August Garden Growth...

 What was happening in our Garden During August Garden Warrior's?

 

I know the weather was unseasonably warm and dryer than usual...

perfect for gardening!

 A large bag of strawberry plants was kindly donated to our Garden Warriors...more than we had room for in our Garden as it transpired!

 Just as well we had all these plant pots to reuse, and a fantastic stash of Tui product on hand...

 ...the strawberry potting and fertilising production line proved very efficient...

 What a tremendous effort team! Over 50 strawberry plants potted up ready to transfer to our orchard area once we have the soil prepared (watch this space).

 It was back into our stash of prize winning Tui products to prepare the "raised quarters" for planting...

 Even Lego Policeman's "quarters" were refreshed ready for some garden companions...

 Now our "raised quarters" were ready to sow...rocket, carrots, beetroot and radish for subterraneous growth!

 In went our lettuce, spinach and celery seedlings that were kindly supplied by Tui and Mitre 10 as part of our Tui School Garden Challenge start up package...THANK YOU!

 A final water before the bell goes...can't wait to see what pops up in a few weeks time!

 Our Tradesman Warriors have also been VERY busy in the Garden this month...I wonder what they have been building???

What ever it is, it certainly requires HEAPS of concentration and muscle power...all will be revealed in good time...keep watching this space!

Druming up support

 Garden Warriors Hit the Streets with their Silver beet feta filo's

This week we hit the streets to drum up support for our school garden, sell a few raffle tickets, and see if we could reel in the local votes. Who could turn down a platter of fresh silver beet feta filo's on a rainy day!

Our Garden Warrior Filo's were so fabulous... that request after request came in for this quick & easy recipe, so here it is below:

Mini Silver beet, feta filo's:

8 sheets of filo pastry
4 eggs
1 packet feta
Steamed silver beet (about 2 loose cups steamed)
Pepper to season
Olive oil for brushing pastry and mini muffin  pans

Makes: 48
Total preparation & cooking time: <40 minutes
Cost: $7.50 ($2 1/2 packet of filo pastry, $1.50 eggs, $4 feta, silver beet from garden free)

 Rinse and finely slice your fresh sliver beet from your garden, lightly steam (or pour boiling water over in a bowl, allow to rest, then drain)

 Whisk eggs with feta in a large bowl, season with pepper (what sort of chook laid this egg?)

 Lightly brush & layer 4 sheets of filo with the olive oil, then cut into 24 small squares. Repeat with the other 4 sheets of filo.

 Press the filo squares into the lightly oiled mini muffin trays.

 Place steamed silver beet into the pastry cases, spoon over egg and feta mixture.

Place in a hot 200 C oven and bake for 10-15 minutes, serve warm!

 

Perfect for brunch while watching the America's Cup, picnics or posh dinner parties, & are yummy in lunch boxes too!

We Need Your Votes!

Please Help...We NEED your VOTE!

Mother Earth Award

 

This week we found out that we had made it through as one of 9 Mother Earth Award finalists. This is a HUGE achievement and fantastic recognition of ALL the effort that has gone into creating our school garden. It is also a wonderful pat on the back for our very small team of parent volunteers who help make it all happen. Over 50% of their volunteer hours go toward trying to fund our garden, this is time they would rather spend in the garden with us!

 

So PLEASE help us get our wonderful Parent Volunteers back into the garden eating and growing with us...by Voting for us on the link below by Monday the 23rd September:

http://www.motherearth.co.nz/reward/peoples-choice/

A HUGE Thank you from EVERY Garden Warrior who turns up every Friday lunch time to eat and grow!

 

This month we have also entered "Lets Cook with PARMCO", with our students cooking up the weekly Challenges alfresco style in their Garden.

Please also spare a minute to vote for Westport North School through the link below by Monday the 23rd September:

 

http://www.letscookwithparmco.co.nz/class-of-2013/Westport-North-School

WE could really use this prize package to set up our outdoor " Garden To Table" classroom.

