Water Catchment in our School Gardens!

Drought got you down, dirty and dry?  Thanks to funding and support from the North Coast RC&DC, the Noyo Food Forest and MCOE Youth Garden and Talmage Preschool Garden installed rain water catchment systems to help with garden irrigation.   Read the blog and . . . .

Check out their stories on this new video. The MCOE Youth and Talmage Preschool Gardens are at minute  3:43 and the Noyo Food Forest is at minute 6:38.

MCOE Earth Oven is Cooking!

The River School youth at Mendocino County Office of Education have completed the Earth Oven and cob counters in the Talmage State Preschool Garden.    Dozens of students gathered at the campus on May 24th to make fresh pizzas in the oven, using the beautifully mosaic counters to prepare them.

The Earth Oven project has been a multi-year collaboration with numerous community partners assisting the youth in learning natural building skills.  The oven construction began with John Richards Construction leading the students in rammed earth building for the base.  Next the Solar Living Institute hosted the oven building class with free admissions for the River School students.   After testing the oven's pizza making abilities, Mike Riddell Construction worked with the students to build a protective roof over the oven.   Finally, this year, Tonia Sing Chi led the students in building the cob counters that wing the oven, John Havemann of MCOE built the counter tops, and Chad Raugewitz and his students at Ukiah High School did the mosaic for the counter tops.  That's what we call collaboration!

To see photos from all of the stages of construction check out the slideshow below.

Building a Cob Kitchen

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, several Healthcorps and Rural Health Scholars began building a cob kitchen at the Talmage Preschool garden.
Cob is a natural building material, consisting of clay, sand and straw, which, when given a good roof and foundation, can last... a really long time. It's a sustainable method of building, involving the use of local materials, like the clay/soil on site, and found materials like rocks, bottles and old concrete blocks.
The volunteers began constructing a foundation for the counters, which will attach to the existing cob oven, under the existing roof structure.
The counters will surround the oven, creating a complete kitchen that the preschool will use for outdoor cooking. The inside of the counters and oven will be gated to limit preschooler access, and there will be an attached smaller counter on the outside for preschoolers to use to help cook!
MCOE Youth will be finishing the project along with Gardens Project Healthcorps, Katrina Hanson.
We'll keep you posted with more updates as the kitchen evolves.

Winter Greens for Sale!

The MCOE Youth Garden is harvesting it first late Fall/Winter greens! Francisco, Cedrick (pictured) and Anthony have been working diligently through the Fall - starting in the student built greenhouse, transplanting, and now harvesting.

Organic kale, collards, rainbow chard, and bok choy are all for sale at the MCOE main administration office in Talmage. Additionally, you can pick up strawberry plants and cauliflower starts.

To learn more about the MCOE Youth garden, visit their web page and see all the pictures of the garden and the great work these youth have accomplished!

Star Volunteers at Talmage Garden Kitchen

Super thanks to Mike Riddell, of Riddell Construction, and Rhea Pitchard for their volunteer dedication to the Talmage State Preschool Garden.

Mike has donated dozens of hours over the past few months to work with the River School teens in building a protective roof over the Earth Oven. With rains like this year, the roof will keep the oven protected for years to come. The beautiful structure was built with graciously discounted materials from North Cal Wood Products and California Shingle and Shake - big thanks.

Rhea has been the volunteer coordinator for the Talmage State Preschool Garden for the past two years. Without her persistence, the little ones would not have the beautiful garden to eat and play in that now adorns their school.

Come out soon to eat freshly baked pizzas with wonderful garden produce! Big Thanks to All!

The Roof! The Roof! MCOE Youth!

The Earth Oven at Talmage State Preschool is getting a roof! One year ago in October, the Solar Living Institute partnered with The Gardens Project and MCOE to hold their Earth Oven building class at the Talmage State Preschool. John Richards Construction came and worked with River School students to build a rammed earth base for the oven. Then for the class, community members, staff and students participated in its construction and have since enjoyed tasty garden pizzas.

