Summer Experience Program

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

Gardeners always seem to acquire lots of extra fencing, posts and hoses that can be unsightly when not in use. We have a beautiful shed to hold all of our tools and other supplies but the fencing and posts never fit inside it. Instead, they are stacked behind it and I have to admit, it's not very pretty. So today we decided to create a willow screen to help to block the view of our little "junkyard". Mitchell, Megan, Colin and Julia took a few 1" X 1" posts, some willow from the garden and a few nails and created a beautifully rustic screen. See photos below.
We also did a bit of succession planting today. We planted buckwheat for the bees where the onions once grew and carrots replaced the parsley that never really grew. We also had time for some weeding, garden clean-up and harvesting, of course. - Celia

Mitchell working on the willow screen

Megan selects a willow whip

The screen is complete

Mitchell, Colin, Julia and Megan with the completed and installed willow screen

Julia braided some onions

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

Today we quickly went about some basic garden maintenance like harvesting vegetables and apples, turning on and checking the irrigation, emptying the dehydrator of peppers, putting compost on the raspberry beds and tidying up the herb circle so that we could start the honey harvesting! Although we only had nine frames of honey to harvest, everyone really enjoyed the experience. Mitchell demonstrated how to use the hot knife to uncap the cells and Megan was in charge of loading the frames into the extractor. After everyone uncapped at least one full frame, the extractor was full and Colin, Megan and Tamara took turns cranking it. We watched as the honey was thrown from the frames onto the inside of the barrel and then slowly dripped down to the bottom. We then opened the "honey gate" at the bottom and let the thick honey flow through a sieve to separate out pieces of wax. Julia and Raina squeezed honey out of the cappings with their bare hands. After a sticky clean-up, we had about 10 quarts of honey, which is about 30 pounds.

Mitchell demonstrates while Tamara tastes

The hot knife neatly uncaps the cells

Carly uncaps a frame

Tamara

Colin

This is old hat for Julia

Colin and Megan open the honey gate and let it flow!

Julia and Raina squeeze honey out of the cappings

Sticky hands

Monday, August 1, 2011

Monday, August 1st, 2011

      Today we harvested, blanched and bagged summer squash for freezing as we do every day. Even though we are getting tired of squash, we know that we will be grateful for it later. The freezer is really filling up! We also harvested cucumbers and tomatoes - and finished the second half of the row of basil that we worked on last week. It took most of us over two hours to strip the basil off the stems and bag them for the freezer. Mitchell dragged the hose out and watered the raspberries which don't seem to be doing well due to the lack of rain. We made raspberry jam and boy does it taste good!
      We were visited by the Wiedmann family today plus my daughter Raina. Claire, Jason, Lucas, Anna, Mark and Raina helped by watering the "third grade garden" where we have cucumbers, parsley and strawberries. Jason was in third grade last year so he remembered eating those strawberries with yogurt on the last day of gardening class. Then they helped to collect calendula flowers and put them in the jar of olive oil that is then warmed by the sun. The warmth of the sun infuses the healing essences of the calendula into the oil, which can then be made into a healing calendula cream.
      Wednesday will be a special day because we will be harvesting honey!! If anyone reading this blog would like to come and help, we are starting at 8:15 am. Please feel free to join us. It is fun, educational and tasty!