Sunshine, Rain!

It has been an unbelieveable week and through all sorts of storms, winds, hail and sun damage from the prior part of the season, we continue to survive. It is a true testament to the challenges a small farm, or garden faces through its lifespan and how careful planning and maintenance really are in the sustainability of garden work.

This week we had an amazing garden group come through -Child Focus, 20 delightful youth, who I gave a little tour, showed the garden, taught about fruits, vegetables, and composting, and engaged in a lovely tomato picking session. They were all awarded the title of "junior farmer" at the end, and walked away with little bags, filled with "Tamara Tomato" coloring sheets and an additional sheet with 10 budget friendly and healthy tips and tricks for kids snacks for their parent to make at home.  They took away a little wooden toy airplane, and a stress ball to remind them of their tomato lesson all inside of UC Clermont College Bags.  Additionally, they had a "My Plate" page from myplate.gov, which they used in class, while we held another classroom lesson on fruits and vegetables and how many they should have per day.

Everyone learned that "FIVE A DAY" was the magic number as they colored in all sections of their plate and described which food item corresponded to which section of the plate.  After finishing the my plate lesson, we got down to business, the much awaited, "Gazpaaahhhcchooo-cooking show!".   All students were invited to participate as we made gazpacho from the items picked freshly from the garden.  Ingredients included were cherry tomatoes, of which each student placed two in the food processor, cucumber, green, red, and banana peppers, onion, jalepenos, which certain students enjoyed chopping and placing in the food processor olive oil (premeasured and salt and pepper, red wine vinegar, and a little (tomato)/spagetti sauce).  Everyone was delighted, some loved it some did not, but everyone was proud to have tasted something fresh from the garden which they made themselves. We took group pictures and everyone was very grateful for their day out at the garden!

Pictures from our experience are attached!.

Class Picture

Getting our boddies all shaken out and hands stretched well enough to be tomato pickin' ready!!!

Everyone holding hands walking onto the garden story-telling area for Farmer Ruchi to tell tales of the Community Garden!

Alex won the "question" so he got to hold Farmer Ruchi's hat and the tomatoes inside as we walked around.

Servin' up some gazpacho and bread with lunch, can't say that sounds bad after some hard garden work!

Our harvest for the day! Showing off our hard work. (Yes some are yellow but it was a learning and we will just let those ripen for a tad longer ...!) ;)

Big sharp knife for the teacher, small butter knife for the student. This is a cucumber from the garden picked just for the gazpacho! Yumm!

All of our ripe fresh gazpacho goodies. Fresh and Tasty!

Walking around the watermelon, cantaloupe areas, checking out how big they are getting! Children all amazed at the fruit still on the vines.

Showing everyone how different tomatoes have different shapes. Romas are oval, cherry are small and regular tomatoes are big and round. There are also some green tomatillos-that stay green!