However, cob and rain slowly make mud over time. So now with the leadership of local builder Michael Riddel, and beautiful sustainably harvested redwood from North Cal Wood Products, the students are building a roof. The structure will incorporate cob counters for food preparation, ensure the longevity of the oven for preschoolers, River Students and MCOE staff for the long haul. Click on these to read more about the MCOE Youth Garden and the Talmage State Preschool Garden.

Water Catchment Presentation 10/2/10

Installing the Water Tank

Installing the Water Tank
Originally uploaded by The Gardens Project

The new 5000 gallon rainwater catchment tank has been moved to its new home at the Talmage State Preschool Garden! The River School students led by Joe Scriven from the Mendocino County Water Agency have been designing the new rainwater catchment system to capture rainwater from the preschool's roof.
The final connection between the roof and the tank should happen in the next weeks to capture Spring rain. Much thanks to the North Coast Resource Conservation and Development Council, the Community Foundation of Mendocino County, and MCOE Youth Garden for supplying funds to purchase the tank and its components. Click on the picture to see more photos of the installation! Let it rain!

What is Your Fast Food Footprint

USDA Unveils “Food Environment Atlas”

Putting most of its informational eggs together in one basket, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has created and released a new web-based mapping tool called Your Food Environment Atlas. The Atlas presents highly detailed information on local food environments and health outcomes, including grocery store access and disease and obesity prevalence. The tool is intended to help researchers, policy makers, and the public more readily find information about a variety of factors that affect access to healthy and affordable food.

USDA’s Economic Research Service developed the Atlas as a follow-up to First Lady Michelle Obama’s recently-announced Let’s Move! campaign. Let’s Move!, which highlights healthy choices, healthier schools, physical activity, and accessible, affordable and healthy food, “has set an aggressive goal of solving childhood obesity within a generation.”

The Atlas contains county-level information on 90 indicators in three, broad categories: food choices, health and well-being, and community characteristics. The first category offers information on proximity to grocery stores, the number of food stores and restaurants, and data on fast food consumption. The second category includes statistics on food insecurity, obesity, and physical activity levels. Entries in the third category provide information on income and poverty, demographics, and urban-rural demarcations.

To see Your Food Environment Atlas, go to: www.ers.usda.gov/foodatlas. For further details on the Let’s Move! campaign, click on: www.LetsMove.gov.





Terry Nieves

Program Director

Network For A Healthy California

Ukiah Unified School District and

Mendocino County Schools

(707) 462-2561

MCOE Youth Garden Digs in at Grace Hudson Elementary School

MCOE Youth Garden gives back with a Day of Service Learning at Grace Hudson Elementary School.

by: The Students of River School

The MCOE Youth Garden in conjunction with River Schools Jonna Weidaw's Homeroom Class got out in the community and sunk their hands in the dirt for a day of Service Learning. The students had received a request from Mary Kameko, the garden site coordinator at the Grace Hudson Elementary School, that their garden was in disrepair and needed some community support to get it back and growing. The River School students spent the entire day on January 27th creating double-dug garden beds, making compost containers, hauling wood chips for pathways, weeding, removing tree stumps, laying irrigation lines, creating raised garden beds, digging french drains, filling in the newly made beds with multiple yards top soil, and taking some time to educate elementary school students about the importance of outdoor garden education and healthy nutrition practices. Junior, Brian Martinez states, "I really dug in to the project and was very glad to be contributing to such a good cause." The students and teachers at Grace Hudson Elementary School came to visit and monitor the progress throughout the day offering their support and gratitude for all the hard work. Freshman, Josh Jackson said," It felt great to help with the garden at Grace Hudson Elementary, the best part was making the students happy." Through Service Learning projects students realize what they can do to make a difference in their local communities. At the end of the day all the students involved from River School, stated how much they enjoyed creating a sustainable garden for the youth that will be utilized for years to come.

Gardens get new gates!

Ukiah High Students With Gate
Originally uploaded by The Gardens Project

A big thanks to the welding class at Ukiah High. They donated their time during class to make some awesome looking gates for some of our gardens. The gates were made for Nokomis, Talmage State Pre-School, Orchard Apartments, and the MCOE youth gardens.

