Monday featured many kindergarten hands harvesting, shucking, de-cobbing, and popping our purple and yellow popcorn! It popped white after all and was a tasty treat!
The coolest thing was popping it right on the cob in the microwave in a paper bag. Unfortunately, the cob started smoking and the whole school stunk. Maybe it should have been dried longer...
Tuesday was also popcorn day for the grade 2's! They harvested more corn, shucked it, and de-cobbed the dried kernels, then popped them ~ a really fun process.
Wednesday's grades 3-4, plus a 5-6 class who had to reschedule, got to harvest potatoes, finish harvesting corn and clearing those beds, and popped popcorn as a warm snack alongside. It started pouring in the last class, so they returned early to their classroom to nibble popcorn and read and dry off.
Thursday was amazing! We planted a food forest with help from Shane with the Farmland Trust, and trees, shrubs, and herbs from Seven Ravens Farm (Michael Nickels, a local permaculture guru). Kids tried guava berries and added bone meal and fish soil to the tree holes. We planted hazelnuts, figs, plus a bay, a plum, and grapevines. Beautiful! Now we just need more hay for the terraces so we can continue to build up the soil on this hot, rocky slope!
Here's an article that I wrote about Tree Planting for Food & Forests which featured a photo from this project!
