Gardening Thoughts in Midwinter

THIS SNOWY, JANUARY DAY has my mind turning towards our sustainable garden at Oak Lane. If you are not familiar with our garden activities, here’s an update: The rain barrel has been put away for the winter (so it doesn't freeze!); the compost pile is constantly being added to and is decomposing (Oak Lane has diverted over 300 pounds of food scraps from trash cans to the compost pile already this year – wow!); and finally, we are beginning to think warm thoughts about starting new seeds indoors!

Our garden guru and my husband, Phil Baumgarten, seems always to be on the ready to help with Oak Lane’s sustainable efforts. He is the guru of seed starting and is an instinctive and diligent gardener, both in food and in landscape. He tells me that we can start eggplant and pepper plants indoors soon. These seed starts will be the plants for both our home garden and our school garden. After that, the tomato and broccoli seeds can be started. I will follow his lead in all the indoor seedlings. I'll keep you posted on the progress, and I'll also let you know of any needs that we might have.

As part of my teaching about sustainability, I plan to offer food that has been grown, harvested and preserved from Oak Lane's "backyard" to each of our classrooms this winter. Some classes may choose to cook in class, but others might prefer making and bringing in dishes from home. Below are foods that have been preserved and are available, and suggestions for how to use them. Homeroom teachers are welcome to use these midwinter food treats between now and the end of March, so the time schedule for cooking would be different in each class. Even our Parent Association could use some of the preserved foods for various events!

1. Crab apple jelly – good baked in muffins, as centers for cookies, or even as a topping for brie.
2. Crab applesauce – I have two applesauce recipes above, thanks to the Mennonite Community Cookbook: Applesauce Cake and Applesauce Gingerbread. Try them out!
3. Sweet basil and thyme – I would make a simple spaghetti using these two herbs (and others), but feel free to use any recipe calling for these herbs.
4. Garden mint tea – hot, cold or with lemonade. The mix of tea and lemon is particularly tasty.

We want Oak Lane children to experience eating cared-for-food from our garden in the middle of the winter. Clearly, our message is: "We grew this ourselves, it was preserved by someone at Oak Lane, and we are eating local food.” Sustainability and sustainable practices – it is all taking place at Oak Lane Day School!

-- Dottie Baumgarten, Science Teacher --