Our afternoon started out by taking the kids to check out the south gardens.  We ran out of time last week and we wanted to make sure everything got a good looking over.  The kids helped identify the plants growing and also identified what shouldn’t be growing (the weeds) and pulled some out for us.    
They stopped out and measured the sunflowers: 11-inchesAfter the kids visited the gardens we headed back to the sheds, grabbed drinks from the hose and ran through the sprinkler to cool off.  Next on the lesson plan – SOIL!  Diane showed the kids different types of soil – clay (from our orchard), sand (from Frank and Diane’s land), and compost.  Once they looked at the soil it was time for a trip to our compost pile!
Next – we mulched the duck race garden.  The kids shredded up newspaper and spread it around the plants.  While we were looking at this garden we also did a quick check on our rain gauge gnome – zero.    Then they added woodchips to hold the paper down. By mulching the garden the weeds will be must easier to control.  Once we had the garden mulched the kids took the bottles they had painted the week before and added them to the edge of the duck race garden.  We’ll have the kids that missed class put their bottles in to complete the ‘look’ at our next session – which is on July 12th.  There’s no class next Thursday with the fourth of July but don’t worry – we’ll keep things alive until we meet again! After another water break – we took the kids out to some of our fruit gardens to find a little snack.  Our first stop was the tractor tire strawberry gardens – we just have a few plants for Cedi and Capri to munch on but we did find enough ripe ones for the kids to all try one.  They are ever bearing strawberries, not very pretty but definitely delicious!Next stop – a snack of blueberries in ‘Blueberry Bumble’.  The blueberries are just starting to ripen.  Be sure to be on our email list so you don’t miss out on blueberries this summer.  I’ll be sending out an email soon with details on how you can buy some! 
I mentioned to some of the mom’s that it was quite an adventure starting our blueberry garden and if you want to read about that check out this blog post.     On the way back, the group stopped under our new playground set and went digging for some more worms to add to the worm farm.  It was a successful dig!
With a few minutes left in our session we just let the kids play on the swings and in the water.  Olivia was definitely the water bug of the day!

See you all on July 12th!  Have a wonderful 4th of July!

With the crazy hot weather earlier this week our ‘Kids in the Garden’ group completely lucked out with a gorgeous afternoon for our second week in the gardens.   

 

We had a fun, education filled day with a little snack thrown into the mix!

Rain Gauge:  0 – inches – the wind had knocked it over… we did get 0.2 inches on Saturday though

We started the day out by checking out the gardens we had planted in Week 1. I had somehow managed not to kill anything when I was left to water the gardens during the week (I do have to give a shout out to Frank for helping me with that too).   Plants had grown, some seedlings had sprouted, and some weeding need to be done.  Once we finished the initial business we split the kids into two groups.  One group came with me to paint wine bottle garden markers and the other group went with Diane to fill our First Class Worm Farm that Jared built.  Here’s Christian working intently on painting his bottle.   I think if you give kids some paint and anything to paint on – they’re going to be happy.  Next week we’ll take our painted bottles to decorate the garden.   Here’s the second group on it’s way to find some worms.  

Instructions/info for the worm farm:

1. Fill farm about half full with soil.
2. Shredded newspaper. Wet it before adding.
3. Add food scraps
• no onions, peppers, spicy foods, citrus, dairy, or meat
4. Scoops of soil with worms in them
5. Add more moist, shredded paper.
6. Farm bin has air holes
7. Keep farm moist and dark

Once the kids were done painting there bottles and helping fill the worm farm – we did a bit of transplanting.  Our chocolate mint and basil is going crazy so we thought it would be good to transplant some of them.  Next up – snack time!

Pizza Tortilla Chips

Tortilla Chips

Tomato Sauce

Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Chopped basil and parsley from the herb garden

 

We had the kids dip a chip into the tomato sauce.  Then we sprinkled it with mozzarella cheese and some freshly chopped herbs.  It was like a mini pizza!

