Harvesting Sunflower Seeds

Sunflower seeds are highly nutritious and a kid friendly snack. Harvest the seeds when the back of the flowers have turned brown or yellow then bring the sunflower heads indoors to a dry airy place. Once the seeds have totally dried they will easily fall from the head when rubbed with your hand. Soak the seeds overnight with salted water. Drain them the next day and roast in a single layer on a cookie sheet for a couple hours at 150-200 degrees Fahrenheit. Store the roasted seeds in an airtight container set in a cool, dry place until ready to eat.

To save seeds for next year put the dry(not roasted) seeds in paper envelopes and label them. They will be ready to sow next June by our students again!

Powdery Mildew

Yuck, powdery mildew has devastated our squash and pumpkin efforts. This common fungus first started in our cucumber patch in late July, we didn't catch it early enough and then the air born spores migrated their way to our zucchini plants. We still were able to harvest a substantial amount of zucchinis but it definitely cut our season short. By mid August the powdery mildew ravaged our blue ballet squash and small sugar pumpkin plants (part of our Iroquois Three Sisters Garden). The fruit of the squash and pumpkin plants are still hanging on but we are not sure for how much longer. We were hoping to harvest the squash in mid October but we might have to pick it sooner in order to save it. We will try to "keep" it for as long as we can so the second grade can use it in their Harvest celebration in November.

We treated the effected leaves by spraying them with a mixture of baking soda(natural fungicide) and water. This seemed to slow down the spread but next year if this happens we will start our treatment earlier and more aggressively. In the meantime we will look into ways to prevent this from happening next year.

Garden Curriculum for the upcoming school year

Here are the Garden Curriculum themes for the 2010-11 school year:

Kindergarten will study SOIL with highlights being vermicomposting (wormbins) in the K classrooms, engaging the boy scouts to build a compost bin from our left over wood and chicken wire, and studying what make soil healthy.

1st Grade will study SEEDS, they will study seed anatomy, seed diversity, how to save seeds and then save some from this year's garden. They can do a sunflower seed tasting in the Fall and a pea tasting in the Spring.

2nd Grade will have HARVEST, they can have a small Harvest Party in the Fall with the end of season produce. They can relate their celebration to the American Thanksgiving celebration. They can learn how to "keep" certain produce. They can decide what to do with the rest of the produce- cafeteria, donate, sell.

3rd Grade will have BENEFICIALS studying bugs, ecosystems, companion planting and planning.

4th Grade will have THE THREE SISTERS referring the Iroquois method of planting corn, squash and beans. They will plant the Three Sisters in the Spring. They can have a popcorn party this Fall with the corn we grew this summer. They can study the many uses of corn in industrialized societies. This theme will tie in with Parkdale's Intercultural Exchange (ICE) program this year.

Suggestions for an abundance of produce

This past week volunteers, Jennifer and her son Christopher brought over 7 cucumbers and 2 zucchini to the East Aurora Senior Center from the Parkdale Community Garden. The gifts were well received. We can add the East Aurora Senior Center to our list of places extra produce can be dropped off to. This goes for your own garden too, if you have zucchini coming out of your ears please consider finding a local place that would benefit greatly from donations of produce.

This is what the two most common weeds in our garden look like.

How to Harvest Swiss Chard

We have some beautiful swiss chard growing in the garden and some of it is just about ready to be harvested. The leaves should be about 18inches tall and blemish free. Grab the outer leaf that you want at the base of the plant and pull down forcefully it should snap off, leave the center leaves intact. The outer leaves will regenerate and we will have swiss chard again in a month. Check out this great video volunteer Heide found for us http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-harvest-swiss-chard.

How to Make Borage Herbal Tea

The Garden's borage plants are tucked in between the tomato plants. You can't miss them they have beautiful pink, purple and blue flowers on them right now. The herb borage is native to Syria and has long been hailed for its healing properties. It has been shown to alleviate symptoms of melancholy, depression and fatigue. It is also a strong anti-inflammatory. The leaves and flowers can be used fresh in salads, the leaves taste like cucumber.

Here is how to make borage tea: pour one cup of boiling water over a quarter cup of bruised fresh leaves. Steep for five minutes, strain and drink up.