Outreach

Iron Chef III!

This week in sustainable agriculture, we participated in the third iron chef. Last iron chef had a theme of Thanksgiving and my group won so we had high hopes for this one! This iron chef's theme was low miles. In order to keep our miles at zero, we decided to only use the food from the farm. We made an egg scramble using the chicken's eggs. In the scramble, we chopped up celery, onion, and potatoes. Mr. Stewart advertised the bell bean leaf and we cooked it like spinach and added it to the scramble. One group made pancakes using the strawberries from the garden and it was delicious. However, they failed to keep their miles low because of all the ingredients they brought in. Another group made scrambled eggs and kale chips. The winning group used bell bean leaves as a taco shell. Inside the taco, they used eggs from the chickens and tied the taco with the stem from the leaf. They kept their miles and zero and they were very flavorful!

Claudia Holland (Period 4) 

The Vespucci Family Compromise:

It's game time... Everyone's favorite Sustag event has once again begun. The third Iron Chef took us upon on a complicated route with the theme of "low miles," which was meant to encourage using locally made groceries to create a spectacular dish. The moment I stepped foot onto the farm the energy and excitement was in the air, everyone wants to win and take home that extra credit and of course, the bragging rights. My group consisting of 8 wonderful individuals wanted to create something that would clearly set us aside from every other group. Following our previous defeat in the second Iron Chef, in which we contended for joint 1st but when the final verdict came to Mr. Stewart, he gave it to the other team. We wanted this win more than anyone else, so we crafted the Vespucci Family Compromise. This dish was created by Hudson Moyne's Great Grandmother Vespucci, to combine her Italian heritage and newly inherited American lifestyle she wanted to make a dish which would cross the two in harmony. Combining some lovely rosemary bread, bean leaves, cheese, Jerusalem artichoke, a beautiful fried egg, and a side of some delicious baked beans we were able to master the Vespucci Compromise. We cooked and crafted it to perfection and as pictured below made a mouth-watering dish. It was time to be judged by the Stew. Tension is beginning to build within the 4 teams as Mr. Stewart is munching on the world-class dishes. His eyes pop out of his sockets when he tastes our delicious food and surely we must have won it this time. But not just yet, he orders everyone to put their heads down and after a remarkable presentation made by each group about their dish, we had to vote. We got many compliments on our tasty dish so surely the class vote should get us the win. The bell rings and the Stew begins to announce the winner… We lost again, purely because of the beans, the beans were imported from the Vespucci family residence across the United States which technically went against the theme of "low miles". We were infuriated, we won the class vote, but once again not Mr. Stewarts. The Vespucci family will never be discouraged from our ongoing robberies of being the Iron Chef Champions and will be ready to win the next one. --James D

 The Vespucci Family Compromise

IRON CHEF CHALLENGE

            Joshua Santos 01/23/20

Welcome to the Sustainable Agriculture Page! Sustainable Agriculture also called "SustAg" by us talented individuals, we are all about creating steady and sustainable growth for a long period of time. It is currently semester 2 of SustAg, and things are progressing ever so steadily. Our plants are slowly recovering from reoccuring rain, our brains are recovering knowledge ever so slowly, and our food ideals are ever changing as we begin to realize the horror that lies within the food industry. We also went over the logistical challenges that it takes for certain parts of our meals just to make it on our plate. Also that the average American meal travels 1500 miles to get to their desired consumer. Knowing that, we began our 3rd IRON CHEF CHALLENGE! Which had even stricter guidelines that we had to abide by. Which were the ingredients had to be "local local". So ethier from the farm, our somewhere 10-25miles away. Knowing that the groups began to gather ingredients. Most of them ended up coming from the farm, while some other brought ingredients from home. My group ended up naming and making a dish called La Ovo Scrambolo a Wi Wi. Which came in second place, and was eaten up so fast that we couldn't get a photo of it. So instead you'll have to make do with the Winners of this Iron Chef, that made Egg tacos! That's it for our weekly update, see you next time!

Food Unit

Returning back to the SustAg Farm and classroom after break has come with an exciting and relevant new unit: food. Right now, students are focusing heavily on the environmental costs of different foods. This past weekend, students read an excerpt from Omnivore's DilemmaI, which revealed some of the detriment caused to society in the production of the majority of supermarket goods today. Students have also been working on their 'Food Miles' assignment. For this, each student chose a type of cookie and was then tasked with seeing where all the ingredients for the recipe come from, comparing two sources for each ingredient (one name brand and one more local source). Students then calculated the CO2 produced when the different ingredients are transported from their production sites. On top of this, the class is beginning Food Reports, in which each student picks a food with a variety of ingredients to look deeper into in the same way as the Food Miles worksheet. Students are looking forward to continue learning in this eye-opening unit. 

- Tessa

Break ends, and farming begins!

After a lengthy winter break, which lasted over 2 weeks, students got back out onto the farm on Thursday, January 9th. During the break not much tending was done to the beds. Luckily, the rain was able to provide the plants with the water they needed. And when all of us returned to the farm, we were able to immediately recognize the growth in our beds. But with this outstanding growth came a downside. The return of weeds. Without the constant presence of students throughout the week, many beds were full of invasive plants. My group and I spent the whole class period ripping through our bed, weed by weed. Yet, we still were only able to get rid of about a fifth of them. It feels like the early days of August all over again. Nonetheless, all of us are excited to be back on the farm. 

-Zach Ginsburg

Winter

Winter is finally back. With it, the plant killing frost that took out all of our summer crops like basil, melons, tomatoes and more. Luckily for temperate California, this doesn't mean the end of our growing season. In fact, it indicates a whole new set of plants to be grown. Many Brassica species spout up at this time, including Kale, Cauliflower, Cabbage and Broccoli. Other famous vegetables like onions, garlic, spinach and peas are staples of the winter months. My bed, A7, have suffered the loss of our Strawberries and Basil since winter started and were quick to replace it with Celery and Peas, both greatly suited for the season. Here in Sustainable Agriculture, we are busy seeding these species and tending to our beds for any unwanted weeds or pests especially after the seasonal vacation. But because of the rainy weather, we are withholding from tilling the soil while its wet to make sure it doesn't compact. We suggest you also withhold from doing so until weather conditions lighten up. We hope you enjoy your winter farming!--connor

Iron Chef III

Today in class, we had our third 'iron chef' competition of the year. The theme of this cooking competition was low miles, meaning the number of miles the food traveled to get on the plate was to be as low as possible to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions the ingredients would use to travel to the classroom. Students were encouraged to bring ingredients found in their gardens, as well as harvest organic food grown on the farm to limit the number of miles going into their meal. The competition was an incredible learning experience because it allowed us to recognize the costs of cooking a meal requires lots of transportation of ingredients that cannot be found locally. It was interesting to see how students were able to improvise to create meals that were environmentally friendly. After the judging, everyone in my class period enjoyed sharing the leftover food from the challenge and were happy that we were able to create delicious meals without unnecessary harm to the environment.

-Sam Schiller, 6th period