 

You can also use this to make your own pizza – use a pizza crust or soft taco shell. Cover with the tomato sauce and top with cheese and herbs.  We had this for dinner tonight – I really enjoyed it!

We ended the day checking out the progress of the sunflowers.  I missed the actual measuring of the plants since I was putting away the snack but some of the kids happily reported that our sunflowers are measuring between 4 and 5 inches.

 

Another great week for the Kids in the Garden Program.  Diane hasn’t shared with me her plans for next week so I can’t give you a little teaser yet – but I’m sure it will be good!

I’m here to report that we had a fantastic first ‘Kids in the Garden’ Session yesterday.  I don’t think we could have asked for better weather OR better kids!  What fun!  I’ll share a quick run down of what we did on our first day and share a few pictures.  To see more pictures be sure to check out the ‘Kids in the Garden’ flickr group I started HERE.  If you’re participating in our little program please feel free to upload your pictures to the group as well!

We started out with some introductions – we had some kitties, dogs, and of course teachers and leaders to introduce to the kiddo’s. 

Next – we got right to work.  We had the kids help with a bit of weeding before we started to plant in the raised garden. 

Diane is demonstrating how you separate the roots before you plant a seedling – you don’t want the roots to grow in a circle…you want them to spread outwards.  Each child got to plant either a tomato plant, a pepper plant, parsley, or marigolds (marigolds are a companion plant in a garden that repels pests).   Next up – time to plant a seed (or 20)!  In the blue planter the kids planted beets and swiss chard.  We salvaged the jungle gym that many years ago children at the Arlington School played on and we’re happy to be reusing it as a trellis garden.  The kids all planted three beans – one of each variety shown above that will grow on the trellis and create a fabulous vertical garden.  It was time for a little ‘cooler’ fun.  We have a decent herb garden going already between the sheds and Diane found a fabulous recipe using chocolate mint.  As promised to all the mom’s – here’s the recipe:

Strawberry Chocolate Mint Lemonade Cooler

2 cups frozen whole strawberries (I used ones we had picked at Burr Oak Gardens)

1-1/2 cups lemonade

1 tbsp Farm Fresh honey from Lapacek’s Orchard

6-8 chocolate mint leaves from Lapacek’s Orchard’s herb garden

Blend all ingredients in blender, pour and enjoy!

We still had a little time so we took our group on a tour of all the gardens the kids will be working on and learning from throughout this summer.  Above is our Sweet Corn ‘Field’.  Here we have our canning tomatoes planted. And here is just a seedling of the sunflower’s we’re going to have a blast watching grow!

 

We already have a fabulous itinerary for next week including a little painting project for some garden art, some fabulous ‘wormy’ learning and of course a little garden fresh snack!

Our little rain gage gnome is excited to see everyone next week too!

Craft-Apple-Ar & Vintage Flea!

That's right, this year's Craft-Apple-Ar & the August Flea is being combined into one exciting event!

On Sunday, August 26th Lapacek's Orchard will be hosting a day filled with arts & crafts, vintage & antiques, fruit, preserves, donuts, cider, animals, and plenty of room for the kids to run & play!

The show is now open for vendor applications.  Booths will be 10' x 10' and ALL spaces are outdoors.  The booth fee for this show is $50.  If you are interested, please contact Naomi (naomi@glitterworkshop.com) for additional info!   Vendors will be allowed to bring arts, crafts, antiques and / or vintage finds for this event. 

On Sunday morning, my mother-in-law and I packed up the three girls and we went and picked strawberries at Burr Oak Gardens. The two older girls did fantastic and Pip was a great cheerleader that had more fun feeding the dog her treats than eating them herself. 

 

The main force driving us to pick strawberries was that I wanted to make these patriotic strawberries that I saw on Pinterest for Cedi’s 4k picnic and I didn’t want to go to the store to buy strawberries when they’re in season here. 

