Planting Corn

This week we planted corn in the garden. I wonder how long it will take to grow?

Caterpillars

Last week we had some visitors in the vege garden....

I think they want to have a munch on our veges..

I wonder what we should do with them?

I wonder what they will grow in to?

Tracey's Niue Coconut Bread Recipe

Tracey finished her practicum with us today. Yesterday she made this yummy recipe with the children... if you want to try it at home... here it is.

Thanks Tracey

2 CUPS OF FLOUR
2 CUPS OF COCONUT
1 EDMONDS DRY YEAST SATCHET
1 TSPN OF SUGAR
1 TSPN OF MILK POWDER
300 MLS OF WARM WATER


1 Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl
2 Add water bit by bit. Stir together with dry ingredients with a wooden spoon
3 Lightly flour board. Knead dough for 10 minutes
4 Leave bread dough to rest in a warm place 10 mins
5 Knead bread dough again for 10 – 20 mins
6 Place dough on a greased tray or bread tin
7 Leave in a warm place for bread dough to air and rise approx 30 – 40mins
8 Bake in oven 150 – 200 degrees (to your preference)
9 Cook for 35 mins or until coconut bread crust is brown (to your preference)

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Lunch box ideas

In this weeks newsletter Deepa is asking parents to for new ideas on healthy food options. Here is another place to write your ideas... hopefully over the day I will take some photos of some lunchboxes to provide a little inspiration....

Some 2008 photos

We are still in the process of getting permission to publish photos.. but here is a selection of some that we can show.....

Requests for seedlings

In the children's meetings the we remembered the vegetables we had seen growing in other gardens and thought about other things we like eating. We came up with a list of things we would like to grow then sent out a request for donation seedlings and plants.

And thanks to the generosity of our community the plants came flowing in to become a very comprehensive vegetable garden.

Lexie brought long lots of plants and let her friends plant them. On that day (5/11/08) they planted runner beans, dwarf beans, peas, silverbeet and corn.

More building

Some more wood arrived.... then the soil..

Beginning the build

After investigating other gardens - Lexie's family garden, the botanical gardens, Clarks Beach Centre gardens, Jan Beatson's garden to name a few, we were armed with ideas and ready to get started.

With a lot of whaanau support we began the build on Saturday, August 30th....

They dug holes for the foundations then concreted in poles

Finding the perfect spot

After the children's meeting some of the older children started making places for it. They took rakes from the sandpit and started moving bark out of the way so we could build a vege garden there. And what a perfect place it was...

In the beginning...

Well, I am going to try to tell the story how I remember it. I wasn't here in the very beginning when the idea of the vege garden started but I was around when the building of the garden did....

As a centre we encourage healthy lifestyles (healthy bodies, healthy eating, healthy minds and healthy environments). Each week children have a meeting and discuss what they would like to do in the centre. Early 2008 some children discussed wanting to plant seeds.

Following their lead the teachers discussed making a full blown vege garden and with some additional support the possibility of building a raised garden, worm farm, garden tools, cooking tools so we could plant, harvest, cook and recycle and be self sufficient. We got some quotes from landscapers, for worm farms etc and then applied to the Counties Manukau District Health Board for a Nutritional Grant.

On June 20th 2008 we found out that the Counties Manukau District Health Board had approved our application and would subsidize our project and the but we would have to downsize our previously elaborate ideas and find more support.