Garlicky Refrigerator Pickles

We had a fabulous time in the kitchen making refrigerator pickles! Here is the recipe that Lisa found–but slightly modified by me and Lisa…and it is delicious!

Ingredients:

1 cup distilled white vinegar

1 tablespoon salt

1 cups white sugar

6 cups sliced cucumbers

Dill (added from farm)

Garlic (added from farm)

Directions:

1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring vinegar, salt, and sugar to a boil. Boil until the sugar has dissolved, about 10 minutes.

2. Place the cucumbers and garlic in a large bowl. Pour the vinegar mixture over the vegetables. Add dill. Transfer to sterile containers and store in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

You Say To-MAH-to Sauce

We spent our time in the kitchen today making a delicious Italian tomato sauce. We added an American flare to it…and you can call it what you want: I say tomato sauce and you say tomahto sauce!

Here’s a quick recipe that Lisa Ramsden shared with us.

Ingredients:

Tomatoes

Garlic

Basil

Sage

Rosemary

Honey

Salt

Pepper

Vinegar

Olive Oil

Directions:

Chop tomotoes (throw out bad parts) and put in an oven pan.  Feel free to mush, we used our clean, sanitized hands!

Add garlic, rosemary, sage, basil, and oregano to the pan. We delighted ourselves in picking fresh all these herbs grown by children at the farm. It’s hard to tell how much fresh herbs to add, especially since you can’t really taste their flavor until they cook a bit to release their flavor.  I would advise to be generous with all herbs.

Next, add a dash of olive oil, honey, salt, pepper, vinegar, and stir it up!  Note: I would add a little at this point, and add more if the flavors aren’t full enough later on. When the goodies cook together they release the flavors slowly, so patiently wait before seasoning to taste.

Bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour.  Wait about 30 minutes before doing a taste test to see if there is anything else you want to add to the sauce.

Next, blend it up. We used a food processor. Place on stove if you desire to have a thicker sauce. Cooking with the top off will allow some of the liquid to evaoporate. We simmered on medium low for at least 1 more hour with top off.  Add more spices at this point if you think it could use a bit more kick. Cool before storing it in plastic containers.

Enjoy!

You will be missed!

Dear Families and Friends of Spence’s Farm,

I am writing to thank all of you for a wonderful experience at Spence’s. It has truly been a pleasure to get to know you better and work with your amazing children. As our garden grows, I have also grown tremendously in my time at the farm and remain grateful for these lessons and blessings.

I have decided to pursue a new career and will be working with young children at an up and coming Montessori school. I am also excited to pursue my musical interests more intensely and see where that road may lead.

I will miss each of you and hope that you will continue to keep in-touch should you wish to do so. I will continue to work part-time in September to help transition Sarah Esposito, the very capable and kind young woman who will be taking over the garden and small livestock. I know you will welcome her and support her just as you have done for me, and she is very excited to learn and know each of you.

I wish you all of the best.

With love,
Stephanie Stewart

worms with worms

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By: Iris Newlin, 4th grade

I sometimes wonder why most people think that soil isn’t a living thing. It has many, many, many millions and jillions of things living in it including worms. Most people don’t realize that worms are one of the most important things alive. They will eat almost anything; chopped up cardboard, torn up newspaper, bad fruits and vegetables, moldy banana peels, bananas, almost anything small enough for them to get their nose on. Whenever they use the bathroom, they make very good nutritious soil called castings (you can call it worm poop if you want). Castings are the very best fertilizer you can get. Sometimes good bacteria gets in it that keeps weeds away! Some people go up in airplanes and spray all sorts of weed killer on their plants instead of doing that. That makes all the very good wonderful soil turn into some kind of sand that plants don’t like to grow in.

