Day Eight (July 30) and Day Nine (July 31)

Wednesday:

On Wednesday we baked zucchini brownies and oatmeal raisin cookies. We split up into groups - one group did cookies, one group did brownies, one group did marketing. The marketing group made signs that said "Bake Sale" "Cookies" "Brownies." We also used words like organic, fresh, nutritious - we used those words because they're true, and because the people at the farmer's market and at the whole foods store would like those words. We cut up the brownies and cookies, put them in bags and labeled them. The labels listed the ingredients, the name of the product, and the symbol of Triskeles. Some of us sold the treats at the Mill at Anselma and some went to Kimberton Whole Foods. At the farmer's market, Zairre lured people into buying the product by having a script to say to people at the market. He targeted older people and people with kids because, "older people won't remember what they buy afterwards and kids like cookies and brownies, and the parents like the fact that they're healthy," according to Zairre. Business at the market was healthy. It was hard at first to go up to people and talk to them, but it got easier. We also had someone handing out samples - Megan and Eliana.

At Kimberton Whole Foods we set up at the back and front of the store - we had two stands. We put up signs and displayed the products on the table so that people would see what we were selling. Not very many people came because we were at the back of the store. The customers were mostly old ladies. We tried to say hello to customers at Whole Foods so that they would notice us. We made around $20. Both groups made about $50 total profit - but before we spend that, we have to decide on our expenses. Our expenses were ingredients. At the Whole Foods store, Jaryn got a bag of popcorn that was three feet long. Some of us loved selling, but some didn't.

Thursday:

This morning we picked onions and weeds at Kimberton. Mr. Mark's group stayed at the garden - they weeded the garden and picked basil and cut mint. We used the basil for our afternoon cooking. We also had to cut the ends off the onions to process them. Weeding was hard because some of the weeds were four feet tall. It was almost all weeds. We also found praying mantises - they jump and fight and pray and kill all the small insects that affect the plants.

This afternoon we cooked pesto -it was made with olive oil, cheese, basil, garlic, and pine nuts. We made one batch with a blender but then it broke, so we all used mortar and pestles to make our own batches of pesto. We made salad dressing - "Raspberry Matt" - raspberries, salt, olive oil, mustard, garlic, apple cider vinegar and blackberries and sugar. We also made "A Zillie" dressing - it was made out of the ingredients of Raspberry Matt, but without the berries and sugar. We made the dressing by hand and shook it up in glass jars. The third group made mayonnaise, but failed because they didn't drizzle the olive oil the right way. We ended up just with sauce that was made out of eggs and olive oil. Some people made mustard. When everything was made, we ate it on bread. Some people took it home with them.

Matt's final words about today are, "Can I go now? Chicken." ...he's crazy. We're looking forward to our field trip tomorrow.

Written by Group 1 - Zairre, Jaryn, Skyler, Matt and Alyssa

Day Six (July 29)

Today half of the group was picking onions and other half picked weeds at Kimberton. None of our group was doing onions - we did the weeds. We picked the weeds out of the flower beds so that they wouldn't kill the flowers. Weeding was hard for the really big weeds that looked like sunflower stalks, but it was easy for the small weeds. The hardest part about the work today was trying not to accidentally pull up the flowers with the weeds. When that did happen, we put the flowers in a bucket of water to take back to the school. Also - Mr. Mason's group stayed at the school garden. One group weeded the potatoes and corn, and another group put in a fence around the corn, and said they got really sweaty doing it.

This afternoon we cooked quiche. Tamara mixed eggs, Lonnie was the grinder and chopper and put stuff in the bowl to be mixed, and Ed cut the green bell peppers. We thought the tasks were very easy. We used sharp knives, graters, teaspoons and bowls. We learned to cut onions from stem to stalk and to always cut peppers and tomatoes in half first, so you don't cut yourself. The ingredients were used were: green pepper, onion, tomato, eggs and cheese. After we cooked, we talked about CSAs and how much you can make with the money the members give. Yvonne handed out a tree of what fruits and vegetables grow in the summer, winter, spring and fall. She also handed out a map of Chester County - the map had all of the places where we live, and marked all of the places around here where you can buy fresh food - farms, farm markets, CSAs. While Yvonne was talking, we got called up for our paychecks. They explained why we had deductions from our checks - like being absent, talking a lot when other people were talking, acting out on a trip, transportation. Why do they take out money for transportation? Because they have to pay for gas, the bus and the driver. We think it's fair to take out money for transportation, but we wished they had told us earlier that the money would have come out of our pay. Overall, we think today was great - we had fun, and we're leaving with money! It feels good to be paid for hard work.

Written by Group 2 - Lonnie, Tamara and Ed

Day Five (July 25) and Day Six (July 28)

On Friday we went on a trip to the Meadow Run Farm in Lancaster County. Lancaster County was very rural – it was interesting because it had a lot of stores and places to see, but it got sort of boring when we arrived at the farm. We took a tour and saw animals – chickens, cows, turkeys, geese, lambs, pigs, and we saw the meat locker. We learned that bacon comes from a pig’s stomach; that the farm ships 60 dozen eggs every week; that lambs are the dumbest animals; and that pigs are smart. The trip could have been better if we could have actually done something other than just walking around, like feeding the animals or doing an activity. All we did was feed the geese.

