Garden Camp Week 7: Taking Stock, Making Stock

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The summer is a little more than half over, so this week at garden camp we spent the morning taking stock of all that we've learned so far - gathering up and accounting for all the knowledge and experiences we've shared in the garden. 



Broccoli going to seed

Mrs. L led us on a garden scavenger hunt, calling out different plant names, processes, and properties for us all to identify and find in turn. This week, the sunflowers are in full bloom and attracting a parade of pollinators through the day. Our broccoli plants, which had long ago started flowering, had gone to seed, and we noticed just how many seed pods each plant produces. Our green beans are popping up to replace the dying alliums, and our greenhouse cucumber vines are growing up towards the rafters! 


We returned to the outdoor classroom to brainstorm just some of what we've learned from garden camp so far, about soil, worms, pollinators, medicinal plants, and plant parts. We filled up one whole big easel-sized page in just ten minutes! 


After this whole process of taking stock (and seeing all the vegetables in our raised beds that were ready for harvesting), it was time to make stock! Soup stock that is - the basis for soup, made from cooking vegetables or meat in water for a long time. Anna sent us back to the garden to harvest ingredients for our vegetable soup - potatoes, carrots, green beans, broccoli, and peas. We also fetched some of last week's garlic harvest from the basement to go in the soup pot! 

Digging potatoes

Prepping ingredients






As the soup went to simmer, we went back to the garden, this time with garden journals in hand. One of a farmer's most important jobs is to observe their crops often and with an eye for small details that show how the plant is doing and whether or not its needs are being met. By paying close attention, farmers can grow the healthiest plants possible and constantly improve their farming practice. We each chose a plant in the garden to keep track of for the rest of the summer and wrote journal entries about our chosen plants, the quality of the soil they were growing in, their size, and other physical traits.


The soup was ready just in time for pick-up, so between the gardeners and their families, we made quick work of our culinary masterpiece. As gardeners and eaters we are constantly paying attention: to the weather, to flavors and fragrances, to our surroundings, and to the health of the garden as well as our own health. What a delight to cook and eat what we have grown from seed, and to conduct and observe that whole process from start to finish. 

Scraping the bottom of the pot

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