Thanks also to Reliable Mill steel who helped us in obtaining steel for the gates, and to Norcal powder coating and NCD painting who will paint the gates for us this week. Look for the gates in your neighborhood garden!

Winter Bed Prep

The following tips have been provided by the MCOE Youth Garden. The MCOE Youth Garden is currently winterizing their garden sites and would like to share some insights with you:

Chris Nelson writes:

1.Compost dead plants to create a good soil conditioner. Hot, active piles of compost kill weed seeds and diseased pathogens. Make sure you throw questionable plants into the trash or put on the burn pile.

2. To prevent rodents from nesting in the soil, wait until the ground is frozen before adding a 6 inch layer of winter mulch.

3. Protect the tender bark of young trees from growing critters by wrapping stems or trucks with wire or commercial tree guards.


Miguel Pereida writes:
1. First, clear out the bleached stems and foliage of annual plants. The cool weather is a good time to make a cold frame to protect winter starts.

2. Man, if it snowed in Ukiah it sure would make a great mulch. Snow covers and isolates the soil like a mulch!

3. Protect your rose trees from the winter! Make sure to stake and wrap burlap around the rose stems. Also add a 6" layer of mulch. This will help protect them from the cold.



Jose Nunez writes:
1. Now is the time for bare root season. It's time to plant new trees. Make sure you pick a spot with good soil that has lots of worms and microbes. It is very important to put in new mulch when prepping the area. Old leaves work really well and break down easily.

2. Pruning time! You should cut off dry stems off of trees that are dry. You should also cut out any dead or dying plants. Put them in the compost and have them serve you in their next life as a soil builder.

3. STOP FERTILIZING YOUR ROSES! Fall brings on the dormant season for roses. Make sure your last rose feeding is 2 months before the first frost.

Daniel Alvarez writes:

1. Cut back dry stems of perennials to soil level after the first frost to neaten the garden and remove pest eggs and disease spores that may linger. Leave stems with attractive seed heads for winter sowing.

2. Compost dead plant debris to create an organic soil conditioner. Hot, active piles of compost kills weed seeds, inactive piles do not.

3. Cut off diseased foliage from evergreen plants, shrubs, and discard it in the trash. Rake up and discard the old disease bearing mulch, too.

Solar Living Institute offers class at Talmage

The Solar Living Institute has partnered with the Gardens Project and is offering an Earth Oven class at the Talmage Garden. An earth oven is a wood fired oven made out of a cob like mixture that you can make tasty breads, great pizzas, slow cook some stew, or make some roast! The workshop will cover: basic oven functions and designs; available materials; proven construction methods; and resources for students to build an oven of their own! The best part of the workshop is that you get to actually take part in making the oven at the Talmage garden. Anyone interested in the Earth Oven should go to the Solar Living Institutes website to register.

But, before you can build an Earth Oven, you need to build a foundation for one- and the MCOE youth garden students sure did build! With the gracious help from John Richards construction, a local Rammed Earth Builder, the youth were able to mix earth and cement and helped compress it into a foundation. It was a dusty process, but they did a great job! A huge thanks to John and his son, Caleb, for all their help and consultation in building our rammed earth foundation.

Summer Youth Crew Keeps Working It!

Jack Simpson clean-up
Originally uploaded by The Gardens Project

The Summer Youth Garden Crew continues to support community and school gardens throughout the area. In the last week they have done major clean-ups with weeding, mulching, path work, harvesting, and irrigation installation at Willits High School, Orchard Apartments Garden, the Jack Simpson Apartment Garden, the Talmage State Preschool and the River School Garden at MCOE.

Fantastic work! More power to the youth!

Summer Youth Work Crew!

Hopland Elem. Clean-up
Originally uploaded by The Gardens Project

The Hopland Elementary School Garden got a big summer cleaning and weeding thanks to the tremendous work of the MCOE Summer Youth Garden Crew!!

