The Market Day

The market day, the day to show off all of our beautiful work. Today as in Friday January 30th, we in most areas stripped our beds clean so that we could sell our goods for this market day. We harvested a huge amount of kale and radish. We had to work in big groups to come up with all the kale and radish grown in our garden beds. We also harvested lettuce leaves and basically anything else that was ready to be plucked. With harvesting there is also weighing the plants so we know how well we are doing and how much we are going to sell to our customers.  The kale weighed up to an outstanding 9 lbs. That's a very good amount for a plant.

Catnip, plant seedlings and chard along with many other plants gathered on our farm were sold to parents and kids and even some teachers during 7th period, and a bit after school. It was a frenzy when it was time for parents to  pick their kids up. We were such a attractive group of kids no way a parent could drive past us without asking us what we were doing or buying some of our items.

It was a great week for Redwood High Schools Sustainable Farm and I hope that we have enough great week next week for our first week in FEBRUARY.

-Devin Thomas

Iron Chef Challenge 2.0

This past Wednesday Sustainable Agriculture students went at it again in the second annual Iron Chef Challenge! Iron Chef, is a cooking show on TV where culinary chefs are given a period of time to create the best tasting and looking dish with limited ingredients. Sustainable Agriculture Iron Chef is similar but, much more rewarding. It gives students a chance to show off cooking skills, socialize with different classmates, and enjoy sustainable creations.

In the last completion the key ingredient was kale, this time the key ingredients was wintergreens. All students were given starter ingredients: oil, salt, pepper, kimchi, sauerkraut, and maize. They were also given cutting boards, three knives, cooking pans, access to stovetops and oven space. The rest of the ingredients were to be found on the farm or gathered previously.

Meals were scored by three categories: presentation, taste, and lastly sustainability. Judging got a little more serious this time around as we had the great pleasure to have guest judges, and chefs, fly in all the way from Nicaragua and Ecuador!

Group one created a crunchy green salad. They mixed together lettuce, kale, fava bean leaves spritzed with tangerine vinaigrette. They topped off their creation with tangerine wedges, kimchi, and freshly baked maize chips. 

Group two got creative and made flouring pupas. The pupusa was made from maize and stuffed with fava bean leaves, onion, kimchi, lettuce, and a touch of lemon verbena. Their creation was topped with fried cheese from Mexico and radish sliver.

Group three presented three open face tacos. One taco was topped with greens found on the RHS Farm. The next had sauerkraut, and lastly the third was topped with kimchi. Shells were baked with oil to give an extra crunch.

WINNER! Group four did it big and pretty! For this group presentation really made it pop! Flourishing with colors and fresh smells they hid fried greens and maize tortillas. This dish did not only look pretty it was one hundred percent edible.

REMINDER: Tomorrow is our Farmers Market Day from 2:20-4:00! We will be located in front of the school by the office. Gather farm fresh ingredients to make your own Iron Chef creation and you could be featured on our Instagram!!

Till next time-

Sammy Ferroggiaro

A-MAIZE-ING Tortillas

Sustainable Agriculture, or as I call it “FARM”, is by far my favorite class, and it never fails to be the highlight of my day. This might sound a little corn-y, but this past Friday was the true peak of my entire week. Our class had the honor of making homemade tortillas from the corn grown in Mrs. Doherty's own farm!

The tortilla making process can be a long one especially if you don’t know what you’re doing. Thankfully, Mrs. Doherty dedicated her time to teaching our class how to properly rinse and prepare the corn kernels into the proper tortilla texture. For this experiment we used Cherokee White Eagle Corn: a Native American plant.

The class worked together at a number of different stations in preparation for making the tortillas:

First off, we had to wash and rub the kernels in between our hands 10 times until the excess seed coating was cleaned off. (This was my table groups’ job!)The next step was putting the kernels in a grinding machine until it became a coarse powdery texture.

After that, students made little balls out of the tortilla mix, roughly about 2 inches thick. The tortilla balls were flattened in a press in between two sheets of plastic. The plastic ensured that the tortillas wouldn't break apart.

The last and final step was heating the tortillas!