 

Thank you!

Parmco cook off week 2: Salmon tagatellie

 Today we had salmon tagatellie on the menu.

 We even made our own pasta, with silver beet form our graden.

 While we made our pasta, our salmon was grilling on the gas cooker.

 Here is our pasta after everyone had a go putting it through the pasta maker.
We are going to stir through our Rocket & parsley pesto through it once its cooked...delicious!

 Now we have our pasta and salmon all plated up and ready to eat...

with the rest of our Garden Warriors helpers!

Here is Sophie scoffing our delicious pasta.

 Yummy!!!

All that remains off the pasta!

Posted by Naomi Rm1

Week 1 of the Parmco Cook off! chicken with oragano

 

 This week in the garden we completed our first challange in the Parmco cook off, we cooked chicken with oragano.

 Our school ambassadors Sam and Naomi got to school bright and early to put our chicken on. 

 At lunch time our slow cooked chicken was nearly ready.

 We put our saffron rice on to cook.

 Our chicken was now ready

 So was our steamed silver beet.

 We now washed some silver beet plates to eat off.

 Looking delish!

YUMMY!!!

 

Blogged by Sam Room 2

Garden Warriors Garden ALL year round...

 

 Since creating our School Garden 12 months ago in the old school pool area, our Garden Warriors have continued to turn up every Friday lunchtime to see what can be eaten or created here!

 

No opportunity to garden and forage is passed up, and our 3 Parent Garden Leaders have learnt that the threat of a dark cloud unleashing its soggy contents.. are not enough to detour our hardy Garden Warriors!

Have a look at our what we have been up to over the autumn and winter months...

Tui School Challenge Time!

Its Tui School Challenge time again Darth. How do you propose to defend our title of Primary School Category Winners?

 

"In an outdoor Classroom the Force will grow VERY strong!"

 

Over the last 12 months that we have developed our Garden, the Garden Warriors have really embraced all aspects of garden to table. This year we wish to continue to build on this theme, by developing the Garden area further into a multifunctional outdoor class room space. The learning opportunities in this space are infinite...

• This spring and summer we have plans afoot to add, and develop a basic outdoor kitchen, with the addition to the garden of an old coal range, a salvaged sink and outdoor tables.
• With the addition of our fabulous Duratuf Garden shed, we are now in the position to convert one original pool changing shed over to a propagating house. This will be easily achieved with a couple of sheets of clearlite purchased with our prize winnings.
• To help the Garden Warriors establish their growing and eating habits at home, we are launching a home garden competition with a fabulous Tui prize pack to the most innovative and flourishing home garden as judged by our guest judges.
• WE have also had an area outside the pool flipped in preparation of planting a small school orchard.

 

Should be fun!

 

 

 The orchard area flipped and ready for raking. The ground here was very much water logged so a digger has flipped the ground to mix the soil layers for better drainage.

 

 Money raised from our Pumpkin guessing competition, and seed bombs has covered the digger hire. 

 Our Garden Warriors got stuck right in...

 ...picking up river stones...

 ...digging for treasure

 ...and sure enough antique medicine bottles were found and researched (and now on display in the foyer)

 ...our orchard area became an archaeological treasure trove, with pieces of broken china, Westport clay bricks, bottle tops, shoe heels and many other wonders to be found!

 While our garden beds came through the winter well, it was time to sow some more summery seeds. Seed size and shape provoked some thoughtful conversations

 Trays were prepared...

 ...seeds shared out...

 ...labelled and carefully watered.

 Then it was time for a little seed bombing in our own garden...

 ...what colourful surprises await us in November!

 No Garden session is over without a little bit of sampling and tasting what ever is on hand!

 Our wee native birds have also been enjoying the tasty treats on offer in our tamarillo trees...

The bottle garden we constructed this time last year is now engulfed by violas, waiting to burst into colour.

Now we just need those lettuce seeds we planted to grow, so they can spiral around our violas...