The MCOE Youth Garden Project, in partnership with MPIC, has been able to allow "At-Risk" youth to lend a helping hand in our community. The funds for this fantastic Service Learning Project came through a federal stimulus grant package. Students work daily on different community and school gardens helping to clear away weeds, build garden boxes, double - dig new beds, install and repair drip irrigation, harvest crops, and make homemade projects. The students will be putting on an event "What's Growing On" on August 7th @ MCOE to showcase their skills and gardens. For more information, contact the crew leader, Jonna at jonna@mcoe.us

MCOE Youth Garden Gives Thanks!

Compost and Mulch

1. What is the difference between garden mulch and compost? You needed to work compost into the soil. Mulch is spread on top of the dirt to protect the soil from the elements and suppress weeds. Compost can be used as mulch.

2. People have used leaves or bark as garden mulch. Are there other types of mulches? The type of mulch depends on your plants. Pine, hay, straw, crushed stone, wood chips from branches or recycles timber can be used. The softer mulch material like straw and leaves will provide short-term weed suppression and short-term nutrient source once the mulch has broken down.

3. Is it safe to use newspaper as garden mulch or put them in a compost pile? Old newspapers are not safe for mulch or compost because they have petroleum based inks. Use Ukiah Daily Journal newspapers from 2007 or later because they have soy based ink.

4. Is it safe to mulch around a house foundation, or does that invite termites? Yes, its safe, but to ensure adequate foundation and make sure is slopes way from the foundation. Termite control is more complex.

5. Is playground rubber mulch safe to use around plants? Playground rubber is very appealing to some gardeners. It’s long lasting, unlike crushed stone and its safe around plants.

6. Do leaves require shredding prior to spreading them as mulch? Yes, you should shred it first because is promotes drainage and plant health.

7. Because there are not weeds in winter, what is the purpose of applying garden mulch in the fall? Mulch’s use is not limited to weed control. Mulch helps control erosion and helps plants stay in dormant state.

8. I have heard of cover crops. Why are they referred to as living mulches? You use cover crops if you don’t have enough leaves. They essentially function as mulches.

9. Everything in my vegetable garden and annual flower beds has been harvested or is dead. I want to mulch these areas. Is there anything I need to do prior to spreading mulch? Yes, because the plant material can be diseases remove the plants from the garden and compost it to get rid of any disease.

How to Care for Tomatoes and Make Them Last + Yummy Recipes

I walk in the garden and see bright beautiful tomatoes of all sides.

1. Do not grow too many tomatoes at once, otherwise you’ll be getting a whole crop of them and you’ll have too many tomatoes growing together. They’ll lean on each other and create white spots on the tomatoes, which is lack of oxygen in that area.
2. Don’t over water-this causes splits and molds
3. Dispose of ones with splits because they spread mold to others
4. Keep an eye out for fruit flies.
5. Harvest them everyday or they will die
6. While they are growing, keep them out of contact with each other because this causes damage to others and itself, including white spots, which is a lack of oxygen in that area.
7. Freeze them to reuse later for use in sauces or casseroles.
8. Keep them out of the refrigerator or it causes them to get soft and squishy fast.
9. Keep them in paper bags to keep tomatoes fresh and won’t sweat them like plastic bags.

Tomato Soup

A rich and creamy recipe for tomato soup

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1 ½ pounds firm tomatoes - skinned and roughly chopped

1 onion – peeled and finely chopped

1 clove of garlic (I use more) – crushed

2 ounces butter

2 cups beef stock

Baking soda

Salt and black pepper

½ cup double cream

Preparation:

Melt the butter in a heavy based pan and fry onion and garlic until soft and transparent. Add 1 cup of stock together with chopped tomatoes and a generous pinch of baking soda. Bring to a boil, lower heat and cover. Simmer for 15 minutes.

Allow to cool slightly before liquidizing. Return to pan through sieve.

Re-heat-adding stock until reaching desired consistency and season with salt and pepper to desired taste. In a separate pan bring cream almost to a boil and then add to tomato mixture. Garnish with fresh chopped basil or parsley.