At the end of all our hard work (and clean–up) we finally got to taste the tortillas. There was a picnic style set-up with two types of homemade beans, cheese, tomatoes, cilantro, and red onion. All these toppings made the perfect filling for the tortillas. Let me tell you, they were by far the most a-MAIZE-ing tortillas I’ve ever eaten!!! Not only were they fresh, but they were also organic, and they were 100% natural! It’s so cool eating food that you produce yourself, and this cooking experience was so much fun!

***Don’t forget that this Friday, January 30^th is our Farmers Market Day from 2:20-3:20 pm! We will be located in front of the school by the office. Be sure not to miss it because you’ll have to wait a whole month before you have another chance to buy the freshest produce out there!!!

By: Tavi Chaimongkol

A Flashback and Blast Forward

What if you could grow plants without soil?
What if you could control pests without harmful chemicals?
Guess what... You can!

Our class had the privilege to listen to three speakers last week and ask them questions. 

On Monday, or should I call it "Wild Fermentation Day", the class geared up and worked together to make Sauerkraut and Korean Kimchi. While the process is much easier with a group of people, the techniques for fermenting weren't all that hard–I'm sure if you put your mind to it you could be Master Fermenter in no time! You can look forward to some follow up pictures that will be posted soon...

On Tuesday, Stan Barbarich, an UC Certified Master Gardener, taught us about Hydroponics. What is hydroponics? Ah, yes. It is growing plants in an aerated nutrient solution made of water and fertilizer. No soil needed! I was amazed not only at this idea (how do you come up with these things?!), but also at how you can save at least 90% of water compared to soil culture. Mr. Barbarich told us how his tomatoes are more flavorful using Hydroponics and to his benefit there was no heavy soil lifting! Even though much of the class was just hearing about this method for the first time, apparently this isn't new. Allegedly the Hanging Gardens of Babylon had plants grown in a steady stream of water, which underscores the main idea. Bottom line, Hydroponics could never replace soil growing, but it is a practice that is beyond Biointensive and saves a lot of water.

Hydroponics used for tomatoes

On Friday, Jake Blehm spoke to the class and shared a presentation about Biologically Sustainable Integrated Pest Management. As a third generation bug farmer, he had much knowledge about using natural solutions to pests as opposed to pesticides. He pointed out a shocking statistic: 2-5 percent of pesticides actually hit pests and are effective. That's all? Really?! And yet, world pesticide expenditures estimated that the U.S. spends $30 billion annually. Hm... It's important to educate current and future farmers that not all pests are bad. Mr. Blehm pointed out that don't necessarily have to eradicate the pests, just keep them below the economic injury level. Currently, our farm doesn't really suffer from pests. However, for snails we learned to use a Trap board and for aphids to get lacewing beneficials. Let's hope they work!

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"What's coming up next?" you may be asking yourself.

Well, THIS Saturday Jan. 24 you can help out on the farm from 10-12! Farm work days are a good way to meet new people, learn new practices, and get your hands dirty. This Saturday should be especially fun because some international students will be joining us!

Additionally, you can look forward to the Market Day that will be held next Friday Jan. 30 from 2:20-3:20 pm. We encourage you to purchase some fresh produce that was grown right in our school's back yard!

Until next time~

Rachael Maier

New Semester

After a long and somewhat cold winter break we have all come back to the farm and seen all the important work that needs to get done. For many of us this involves harvesting as we have not seen our beds over the past few weeks. When we harvest a lot of food from our beds one question we have to ask is how to use all of it. Because our market was not until the end of the month and a lot of cabbage was harvested we had to find a way to make sure it did not go to waste. In order to assist us Juliana Stewart came in to teach us about wild fermentation. We created a few batches of Kimchi and Sauerkraut which I am personally excited to taste soon.
In terms of farm maintenance there are still a lot of things that need to get done. For many of our beds we noticed that the potatoes looked to shrivel up and die. After digging up a bed to see if things were still growing our potatoes seemed to remain relatively healthy. In my bed a lot of the cover crop we planted failed to grow over the winter and we need to replant the area. Overall now is a time to make sure your bed is fully planted so we can have plenty of things to harvest in the coming months. Included is a picture of our group  and some of the beets we have yet to harvest.
-Julian