Mesa Elementary Blogs

New Mesa GTT Website

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 22:46:52 +0100

After running into costs ands limitation of the Mesa Garden to table site on NING, we have decided to migrate to the grou.ps platform. This platform is far superior giving us the ability to store documents and collaborate without having to go to outside websites.

Salad Making with Chef Hugo Matheson and Growe

Mon, 24 May 2010 18:14:16 +0100

Thanks to all who helped the 4th graders in preparing salad and dressings for the Pasta Pig Out! Yumminess to be had by all. Recipes (including the famous Mesa pasta sauce) are attached...

Happy summer!

Growe_Recipe_SaladDressings_Fruit.pdf
Growe_Recipe_SaladDressings_GardenHerb.pdf
Mesa Fitness Club Pasta Sauce Recipe.pdf

New Irrigation in the Garden

Tue, 04 May 2010 02:46:15 +0100

Thank you Growe Foundation for providing materials for the new drip-line irrigation system for the garden. Thank you also to Laura Ruby from Growe and our amazing parent volunteers for putting in their time, know-how and muscles as well. It's exciting to get the raised beds and irrigation into place in time for our plantings which will take place over the next couple of weeks. We're all excited to watch the garden grow.

2nd Grade Goes Aussie with Butternut Squash Soup!

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 17:27:10 +0100

On April 19th, the 2nd grade got to get their hands in some butternut squash (along with apples, onions and other yummy ingredients) - to make Butternut Squash soup for their Australia Day celebration. We'll post pictures soon - but here's the recipe in case you want to GO AUSSIE at home!

MesaGarden_Recipe_SquashSoup.pdf

Thank You!

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:49:46 +0100

Thank you to all of the Mesa families and community members who joined us on Dig Day. Special thanks to Bryce and the Growe Foundation for providing hardscape, soil, landscape fabric and irrigation for the new garden. Additional thank yous to John Albright and the team from BVSD who worked to remove sod for the project, to Mario who built the garden boxes, and to the crew from Evol Burritos for their hard work on Dig Day.

We now have six grade level raised beds, as well as two large community beds. Over the next several weeks we will be planting seeds and starts with all of the children.

Look for FIG or Fridays In the Garden to start this month as well. Every Friday we meet in the school garden from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. to weed, garden and gather.

Salsa with Ms. Nankervis' First Grade

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 22:11:49 +0100

Fresh Salsa Recipe
10 oz tomatoes (4 med roma tomatoes)
1.25 oz onion (1/4 of small onion)
2 oz anaheim pepper (1 pepper 4 to 5" length), could also add 1 to 2 spicy peppers
1 large garlic clove
juice of 1/2 lime (1 Tablespoon)
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon oregano or about 1 tsp fresh oregano
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
2 tsp. chopped cilantro

Using food processor:

Chop onion and pepper in large chunks and add to processor with garlic. Pulse until chopped.

Chop tomatoes into quarters or smaller. Add tomatoes, herbs, oil, salt, pepper, lime juice. Also add cilantro if using. Pulse until it is a "scoopable" consistancy. Probably don't want to pulse too long -- just a few seconds at a time.

The first grade class will be enjoying the salsa at the Fiesta Day Celebration as part of their studies on Mexico.

DIG DAY: APRIL 3rd

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:01:43 +0100

Bring your shovels, wheelbarrows and garden gear. We're installing a raised bed for every grade level!

We'll gather to take back the garden from the over-abundance of weeds, while giving each grade a chance to get creative with their garden plans and curriculum.

Rain Date: 11 April - 9am

Event_MesaGarden_DigDay2010.pdf

CURRENT STATUS: In planning mode.

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:54:33 +0100

G2T@Mesa is busy planning. Planning for the installation of raised beds, planning for the development of a sustainability curriculum, planning for increased coordination between teachers and parent volunteers for ongoing garden lessons, and planning for spring planting.

The soon-to-be-started construction at Mesa will not affect our current garden location as we once feared. Instead it has allowed us to plan for an expansion. Part of this will be the installation of one raised bed per grade, so that teachers and students will have more ownership of their corner of the garden. It will also help to mitigate our ongoing issues with weeds and grass — both of which really seem to love our Mesa garden. This new plan will also require less watering and will be more sustainable overall. Plus, the kids will have easier access. The areas between the raised beds will be covered with pea gravel. The teachers have all been really enthusiastic about these new plans! Check out the new plan below.

We’ve also been conducting a series of planning sessions with teachers by grade level to kick off the sustainability curriculum effort. The meetings have been going really well as we discuss what sustainability means to each teacher and how we can help support synergy between science standards and our garden and other local environmental programs.

STUDENT REPORTS

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:15:49 +0100

Dear Garden to Table

Thank you so much for teaching us how to make salad and dressing. My dad worked at restaurants when he was young, so now I have another recipe that I can show him. I hurt my wrist a few hours before, and I was having so much fun that I forgot about it! I know you are a non-profit organization and I hope you get a lot of sponsors!....Ceal