food educators have done a lot to support and compliment our programming. They enrich lunch by teaching about the life cycle of pumpkins and introducing students to local farmers. They help manage cleanup, to ensure that students are composting what they can. And when there is a bumper crop of carrots, I know we can work together to ensure the garden-grown produce gets on every child's lunch tray. Week after week, I look forward to eating lunch with the ECS students and staff.

Pittsburgh Colfax
Located in Squirrel Hill

Kamin takes a turn on the tractor at Triple B farms.

   This October, I had the pleasure of joining kindergarten on their field trip to Triple B Farms. From Pumpkinland to the Squirrel Hill Tunnelslide, it sure was alot of fun. I was pleased to meet Mrs. B, and thrilled with how much she had to teach us. In the school barn, we learned "almost everything starts on a farm" and that "dirt made my lunch" (or soil, that is). We also learned about the life cycle of squash plants (like pumpkins). We even got to take some pumpkins home!

   Back at Colfax, we've been busy harvesting sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and beans to be saved for winter cooking. And we tossed up a tasty fall salad. We had a great turnout for our fall workday, with parents, students, and other volunteers all ready to help as we prepared the garden for the end of fall. Thanks for the help!

-Farmer Jim
 
 
Pittsburgh Montessori
Located in Friendship
 
Oban harvests sweet potatoes with enthusiasm!
   This month we celebrated our harvest and the end of the growing season by doing a lot of eating in garden class. Two of the best recipes we prepared this year were a fall salad and popcorn and butter. The fall salad featured kale, broccoli, radishes, spinach, cauliflower, and cabbage - all grown in our school garden! Making popcorn and butter allowed us to use the colorful popcorn kernels (seeds!) that we grew this summer as well. Thanks to Mrs. Skundrich and Mr. Kircher's classes for a great first quarter in the garden! Mrs. Costello and Mrs. Liberati's 3-5 classes also spent some quality time in the garden this month, learning about the parts of a plant - focusing on roots and leaves. Can your student tell you an example of a root we learned about in garden class this month? I am looking forward to starting our Winter Cooking Curriculum next week with our second quarter classes! 
 
Pittsburgh Faison
Located in Homewood

 

 We've been cooking up a storm in the 6-9  classrooms
Darius with his giant chard leaf!
this month. We have prepared sauteed greens and garlic, kale-basil pesto, popcorn and butter, and a healthy fall salad this month. Yum! These tasty recipes gave us a great way to talk about seasonality in the garden - they had us using our cool-season cropsof kale, collards, broccoli, and radishes, and the last of our warm-season crops of popcorn and basil. We grew so much food this year! For our last classes of the first quarter, garden students came outside and helped pull out and compost the last of our tomato, ground cherry, and pepper plants - farewell summer! The younger grades helped gather and save sunflower and black-eyed pea seeds for the spring. Coming up: this week we begin our Winter Cooking Curriculum in Mrs. Lucot's science room!
 

-Farmer Courtney
 
The Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh Charter School
Located in East Liberty
 
Aleathia digs for worms.
   At ULGPCS, the kindergarten and 2nd for the winter. They removed the remainder of our warm-season crops, and mulched the garden with straw to protect the soil during the winter. In the process, we had a blast tilling the soil and learning how to keep it healthy. In some of our favorite lessons, we harvested basil and kale from our garden, and blended it with garlic, olive oil, and salt to make pesto. We also tasted different varieties of apples - red delicious, granny smith, and honey crisp - and made charts to record our favorite flavors and textures. Be sure to ask your student what their variety variety of apple is!
   This month, we had a fabulous Chef in the Garden event, featuring 3 local chefs. They came and cooked tasty snacks, like Japanese noodle salad, Middle Eastern tabbouleh, and fresh "orange sunrise" juice. In the meantime, we learned about the different ingredients, and how to make the recipes. This was the perfect opener for the upcoming Winter Cooking Curriculum, which will start with 1st grade classes have finished putting our garden to "sleep" and 5th grade after Thanksgiving!
 
 
Pittsburgh Dilworth
Located in Highland Park
 
   The kindergarten classes at Dilworth have been incredible helpers getting our garden ready for winter. They have
Wendell requests more salad!
harvested most of our remaining produce - though there are STILL some cool-season crops waiting to be eaten! - and have removed most of our warm-season crops from the garden to be composted. We have been mulching the beds and learning about seasonality, and what our soil needs to stay healthy. In our favorite lesson so far, the children harvested tons of vegetables from the garden - kale, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, radishes, parsley, chives, and peppers - and together we made a delicious fall salad with homemade dressing. It was extremely satisfying to leave the kids begging for more veggies! 
   
   In Mrs. Desiderio's TEA class, we have conducted a season-extension experiment. We planted radishes, kale, and swiss chard in one of our beds, covering half the bed with plastic to make a mini-greenhouse, and covering the other half with straw alone. The children are tracking the  plants' progress in their garden journals. They also harvested lots of sweet potatoes, as well as some amaranth that we will use for paper-making. Coming up at Dilworth, we will be planting garlic, making popcorn, and gearing up for the Winter.
 
-Farmer Molly

ESY Pittsburgh Fall Lesson Plans 


 Looking for the lessons our Garden Educators are teaching this fall?  We have 72 standard-aligned garden lesson plans up on our website, free for you to use and share.  Since they are searchable by season, it's easy to find lessons for this time of year.  Our Fall lesson plans include Planting Fall Bulbs, Pickling, Hibernation and Migration and Making Popcorn and Butter.  

 

Season Extension How-To Video      
        
Curious to know what this gardening buzz about "season extension" is all about?  Check out this video created by Gateway Greening which details how and why to keep crops growing later into the winter and get a jump start on growing early next spring.

 

ESY PGH Recipe of the Month

Greens and Beans
By Chef Dave Gancy of the Red Oak Cafe 

1 lb Greens; kale, chard, collards
1 can Beans, red or black
1/2 cup Onion, diced
1 t. Garlic, chopped
1 T. Vegetable Oil
1/2 cup Water or Stock
1/4 t. Salt
1/8 t. Pepper

1. Wash kale thoroughly.
2. Tear leaves from stems into 2-3 inch size pieces.
3. Heat oil in large pan over medium heat.  When hot, add onions, salt, pepper, cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add garlic, cook for 1 minute more, stirring constantly.
5. Add greens, continue stirring and cooking for 1 minute.
6. Add stock or water and beans, return to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
7. Enjoy!

Smart Cooking Tips:
-try using a variety of greens: collards, mustard, or even dandelion!
-try using a variety of onions together: shallots, red, green, yellow and sweet onions.
-use olive oil for better flavor and nutrition.
-add a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime after cooking to brighten flavor.
 

  May your November bring a cornucopia of whatever it is that you and your family need this month: fun, food, laughter, community, adventure and/or play!
-The Edible Schoolyard Pittsburgh team

 

Contact Info

Grow Pittsburgh 

6587 Hamilton Ave

# 2W 

Pittsburgh, PA 15206 

412-362-GROW (4769)