Planting Seeds

This week we planted for our fall harvest.  We planted 3 cabbages, 2 broccoli plants, 2 cauliflower plants, 2 large pots of carrots and 1 small pot of carrots.  When planting the carrot seeds I took time to plant them at the right depth and dropped them in with care.  As I was doing this I was reminded of the parable of the farmer who goes out to plant his crop.  You can find it in Luke 8.  Most of us know the basic parts of this parable, how it pertains to hearing the word of God and how we should "plant" the word of God in our hearts and in our minds.  As I was putting the seeds into the little trench I had made I thought about how important my job is at Heritage CDC.  It's important for me as a teacher of small children to invest and instill in them the seeds of God's love. Even more, as a parent it is important for me to invest and instill in my children the seeds of God's love. Thank you God for the reminder this week, I love others because you first loved me.  Bless our cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, peppers and herbs as we grow them to show others that you love them too.

 

Luke 8 

4While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: 5“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. 6Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 8Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”

When he said this, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

9His disciples asked him what this parable meant. 10He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,

“‘though seeing, they may not see;

though hearing, they may not understand.’^a

11“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. 14The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. 15But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

The Very Busy Spider

We have our very own "Very Busy Spider" in the Heritage CDC Learning Garden!  When I was out in the garden contemplating whether or not to start pulling everything up I found her.  A spider that had spun a web between the butterfly bush and the green pepper plant.  In the middle of the web is a series of ball shaped sacks.  I love spiders.  I love them in books.  I love them in songs.  I love them in the garden.  I admire their work ethic.  I admire their diligence.  Needless to say, I left everything in the garden for one more week...who knows what other spiders might need a place to spin a web?

"The autumn days grow short and cold;
I'ts Christmas time again.
Then snows of winter slowly melt.
The day grows short, And then...
He turns the seasons around,
And so she changes her gown;
Mother Earth and Father Time.
How very special we are
For just a moment to be
Part of life's eternal rhyme."
Charlotte's Web by EB White

It's an Eggplant!

Is it a bird?  Is it a plane?  Is it a boiled egg?  It's an eggplant!  We have white eggplants growing in our garden and we are pretty excited.  About the only thing I know about eggplants is that is best served in lasagne or as a parmigiana and is usually big, oblong and purple.  Our eggplants are small, round and white...basically like an overgrown boiled egg.  Here are a few fun facts about eggplants for your education and entertainment.

1. Eggplants aren’t REALLY vegetables, they’re berries. Which isn’t that strange, considering other fruits are commonly mistaken for vegetables – like tomatoes.
2. Eggplants and tomatoes are actually related. They both belong to the nightshade family with the famous literary poison – deadly nightshade. But don’t worry, eggplant isn’t toxic (at least not in normal amounts).
3. A study published in 1993 in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that eggplant has by far the highest level of nicotine of any vegetable. But it’s such a small amount that there’s really no need for concern. You would have to eat between 20 and 40 pounds of eggplant to consume the amount of nicotine you’d get smoking one cigarette.
4. But eggplant had a bad rap before it’s comparison with cigarettes. Ancient Persian philosophers ascribed all kinds of ailments to them – from pimples to epilepsy.
5. People in the U.K. called them aubergines. The word “aubergine” goes all the way back to the ancient Indian language Sanskrit. The eggplant is believed to have originated in India, where it is considered to be the King of Vegetables.
6. The word “eggplant” that we use in North America comes from British-colonized India, where at the time, a small, white, egg-like variety of the vegetable was all the rage.
7. In Renaissance Italy, it was called a mala insana or “crazy apple”.
8. Japan even has a proverb about eggplant:
   “The happiest omen for a New Year is first Mount Fuji, then the falcon, and lastly eggplant.”

The rain rain rain came down down down

"The rain rain rain came down down down
In rushing, rising riv'lets,
'Til the river crept out of it's bed..."
~Winnie the Pooh

Well, maybe not quite like that but we've had 2 days of rain this week...hallelujah!  Our peppers are multiplying.  Our tomatoes are finally turning red.  Our cucumbers are blooming but we've no produce as of yet.  I'm not ready to throw in the towel on the cucumbers just yet.  Maybe a few more Winnie the Pooh rain showers and we'll have some cucumbers to discover and donate.

