Tuesday, August 5

Today was definitely a learning experience. This morning we pulled onions, we counted veggies so that some could be sold at a market, some could stay at the farm for the CSA pick up and some could be given to the pigs (who smelled really bad). We fed the pigs and Eliana thought it was nasty - the pigs stank and she never wants to do it again! We also pulled bugs off plants. They were called mexican beetles and we had to squash them. We pulled the bugs off the bean plants so that the plants wouldn't get eaten. Some of us felt disturbed and disgusted by killing the bugs. Some of us felt like it was just another day's work. On any other farms without people to pick the bugs off the plants, the bugs would have taken over, or the farmers would have used chemicals to kill all of the bugs - even the useful ones that help the plant. Also today, we saw things that we've never seen before - we saw mice in the onion patch!

We came back to the garden building and made some "foul concoctions" according to Tessa, except for the pear-peach-apple juice and the last juice that we created ourselves - it was made with lime, pineapple, apples and peaches. We used a juicer to blend fruit and vegetables into different kinds of juices. We all got to taste each juice in a little cup and rated them 1-5, 1 being the worst and 5 being the best. We used apples, pears, peaches, celery, tomatoes, fennel, beets, carrots, lime, and ginger in different combinations. Our favorite juice would definitely be Juice #3, which we described above. The worst juice we tasted was the one with the beets. It tasted, "indescribably disgusting. There was so much that was nasty about it, I can't put it into words," says Eliana. Everybody tried the juice, though, so we can all have our own opinions. Mr Mark told us that juices are good for the digestive system and that they can boost your immune system.

Today is pay day! Though for some, it is not about the money, it's about the educational credit. Today was just fine.

Written by Eliana, Lonnisha, and Tessa