 

So, this morning I melted my white chocolate, put my blue sprinkles in a bowl and made up some Patriotic Strawberries!

Not quite as pretty as the Pinterest picture but I’m pretty proud of them – and they were delicious!

Now that you’re mouth is watering I would love to share with you a little interview I did with Burr Oak Gardens – what it is, who started it, why they do it, and how you can become a member of their CSA.

 

Why did you decided to start a CSA?
We graduated from UW-Madison in the fall of 2008. Tyler always liked growing vegetables and had been kicking around the idea of starting a CSA. After about a year of not being able to find a job in the Horticulture field because of the poor job market we decided he should give it a go. I ended up loving it so much that I quit graduate school to help him run the CSA. After two full seasons, I can't imagine doing anything else for a living. CSAs allow you to have a relationship with your customers and that closer connection to the people who are eating your produce is really rewarding. Not to mention the fact that we get to work outside all day.

 

What's your favorite thing about working with vegetables?
One of the most enjoyable things is to see our plants go from the seed packets to seedlings in our greenhouses. A lot of our vegetables are started inside in February and March and to see green things growing is such a pleasure when there is snow on the ground. Tyler loves to see the field right after our we transplant the plants from the greenhouses into the field. Right after you transplant there are no weeds and the rows of green plants appear in a matter of a couple of hours. He calls it instant gratification.

 

What's your favorite item to harvest and enjoy during the season?

Tyler really loves to harvest Brussels sprouts because he goes out into the field by himself with a machete and hacks down the stems.

 

What's the most difficult thing about the CSA?

From a customer's perspective, the most difficult thing about a CSA is not knowing what will be in your box each week. For many people being at the mercy of Mother Nature does not work with their busy schedule. But if you think of it as an eating adventure you will get a lot out of the experience.

As a grower, losing crops to the weather, disease, weeds, or other pests is very frustrating. We try very hard not to use even OMRI listed chemicals on our farm, so we sometimes have to destroy crops to prevent the spread of disease. When that happens it is a very rough day.

What's the most rewarding thing about the CSA?

Finding alternatives to chemical controls of pests and diseases is very satisfying. We use traps, beneficial insects, and other methods to try to control insect and disease damage. Another huge reward is when we have members tell us how much better our food tastes than what you get in the grocery store. One of our best days last season was when a member thanked us for giving him a recipe that got his eight year old to like Swiss chard.

How can I sign up for your CSA?

Go to our website, www.burroakgardens.com, and download our sign-up form. Fill it out and send it and a check to Burr Oak Gardens, LLC W5511 County Road B, Rio, WI 53960.
We are two thirds of the way through our transition period to become certified organic. We are also members of FRESH Food Connection. As part of that membership we sign a pledge that can be found on our website.

 

Do you have a special recipe you'd like to share with my readers?
One of the most popular recipes we have is for kale chips.

1 bunch kale
1 Tbls olive oil
Sea salt, curry powder, garlic salt or other
spice

Preheat oven to 325. Wash kale leaves and remove stems. Pat dry to remove any excess water. Place leaves on baking sheet and brush the top side lightly with olive oil. Cook for 8-12 minutes until crisp. Sprinkle salt or other spice on the leaves. Serve immediately.

 

Burr Oak Gardens featured in Eat Local Video

The following link is for that Eat Local video:.
https://www.heartlandcu.org/Go-Local/Eat-Local/Monty-s-Blue-Plate-Diner.aspx

 

Watch.  Win.  Wow!

Your chance at a $20 Monty's gift card is only a comment away! 

Just watch the video, then comment on our Facebook wall  [Heartland Credit Union] or using the comment button under the video.  Make sure to enter by end of day Friday, June 8 for your chance to win! 

Thanks!!

Tyler & Kate Rowe
www.burroakgardens.com
920-992-3643 or 608-852-5348
kate@burroakgardens.com

 

Tyler and Kate still have shares to sell but not many – don’t wait too long to reserve your share today!