Harvest time

Yesterday when the children started the harvest garden we talked about why to put a fence around the garden. Where we live there are a lot of deer and they love to eat up people's gardens. So a fence is needed to keep them out.














Today a deer did come to visit.





Luckily the fence kept them out and there was lots to harvest.

First day back at school

First day back to school and it didn't take long for the children to find and explore the dramatic play area.

I had left two bags of soil in a large wooden tray on the floor.
We cut them open and the children used rakes to spread it all out.

Then we opened the bin of artificial fruits and vegetables that I've been finding all summer.

Let the planting begin!

What will we do next?

Butterflies 2010

What a wonderful experience it is to see life come alive.
That's what happen for us as we followed the life cycle of a butterfly.

Starting from the larvae stage through to releasing the Painted Ladies into the flower gardens. It's amazing to watch and learn.

Check out our slide show to witness what we experienced.

Butterflies

Potato recipes

Potato Candy

Stir together in a bowl...
1/2 cup mashed potatoes
1 Tbsp margarine
1 tsp vanilla

Then add...
3 cups icing sugar
2 1/2 cups medium unsweetened coconut
Mix well.

Press into a 9 x 13 inch pan.
Melt 1 cup chocolate chips and 2 Tbsp margarine.
Spread over potato mixture.
Cool and cut into squares.

Potato Pancakes

1 cup mashed potato
1 egg, fork beaten
2 tsp sugar
1 cup milk
1 Tbsp margarine, melted
1 cup flour
1 Tbsp baking powder

Stir together potato and egg in a bowl.
Add sugar, milk and margarine. Mix.
Stir in flour and baking powder.
Slowly add milk to make spoonable but barely pourable.
Grease and heat frying pan.
Drop batter by teaspoonfuls into pan.
Brown both sides.
Makes 34 small pancakes.

Spuds celebration

Let the celebration begin.

We got together with the grade 3 class to taste test a few recipes.
It was a big hit.
We read them our story about the Enormous Potato.

potato pancakes, cheesy hashbrowns,



potato wedges, and potato candy.

More on Spuds

Yesterday we harvested our potatoes and here are a few more photos of our yield.


A few of the potatoes came out attached to the roots but the others we had to dig for.


We finally dumped the tub and rooted around in the soil for the final potatoes.

Spuds in Tubs Harvest

Time to harvest our potatoes.

It was a beautiful sunny day so decided to have story time outside.
I told the story about the Enormous Potato (based on the old folktale of the Great Big Enormous Turnip). Then we acted out the story with our potato plants.
This is how it went...

There once was a class that planted some potatoes in a tub. They waited and watched as the potatoes grew big and bigger till they were ready to pull up.






The teacher took hold of the potato and
she pulled and pulled and pulled some
more but the potato wouldn't come up.





So she called for a little girl to come and help.
The little girl held on to the teacher and the
teacher held on to the potato and they pulled
and pulled and pulled some more but the
potato wouldn't come up.



So the little girl called for her grandma to come
and help. The grandma held on to the little girl,
the little girl held on to the teacher and the
teacher held on to the potato and they
pulled and pulled and pulled some more but
the potato wouldn't come up.


So the grandma called for a little boy to come
and help. The little boy held on to the grandma,
the grandma held on to the little girl, the little
girl held on to the teacher and the teacher held
on to the potato and they pulled and pulled
and pulled some more but the potato wouldn't
come up.

So the little boy called for his Baba to come and help. Baba held on to the little boy, the little boy held on to the grandma, the grandma held on to the little girl, the little girl held on to the teacher, the teacher held on to the potato and they pulled and they pulled and they pulled some more but the potato wouldn't come up.


So Baba called another little boy to come and help. That little boy held on to Baba, Baba held on to her little boy, her little boy held on to the grandma, the grandma held on to the little girl, the little girl held on to the teacher, the teacher held on to the potato and they pulled and pulled and pulled some more but the potato wouldn't come up.

So the little boy called for his mom to come and help. The mom held on to the little boy, the little boy held on to Baba, Baba held on to her little boy, her little boy held on to grandma, grandma held on to the little girl, the little girl held on to the teacher, the teacher held on to the potato and they pulled and pulled and pulled some more but the potato wouldn't come up.


So the mom called for a another little girl to help. That little girl held on to the mom, the mom held on to her little boy, the little boy held on to Baba, Baba held on to her little boy, the little boy held on to grandma, grandma held on to the little girl, the little girl held on to the teacher, the teacher held on to the potato and they pulled and pulled and pulled some more but the potato
wouldn't come up.

So the little girl called for her sister and mother to come and help. Her mother held her sister and the sister held the other little girl, that little girl held the mom, the mom held the little boy, the little boy held Baba, Baba held her little boy, the little boy held the grandma, the grandma held her little girl, the little girl held the
teacher, the teacher held the potato and they pulled and pulled and
pulled some more and ...

... the potato came up!