It is really delicious, and can be frozen, providing you don’t add the cream (do this just before serving. The baking soda is what makes the difference-without it, it just doesn’t taste right.

Tomato Poppers

Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons butter

1 cup thinly sliced onion

2 bell peppers, seeded and cut in thin strips

3 tomatoes, pealed and each cut into 8 wedges

1 teaspoon salt

Pepper, to taste

1 teaspoon sugar

Preparation:

In a heavy skillet over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter; add onion and cook until it is slightly wilted. Add remaining tablespoon of butter and the green pepper strips and tomato wedges; sprinkle with salt, pepper and sugar. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes; stirring gently.

Serves 6

Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes

22 cherry tomatoes

1 can (3 ½ or 3 ¾ oz.) solid white (albacore) low sodium tuna in water, drained

2 tbsp. mayonnaise

2 tbsp. finely minced onion

2 tsp. cider vinegar

¼ tsp. Tabasco pepper sauce

Cut a thin slice from top of cherry tomatoes. Scoop out center of tomatoes or squeeze lightly to remove all pulp and seeds.

In a small bowl flake tuna and mix with remaining ingredients. Fill each tomato with 1 teaspoon of filing. Yield: 22 tomatoes; 10 mg sodium per tomato.

Homemade Tomato Sauce I

Ready in: 4 Hours 30 Minutes Prep Time: 30 minutes Cook Time: 4 Hours

Yields: 6 servings

Ingredients:

10 ripe tomatoes

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

1 onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

¼ cup chopped fresh basil

¼ teaspoon Italian seasoning

1 bay leaf

2 stalks celery

2 tablespoons tomato paste

Direction:

1. Bring a pot of water to boil. Have ready a large bowl of iced water. Plunge whole tomatoes in boiling water until skin starts to peel, 1 minute. Remove with slotted spoon and place in ice bath. Let rest until cool enough to handle, then remove peel and squeeze out seeds. Chop 8 tomatoes and puree in blender or food processor. Chop remaining two tomatoes and set aside.

2. In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, cook onion, bell pepper, carrot and garlic in oil and butter until onion starts to soften, 5 minutes. Pour in pureed tomatoes. Stir in chopped tomato, basil and Italian seasoning. Place bay leaf and whole celery in pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 2 hours. Stir in tomato paste and simmer an additional 2 hours. Discard bay leaf and celery and serve.

Recipe: Tomato Jam

Use this delicious tomato jam as a ketchup alternative in a meatloaf or on burgers, or serve it with cheese and crackers or as a dip for shrimp or fried seafood.

* 3 pounds plum tomatoes, peeled, cored, coarsely chopped

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

3/4 cup granulated

1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes, more or less, as desired for heat

3 tablespoons lemon juice

Preparation:

Combine the tomatoes, spices, sugar, pepper flakes, and lemon juice in saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and reduce heat to low. Cook, uncovered, until very thick, about 1 ½ hours.

Use this jam as an appetizer spread with cream cheese, on burgers, as a dip, or use it to flavor and top meatloaf instead of ketchup.

* Drop the tomatoes in boiling water and boil for 2 to 3 minutes, or until skin begins to split, and then drop in ice water and let cool slightly. Skin should be easy to remove.

October is the Month to Combat Star Thistle!

Dizzle Star Thistle

The Star Thistle migrated to California from Chile in contaminated alfalfa seed. Today it is said that Star Thistle has spread over 15 million acres in California. It is in 56 out of 58 counties. Human activities spread the seeds the most. The seeds can be carried up to 16 feet by the wind. Star Thistle also has a very long tap root and soaks up much of the soils water. It takes 21 days for Star Thistle to start it's germination process. They are most active from May to September. Leaving October the time to get out there and get rid of them. There are two ways to get rid of this pesky plant, the first is by mowing and then picking up the debris and the second is manual removal.

Submitted by: MCOE Youth Garden (E.J)

Welcome to the Youth Garden Blog

We are just finishing are harvest of tomatoes. Check them out for sale at MCOE's Administration Office lobby.