Today (Monday) we went to the Sankanac farm and picked carrots and beets. It was easier than last time, and we didn’t get as dirty. The beets were a lot easier to pick because of the rain – they were already sticking out of the ground when we went to pick them. The carrots were harder to pick because the ground was tougher around them, and the tops were coming off. We also processed the carrots like last time. Processing this time was easier than on Thursday because we didn’t have to do so many carrots. Sebastian said that on Thursday we picked and processed about 500 pounds of carrots. We learned that it was easier to load the carrots and beets on the truck when we used the chain method – passing piles down a line of people.

This afternoon we made blueberry pancakes – they were so good. The blueberries made them taste so good. We learned how to flip them correctly: wait until the edges look a little hard and the blueberries are bubbling; then you have to put the spatula all around the edges, then flip. We used fresh blueberries, flour from the mill at Anselma, sugar, baking powder, salt, and eggs. We used a jar to mix everything instead of a bowl; it was easier to mix in a jar because it didn’t spill and it was quicker to mix. We also learned that you can make pancakes year round, but you can only get blueberries in the summer. This was our favorite thing we’ve made so far – better than the zucchini brownies!

Written by Turhaan, Megan, Eric and Tony

Day Four: July 24

Well today we learned how to pick the carrots from the stems. If you didnt pull them a correct way then the carrots got stuck in the ground and you had to wait a couple minutes to pull them with no stems on the end. So if you did that it was kinda harder. And why would u want to make things harder on yourself? We also learned how to cook with this celebrity chef person. I forget her name but she taught us how to deal with how much sugar you shoud have in a day and why it's not good to have a lot of sugar. We also baked cookies and crispy treats. Today was probably the hardest day as the work goes, but it was still worth it and I still learned a lot and I was glad I did it.
Written by Kahron

Today we also picked beets! We were told to pick the larger beets than the smaller ones. The reason we picked the bigger beets, was so that the smaller beets could grow into big beets. When we were done picking them, we went to the barn where we had to chop off the leaves of the beets. After we were done with that chore, the people who picked the carrots came up and everyone helped twist the carrot leaves off so only the carrots were left.We then came back to the garden building to eat lunch and enjoy an afternoon of cooking with a cook who has her own TV show!!!! We cooked 3 different things: a healthy rice crispy treat, oatmeal cherry cookies and jello. The cookies and the crispy treats were delicious.
Written by Hannah

Day Three 7/23 (Afternoon)

Today was all about business! Green of Green was our motto. This morning we saw a Power Point, which contained business facts - tips to start a business. Who, what, when, where and why to start a business - for example, if you were selling food on the side of a road that isn't busy, you wouldn't earn as much money as if you were working in the city of Philadelphia. We also learned about supply and demand - you have to order enough products that you think will support all of the orders of your customers. We also learned that listening and observing are important to find out how much to order and what products to order and what people will like.

We also played games to help us get to know one another better. We learned that more people like the Eagles than the Steelers, which is not fair!

This afternoon we took a trip to Anselma Mill farmers market to learn more about the business of farms. We learned to make a stand colorful to attract attention, to sell a variety of things, charge a fair price, put out samples to make people more interested in your product - sometimes you need to hand out free samples to show your appreciation of your customer, so that they'll stay loyal to you. We handed out some samples of our chocolate zucchini cake - people thought it tasted more like cake than brownies so we decided to change the name a little. People said the cake was really good and they told us how much it was worth to them - some people said $1, some said $3, some said $2, so we decided it might be good to sell a bigger brownie for $2.25. We liked how friendly everyone was to us, and we loved Hobo Ed's strawberry smoothie. Everyone should try a cup of his product! I guarantee you will absolutely love it.



Written by Eliana and Dallas (Group 5)

Day Three 7/23

I learned about the business part of farming. The CSA across the road has member--they are community who gives the money so that people will be able to eat healthy foods from the farm.
I also learned that food can't be put for too long in a truck or it might go bad.
Different people do certain things in a market or a restaurant. Like the buyers--they're the ones who decide how much food to order, so that customers have enough. If they order too much, they have to discount it to get rid of it. Or they could try to get people to buy another kind.

This is supply and demand. We each made an order of our own for granola bars, and tried to figure out what to order. Then we found what kind everybody wanted, and then we compared it to see how we did. We did fine.

Lonnisha

Day Two: 7/22

Day Two

Today was our second day. We worked at the farm again in the morning, and we mulched, picked cantaloupes, and took beetles off of the blackberry and raspberry plants. Then we came back to the school and ate our lunches. Then we began to cook some brownies using zucchini in the batter. We baked them and tasted them, and they weren't that bad! That is all we did today.

Written by Group 6 - Willie, Haley, Trey and Jacob

Day One: 7/21/08

Today was our first day!!!!!!

We started the day by learning everyone's names. Then we went to the seven stars farm to learn how to mulch. We mulched about three tons in about 1 hour. While we were there, we met a cat and a rabbit. Afterwards we came back to the garden building to have lunch and relax for a bit. Then we got a lesson on veggies and how to make a delicious burrito in 30 minutes!!!!! When we had finished eating our burritos we headed out to the garden to look at a beehive. At the end of the day we played another name game and said a couple things that we learned, like onions are antibiotics and why we put mulch around the plants.

Written by Hannah T. and Skyler L.