There's always a first time.

We are nearing the end of the first week at Heritage CDC in 16 years without our beloved Ms. Bama.  It has been a week of reflection and time to remember our sweet friend through stories and sharing memories and although it has been tough at times, there have been more smiles than tears in our first week without her.  We miss you already.

The first delivery of our summer produce will be next week.  The hot weather has not been kind to our cucumbers, they really seem to be struggling in the heat.  The peppers however, seem to be loving the sunshine.  We will have quite the haul for the Forest Park Ministry Center with serrano peppers, banana peppers, green bell peppers and cayenne peppers.  It's been fun to see the different varieties as they have bloomed.  Trying to be patient to watch green things turn red has been tough and trying to explain to 3 year olds that it's "not ready to pick" makes me feel like a broken record. 

Our first time to harvest our herbs will be next week also.  I've been doing a little research on trimming rosemary to use straight from the bush.  I'm hesitant because I'm not really sure how much to trim...but hey, there's a first time for everything, right?

"There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray, love, remember, and there is pansies, that's for thoughts."  ~ Shakespeare



http://www.ehow.com/how_8182887_use-rosemary-off-bush.html

Baby it's hot outside.

I think it rained just about every day the week of June 11th.  I don't think it has rained since and the plants are starting to show it.  With the help of the Bluebirds and Robins we've watered the garden but the cucumbers are just not coming in yet.  We have a few banana peppers, a couple of green peppers and our cherry tomatoes are doing okay.  Keep your fingers crossed that we are blessed with a cool rain very soon...our rain barrel is getting low too!

Sophmore Season

It's our second spring planting and we are hot! hot! hot!  No, seriously, we're hot.  We have a cayenne pepper plant, a red chili pepper plant and a serrano pepper plant.  We also planted green peppers and banana peppers and for that odd bit of flavor a white eggplant.  Here's the kicker...I just found out that if you plant hot peppers near mild or sweet peppers they will be hot also.  So guess who is going to have spicy banana peppers, spicy green peppers and spicy white eggplant?  Yep...us, but I don't think the families at the Forest Park Ministry Center will mind.  They might just appreciate a little spice in their usually sweet and mild dinners.

It's also our second season of composting.  We were able to fortify all of our pots with our homemade fertilizer and evidently some of the seeds in the compost survived the break down phase.  We have 2 tomato plants, a pumpkin and 5 or 6 squash plants coming up in the most unusual places.  What can we say?  We love to surprise ourselves!

New additions to our garden for this spring.  We put a bigger pot around the base of our butterfly bush.  It's looking awfully proud and standing tall as the center of our garden.  We created 2 strawberry "fountains" and lined the sidewalk with impatiens.  The DandyLion class of 2012 each chose and planted an impatien as a way to say "so long!" to the CDC.

If you get a moment, walk out the back door and look to your right as you walk down the sidewalk.  See some of the wonderful things that God is doing and your children are discovering this spring at Heritage CDC.

Time to wake up the earth...

Soon it will be
Time to welcome, to
Ripen and sweeten
And so we
Wait for the
Berries we love to
Enter the garden
Red and juicy
Red and sweet
Yes!  we have STRAWBERRIES!

Seriously...we have strawberries in the garden...welcome spring!

And we're out...for now.

We have just completed our first year of summer and fall gardening.  Woot! Woot!  We harvested 6 small heads of cabbage, two handfuls of cilantro and a couple dozen short stubby carrots and delivered our haul to the Forest Park Ministry Center on Wednesday of last week.  Overall I give our first garden a B+.  As we evaluate the learning garden I think we will find that we achieved some of our goals and missed on a few as well.  There are plenty of areas to expand on what we did right and improve on what didn't go so right.  I'm proud of our children and their hard work and willingness to help in the garden any time we asked.  I'm looking forward to how much better our garden will be in 2012.

In February and March we will be continuing to build our compost so the soil for April's planting will be rich and full of nutrients.  So keep the egg shells, used coffee grounds and raw vegetable peelings headed our way!