Full Belly Farm Trip: May, 2011
Here are the pictures from our trip to Full Belly Farm! The postponement of one day made a world of difference for us as we had such spectacular weather all three days! From touring the 300 acre farm on a tractor hay ride, working on chores such as weeding herb beds, harvesting strawberries, lettuce, asparagus, and yarrow flowers, feeding the 800 chickens and collecting their eggs, feeding the pig, goats, and darling baby sheep (out of bottles), and packing 360 CSA boxes in record time, the children were magically exposed to life on a real working organic farm, and boy did they enjoy it. I wish I could take a picture of the smile on each child’s face during some moment on this trip— they were so inspired and stretched in healthy ways. “This is the best (fill in the blank) I have ever had!” was a constant refrain throughout our stay. There were so many firsts on this trip: Riding behind a tractor, drinking raw milk warm from the cow, eating raw and cooked asparagus, going to sleep without mom and dad, being away from family for so long, setting up tents/camping, keeping track (or trying to anyway) of own clothing, roasting a marshmallow, swimming in a creek, feeding baby lambs, having a chicken lay an egg in your hand!!!, harvesting asparagus... I could go on and on. Everybody was stretched— even the adults— and we all gained something profound from it I am certain.
Teamwork: Packing 360 CSA Boxes!
Chicken and Egg
A Dip In The Creek
Camping
In Jammies By The Campfire
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Hayride
Harvesting Yarrow Flowers
Fun Around Camp
Dishes
Work: Harvesting (Strawberry, Asparagus, Lettuce), & Weeding
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Construction Site Visit #2: Sonoma (Not a lot of pictures.)
       A trip to the St. Louis Zoo? 10/29/10
 Cedalla with Grandma Michele and Professor Watchawanano
Well... almost. Cedella's grandparents came to visit from Missouri this week, and her Grandpa (aka: Professor Watchawanano) works at the St. Louis Zoo so he came prepared! He brought with him some fun and intriguing bones and animal skins,and shared with the students all sorts of interesting facts about animals. The students were enraptured by the good Professor's stories of orangutans and ground squirrels, and it made us all wish we could take a trip to Missouri and hear more of them! It was so sweet of Michele and the Professor to visit our class and share their enthusiasm with the students. Thank you both. If we ever find ourselves in Missouri we will be sure to look you up and get free admission into the zoo!
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10/12/10: Trip to the Robert Mondovi Winery
I hate to admit it, but I had never been to Robert Mondavi Winery, so I was quite excited to go when Chef Jeff (Sam's father) asked if we could come. Our hot autumn morning started out with a short walk into the vineyards to learn a little something about the vines, and then a very cool (literally) tour of the cellar which included some extra special side trips thanks to our sweet and generous guide, Susan. After our tour we headed to the awesome Mondavi kitchen and a refreshing trip into the walk-in fridge! Then we were off for a tour of the beautiful (!) kitchen garden that Jeff maintains, and after a snack we "helped" him with some garden work. One of the projects Jeff is working on is worm composting, and his colleague, Laurie, worked with the children to separate the worms from the finished castings and then make giant tea bags out of it for compost tea.
Jeff demonstrated his superhuman power of patience as he calmly worked with our very, very eager workers to help him pick some fruits and vegetables. The children picked carrots, tomatoes, radishes, watermelon and eggplant. Sorry about those carrots, Jeff! We look forward to going back and doing a cooking project with Jeff in the late winter. Seeing how calm he is in the thick of things certainly expands our menu options!  |
Trip to the Long Meadow Ranch Rutherford Gardens:
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Shots from Long Meadow...
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