Quilcene School Garden News
Read about what’s been happening this fall in the school gardens: The Garden Dirt – Oct 2011 (pdf)
Read more garden newsletters: Quilcene Garden Dirt – Fall 2010 (pdf)
Visit the Jefferson County School Garden & Compost Program Website
Thank You WSU Master Gardeners!
July 2011 • We were notified that the WSU Master Gardeners have donated $800 to the Quilcene School Garden. We appreciate their generous support!
Quilcene Farm to School Update, April 2011
Spinach is the Harvest of the Month for April in Quilcene. In garden class we studied it’s cultural history, nutritional value, observed the seeds, plant starts & plants going to seed in the greenhouse, planted seeds and starts in the garden and munched on the spinach for a tasty treat.
The April school menu features Wildwood Farm chicken and Short Family Farm beef and has them listed on the menu. The kids get excited when those days arrive! View/Download Quilcene Menu – April (pdf).
Quilcene Farm to School Update, February 2011
Quilcene School received around 20 local chickens from Wildwood Farm in Quilcene, many roasts and other cuts of beef from Short Family Farm and are serving Nash’s organic beets on their school salad bar, the featured food for “Harvest of the Month”.
Students sampled the beets in garden class while being taught their nutritional value (vitamins A, B2, C, K) and cultural history. Next week they will make beet/carrot juice and plant sweet peas. At the end of class students received a treat of chocolate beet mini-muffins while being asked to guess the ingredients. They were sure surprised to learn that beets were the secret ingredient!
CHOCOLATE BEET CAKE – (Serves 16)
- 1 cup butter, softened, divided
- 1-1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar
- 3 eggs (room temp)
- 3-oz dark chocolate (or more!)
- 5 medium beets (2 cups, pureed)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- Confectioners’ sugar for dusting
- Preheat oven to 375ºF
- To make beet puree, trim stems and roots off beets and quarter them. Place in heavy sauce pan filled with water. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer for 50 mins or until the beets are tender.
- Drain off remaining liquid and rinse beets in cold water, as they’ll be too hot to handle otherwise. Slide skins off and place beets in blender. Process until a smooth puree forms. Let cool slightly before using in cake. (I like to make the puree ahead and store it in the fridge, sometimes upto several days in advance.)
- In a mixing bowl, cream 3/4-cup butter and brown sugar. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, add vanilla.
- Melt chocolate gently with remaining butter in a double boiler. Cool slightly.
- Blend chocolate mixture and beets into the creamed mixture. The batter will appear separated, so don’t fret.
- Combine flour, baking soda , salt, cinnamon and nutmeg; add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Pour into a greased and floured 10-in. spring form pan, or 2 bread pans.
- Bake at 375ºF for 60-70 minutes (or less with bread pans) or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack. Cool completely before dusting with confectioners’ sugar.
- ENJOY!
Read about what’s been happening this fall in the garden
Quilcene Garden Newsletter – Fall 2010 (pdf)
Quilcene School Gardens Make Pizza from “Scratch”
Really from scratch, as in the wheat was grown at the Dry Land Farm Project located behind Collinwood Farm, off F Street in Port Townsend. School gardeners threshed and winnowed the wheat kernels by hand, then ground them into flour using a bicycle-powered flour mill.
The freshly ground flour was used to make pizza dough, which was then rolled out and shaped into pizza crusts. Pizzas were topped with freshly picked tomatoes from the School Garden, along with pesto made from garlic, also grown in the garden. Local cheese from Mt. Townsend Creamery finished off the pizzas. Local pizza chefs John & Sara, from Dented Buoy Pizza, baked them their mobile wood-fired pizza oven (made from a marine buoy!), which they brought to the school. This activity peaked the interest of the entire school, and caused one high school student to wonder when the school gardeners would be open for business!
But this was about more than about just eating yummy pizza. Students engaged in a long-term investigation of the nutritional value of whole wheat (which includes the bran and germ) as well as the anatomy and cultivation of wheat. Did you know that wheat is the oldest cultivated crop in history, originating in the Middle East and going back over 10,000 years?
Many thanks to our parent and teacher volunteers, without whom these activities would not be possible!
Quilcene School District Makes Commitment to Local Food
Quilcene School District will commit 10-20% of their food budget for local purchases, will feature a local vegetable or fruit of the month to serve weekly, will integrate nutritional education in their curriculum and continue their school garden/compost program. The little school that could!!!
Quilcene’s 1st Harvest for Cafeteria
Earth Day, was a big day. The kids harvested the first lettuce from the greenhouse to be used in the salad bar. Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen.
The raised bed lumber was donated by Kit Siemion, her son Huck, donated his time to build the beds. Veda Wilson, food service manager requested Romaine lettuce to be grown so it would hold up well in the salad bar. The kids seeded Romaine variety “Parris Island” on 3/18. The kids filled the beds with Magical Soil from the Short Family Farm to the raised beds for the next few weeks. Planting and watering followed and within a few weeks we had the most gorgeous succulent lettuce one could hope for.
Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen!!!!
Chimacum Farmer, Roger Short, Delivers His Grass-fed Beef to Quilcene School
Quilcene school is taking steps to incorporate local farm produce and meat into their school lunches. In addition they have a strong garden program and some produce from the garden ends up in school lunches. This is important because the way our community farms says a lot about what kind of culture we want for our communities. Supporting the local growers is good for the kids and helps the local economy. Support our farmers!
Fresh From the Farm: Delivery of Beef is Latest, Tasty Lesson for Quilcene School
Food doesn’t necessarily come long distances on a truck anymore. On Wednesday, Quilcene School students will be served tacos made with grass-fed Angus beef raised on a farm 10 miles up the road. By May, they will be topping their tacos with fresh-picked lettuce straight from the school garden, which they use as an outdoor classroom.
The beef sale is the result of the Olympic Peninsula Farm to Cafeteria Conference, where local farmers met with food service directors and administrators to talk turkey, beef, vegetables and fruit.
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