How to Make Your Own Worm Farm:

First
take an empty large yogurt container, find six worms, and put them in it. Make sure you don’t pull—or cut—a worm in half while finding them. It’s just a story that a worm turns into two worms when it’s chopped in half. And DON’T PUT THE LID ON THE YOGURT CONTAINER! Doing that is like locking someone in a car with the windows rolled up in the middle of August. They need oxygen to live if you know what I mean.

Next
take some already composted soil and fill the yogurt container half full of it. Or half empty. Whichever way you see it. DO NOT pack the compost down. They still need oxygen, and their last name is not Tuck.

Then
take some wet newspaper and rip it up into little pieces. Fill another inch of the yogurt container full of this. Don’t smash that down either. Oh, by the way, make sure you aren’t doing any of this in the sunlight! If worms are out in the sunlight they will fry   up and be dead.

When that is done
Take a knife (alert a grownup) and cut air holes in the top of the yogurt container. You can cut them in the side too, if you want. THEN put the lid on. You should write your name on it. Be sure to give them something to nibble on and when you do, make sure that that something is small. ALWAYS pour water into the whole kit-and-kaboodle every day. Not enough water to make puddles, but enough to make everything moist. Often check on the worms to see how things are going. You should try it! Or do you have other plans?

Fee-Fi-Fo-Plum: How to make plum jam

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Photos by: Shira (Jr. Mentor) and Trailblazer Jammer Crew

By Gretchen Mackie, Fifth Grader

Ingredients:

• 8 pounds of firm plums , cut into pieces, pits/seeds discarded
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 cup water
• 14 cups sugar
• 2 (3 ounce) package   pectin

Serving size: About 35 jars

1. Place the plums, water, and lemon juice in a large , non-aluminum stockpot. Stirring often, bring to a boil over medium high heat. Cover, Reduce heat to low, then simmer ten minutes, Stirring occasionally, Until the fruit is soft.
2. Stir in the sugar. Return heat to high and bring back to a rolling boil while stirring constantly.  Add the pectin and return the pot to a boil while stirring. Continue to stir and boil for two more minutes, Then remove from heat. Let rest for one minute, the skim off any foam.
3. Pour even amounts into sterilized jars, leaving 1/8-inch space at the top. Wipe rims and and seal with sterilized lids. Process in boiling water for five minutes. Remove , let cool , and label jars.  Store plum jam in a cool dry place.

I really hope you like this delicious recipe; I know I did!

What’s the Dill-e-o?! How to make pickles…

Author: Casey Barker, rising 6th grader

It takes a long time to make pickles so be prepared to wait.

First you have to have:

8 pounds of cucumbers

16 cloves of garlic

8 sprigs of fresh dill weed

8 heads fresh dill weed

2/3 cups of pickling salt

4 cups of white vinegar

and 12 cups of water

Once you have all those things you have to make sure the cucumbers are crisp because nobody wants soggy pickles. To do that you have to wash them then place them in a sink or bathtub and fill that sink or bathtub with cold water and lots of ice. Soak the pickles for at least 2 hours but don’t soak them longer than 8 hours.

Refresh the ice and make sure to sterilize 8, one quart canning jars for 10 minutes in boiling water.

Take a large pot and over medium high heat combine the vinegar,  pickling salt and water. Bring the mixture to a rapid boil.

Then in each jar put one half clove garlic, 1 head dill and fill to top with sliced cucumbers.

Then put two more halves of garlic and 1 sprig of dill weed.

Fill the jar with hot brine and seal the jar.

Clean the jars of any left over ingredients by wiping rim (we use washcloth dipped in boiling water).

Process the sealed jars in boiling water bath. Keep quart jars in boiling water for 15 minutes.

Store the pickles for at least 8 weeks before eating. Refrigerate after opening.

If you store the pickles in a cool dry place you can keep them for up to 2 years.

That’s how you pickle cucumber I hope you have alot of fun with this project.  I did!

Photography by: Trailblazer Classes, Ms. Steph & Shira, Jr. Mentor

Berry Fun!

