Today

Today Ms Logan give us are  certificate for are community hour and we have to take home a parent Survey and we being it Thursday   so we have money for nechrisdeandre49@gmail.comxt year when we have a gardening club.

Adventures with irrigation

This week's class meeting was a rainy one, but boy did we get a LOT done.

Before class, I met with Vinnie, who'd come down from Baltimore to help us install an irrigation system in the hoop house he helped us build earlier this year. We talked through the tasks that students would be helping with, including installing drip tape for both in-ground beds and hanging pots.

I then made my way to Drew, where the Eco-Friendly group paused to check out our productive strawberry plants, harvesting some beautiful berries as a quick snack before traveling to the Windsor Crossing hoop house.

The juicy strawberries were gobbled up in about 2.5 seconds, but don't worry, there will be more... especially for those students and teachers who make their way to the Drew-Freeman garden over the summer break to help with weeding and using the rain barrels to water plants until school begins in the fall. (Just putting the idea out there.) Speaking of watering plants....

The boyscouts who had helped us build the hoop house back in October came by to assist us again: this time with the installation of drip tape, to keep our plants well watered during the hot summer months.

 

While some Drew students installed the irrigation system inside the hoop house, we had some planting to do outside! We had to use 5-gallon buckets to move a huge pile of soil from Ms. Jessica's truck to build a raised bed along one side of the hoop house. (Curious that I don't have photos of us hauling around buckets of dirt, but I guess I was busy lugging buckets back and forth.) Once we'd constructed our bed out of soil and burlap, we got to planting sweet potato slips about a foot apart, each with a spoonful of rabbit manure -- a natural fertilizer that sweet potatoes love. Oooh, those tubers are going to be delicious in the fall!

Once the irrigation team finished up inside, we began to transplant some of the seedlings that Farmer Gail sent along for us to start growing ingredients for the salsa we'll be making with the Entrepreneurs Club in the fall. A number of different heirloom tomato varieties and tomatillos, to be precise. We also had some hot -- and I mean HOT -- pepper plants donated by Kid Power! It was nice to be inside the hoop house planting, since it started to rain while we were outside moving soil around....

The students and adults worked well together. I mean, look at the meticulous spacing of those transplants:

Since we'd been so busy this class, we didn't have a chance to cook like usual. We finished up our meeting with a snack that I'd made: spinach and strawberry salad + black bean burritos and fresh tomato salsa. Not a bad way to end a day, and we made it home safely before the rain REALLY started coming down.

One of my favorite days....

Okay, so I know it must seem like I say this every week, but I really think today was one of my favorite meetings ever with the Eco-Friendly Group.

My favorite part was making the Vietnamese summer rolls and dipping sauces.

No, wait, my favorite part was digging beds for our soon-to-be-transplanted sweet potatoes and other goodies.

No, no, WAIT, for sure my FAVORITE part was harvesting the onions we planted this past fall. And had I not brought in some onions from the 14th & U farmers' market for our summer rolls, I'd never have shown the students what the tops of onions look like when they're ready to harvest. It was James' keen eye that caught the almost-flowering tops of the green onions in our raised bed and the harvesting extravaganza began....

Seriously, this is my job? I love it!

Should you find yourself with some of your own fresh, green onions -- from the garden at Drew M.S., from the farmers' market, from your own garden, from the grocery store -- you might consider making some delicious summer rolls with them. By popular request, here is the recipe:

Vietnamese-style summer rolls

Ingredients:
•             Rice paper wrappers (available at specialty markets, or in the ethnic food section of many grocery stores)

Filling:
•             1 cup of green cabbage or 1 bunch of kale/spinach/spicy greens, chopped

•             5 green onions, thinly sliced

•             1 cup thin noodles, pre-cooked (use rice, Chinese, or bean thread noodles)

•             1/4 cup fresh herbs (use cilantro, basil, and/or mint)

•             2 carrots, peeled and then grated

•             2 cucumbers, peeled and julienned (a fancy word for "thinly sliced")
Optional additions:
•             1/2 cup bean sprouts

•             1 large bell pepper, seeds removed and thinly sliced

•             1/2 cup cooked chicken, shredded

•              shrimp, peeled and cooked

 
Directions:

Toss together filling ingredients in a large bowl.

Submerge rice paper wrappers in hot water until pliable, about 15 seconds.  Move one wrapper at a time to a large plate or cutting board.

Place about 2 tablespoons of filling in the center of each wrapper and form filling into a small hotdog shape.

Make a burrito with the wrapper around the filling. Place filled, wrapped rolls with the flap side down to help keep them closed. Be gentle, the rice paper is very delicate!

Serve with dipping sauce and enjoy.

Dipping sauce recipes (accompaniments for summer rolls)

Dipping Sauce #1: Ginger Soy
Ingredients:
•             1 TBSP lime juice

•             1 TBSP soy sauce

•             1/2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
Directions: Whisk ingredients together in a small bowl and chill until ready to serve.

Dipping sauce #2: Sweet Chili
Ingredients:
•             1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

•             1/4 cup hot water

•             2 TBSP sugar

•             1 lime, juiced

•             1 tsp minced garlic

•             1 tsp red chili paste, such as sambal

•             ½ tsp fish sauce (optional)
Directions: Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Serve with the summer rolls.

Dipping sauce #3: Peanut Sauce (the crowd favorite)
Ingredients:
•             2 tablespoons creamy organic or natural peanut butter

•             2 tablespoons rice vinegar

•             2 teaspoons soy sauce

•             2 teaspoons sugar

•             1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
Directions: Whisk ingredients together and get ready for dipping!

Which is your favorite combination of flavors and textures??