Berries are rolling in by billions! If you haven’t had a chance to taste some, you should really swing by the store and pick up a pint… or TWO! They are some of the best ever… plump, juicy, vine-ripened and packed full of goodness and flavor. Right now we have both blue and blackberries available, and if you’re feeling adventurous, you can even pick you own at a reduced price! And did I mention they are good for you? Oh yes, berries do a body good!

Hope you enjoy the photos taken by two trailblazer campers this week.

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Photos by: Victoria and Miles

Interview with Community Service Girl And Wheelbarrow Woman

A creative piece from the Trailblazer Garden Gang.. . (pictures to follow soon)

13703 Strange Happenings Now”s top reporter, Ellena Peot traveled to Spence’s Farm in Chapel Hill, Nc to interview the latest and the greatest strange superheroes.

Ellena: Ladies how did you become superheroes?

Community Service Girl: One day we just figured it out.

Wheelbarrow Woman: I was the first to become a super hero so i was the boss.

Ellena: How did you decide on your name, Wheelbarrow Woman?

Wheelbarrow Woman: I was pushing a Wheelbarrow when it happened.

Ellena: Why are you called Community Service Girl?

Wheelbarrow Woman: She always did like Community Service

Ellena: Well, follks that’s all for n   ow. See you soon on 13703 Strange Happenings Now!

Harvest Heroes: Garlic!

By: Margaret Neuman

The gardening class at Spence’s Farm was a great success during our first week of summer camp! Kids from camp enjoyed picking and cleaning garlic and harvesting blackberries, blueberries, and wineberries. Once they were through with washing the garlic they placed them in the greenhouse that our garden manager, Steph and friends made. Some of the campers said that the smell of the greenhouse was nasty and some enjoyed the yummy aroma of garlic in the sun.

It was very hot but the campers were great sports and kept doing the work that needed to be done. Picking the berries was a fun task because the kids loved to eat them. Steph kept telling them that the white blueberries and red blackberries were sour but the kids kept eating them and making funny faces.

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Photography by: Margaret Neuman

Health Benefits and Uses

From: Garlic Central

Garlic’s health benefits and medicinal properties have long been known (1). Garlic has long been considered a herbal “wonder drug”, with a reputation in folklore for preventing everything from the common cold and flu to the Plague! It has been used extensively in herbal medicine (phytotherapy, sometimes spelt phitotherapy). Raw garlic is used by some to treat the symptoms of acne and there is some evidence that it can assist in managing high cholesterol levels. It can even be effective as a natural mosquito repellent.

In general, a stronger tasting clove of garlic has more sulfur content and hence more medicinal value it’s likely to have. Some people have suggested that organically grown garlic tends towards a higher sulfur level and hence greater benefit to health. In my experience it certainly tastes better so I buy organic whenever possible whether or not it’s best for my health.

Some people prefer to take garlic supplements. These pills and capsules have the advantage of avoiding garlic breath.

Modern science has shown that garlic is a powerful natural antibiotic, albeit broad-spectrum rather than targeted. The body does not appear to build up resistance to the garlic, so its positive health benefits continue over time.

Goodbye Spring, Hello Summer!

As the temps quickly climb into the 90′s, our beloved spring greens and root veggies are quickly making way for more heat-tolerant summer crops. This season, we will be offering an array of squash and tomatoes as well as potatoes, cucumbers, peppers, melons and other summer surprises.

If you didn’t yet know, our Farm Store is also open on alternating Saturdays at Johnny’s in Carrboro from about 9am till 1pm. You are invited to come out and show your support for the farm as well as enjoy the crepes from the Saturday Crepe truck and other produce our fellow farmers have to offer. This is a great way for us to tell the community about Spence’s. If you and/or your child is interested in assisting with market days, please talk with Steph. We love extra help!

We hope you will enjoy this video, shot by 6th grade After School student Conrad explaining how to transplant Eggplant: