OUR FALL HARVEST 2013!!!

Fall time in Colorado stunning!

And what a bountiful harvest it was!!!

Searching for Peas & Beans...

We used sunflowers to help support the climbing peas & bean plants

Searching for treasure among the flowers

It's hard work, good thing we get to snack along the way...

Mr. Yule gives a helping hand!

The garden looks great this year!

Don't forget the carrots!

Carrots & Russian Kale Looking good!

Fava Beans large and in charge!

Check out our new signs ~ Thanks Rae Lampe!

Delicious Swiss Chard being sneaky and got into the Potato Bed and in the back ground you can see some squash blossoms!!!

THANKS EVERYONE FOR ANOTHER GREAT SEASON IN THE MAGICAL GARDEN!

AES BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT

MINI FARMERS MARKET!!!

Come find our table & help fund grass fed local beef for our kids lunches & next spring's garden!!!

How???

Buy some fresh, local, organic produce!!! 

Grown by our kids in the AES Magical Garden & the rest donated by the awesome growers listed below: 

Please support them at the Aspen Farmer's Market & let them know you appreciate their donations!

Jack D'Orio @ Hillside Acres, Paonia, CO

They do farm tours! 

Did you know the Aspen Farmer's Market was Jack's idea in 1997?!?!

Brook & Rose Levan @ Sustainable Settings, Carbondale, CO

Take the kids to collect eggs!

Guy & Lynn Borden @ Borden Farm, Delta, CO  

Don & Daphne Yannakakis @ Zephyros Farm, Paonia, CO

Carol Forte @ Forte Farms, Palisade, CO

Theresa @ D Vries Farm, Grand Junction, CO

Kropp Brothers @ First Fruits Organic Farms,
Paonia, CO

Okagawa Farms

Grand Junction, CO

Here's me collecting with our Ute City cart 
in the market this Saturday with Jack D'Orio & Rose LeVan

COME GET SOME VEGGIES THIS WEDNESDAY NIGHT!

It's hard to believe looking back on the Spring pictures....

That we've gone from this:

New Pollinator Flower Bed:
Hollyhocks, Yarrow, Catnip, Strawberries.

New Perennial Bed Beside The Front Gate: Hollyhocks, Strawberries, Grape Vines, Currant Bush, Virginia Creeper.

Asparagus crown w/ new growth

Asparagus bed & snow on Highlands

New Addition Flower Bed Besides the Back Gate.
Sunflowers Planted by Kindergarten Classes.

Perennial Bed Gets a Make Over!  Irises and Sage donated by members of the Aspen Community Garden.

Lovage.  It's hard to keep this plant down.

To this:

Kindergarten Sunflowers

Carrots poking thru almost ready for AES Fall Harvest Sale!

Kale is getting bigger and sweeter as the nights cool down.

Fava Beans ready for the sale!

Our new garden compost 3-bin system.
Made from old wooden pallets donated by the Carl from the  Miner's Building.

This will enable us to properly break down our compost.

Notice the darker pile came from the Earth Tub.
Last year's lunch room vegetable waste!

We are making these into chocolate chocolate chip zucchini bread to sell at the AES Back to School Night.

How beautiful and lush it is!

Carrot bed in front and asparagus in the back.
Amazing how tall it gets!

Sunchokes aka Jerusalem Artichokes.

This year we are beginning to seed save for next years crops.  This is spinach, mustard greens and chard.

You can just make out in the background our new / recycled/ repurposed menu board donated by the gentleman that owns the old Aspen Cooking School/ 9 Steak House space.  
We will be converting this into a message board for garden information etc.

KEEP CHECKING IN FOR NEW POSTS!

This Summer's Harvest So Far!  Delicious!

All our classes did such a great job planting this Spring!

Strawberry Patch Gifts!

Nature Comes in All Sizes & Shapes

The lettuce bed grew like crazy!

After taking our yummy spring cuttings,

here's the asparagus in July.  It grows into a fern like tree.  

It's photosynthesizing, storing up sugars and getting ready to make it through the winter.

Russian Kale

The Pea Bed
Still Going Strong in August!

Kids Grow Food For Denver Zoo!!!

Shared from  http://www.sfdseedtotable.org/

BY LAURIESCHNEYER | JULY 17, 2012

Garden to Zoo and Produce for Pantries pilot projects off to a great start!

We just completed our first Garden to Zoo harvest for 2012. Four of our DPS schools are participating in this pilot project. Here is a first-hand account from Andy Nowak, our Projects Director.

Due to the early warm weather, Smith Elementary had plenty of Swiss chard and kale ready to harvest and no immediate need for the produce in the school. Thanks to Sadie and Lindsay at Smith, we were able to engage 10 ECE kids in the harvest of the greens. The kids sampled the greens (Swiss chard was more favored than kale) and they also sampled some snow peas from the garden. The kids first washed their hands and we used sanitized baskets to pick the greens. We are now verifying that all the kids have media releases so we can share pictures.

Andy then delivered the greens to Zookeeper Rick at the zoo. In total we had 10 pounds of Swiss chard and 3 pounds of kale. Rick shared with us that this produce would go the gorillas that day or the next. The keepers scatter the greens on the ground as the gorillas are foragers and will want to “find” the greens. Rick predicts that the gorillas will enjoy both types of greens.

Several of our gardens have this early produce so we will try to continue these harvests through the summer. Rick says he can take a bunch more each week, so we will make that happen. These harvests will allow the garden leaders to pull up these greens and replant to be ready for the fall harvests.

Thanks everyone for your support and efforts to make this program happen. We will be ready for the official start of the program in September.

Andy also made the first Produce for Pantries delivery, part of this new program from Slow Food Denver and other area groups. Here’s his description:

Many of our school gardens are bursting with produce.  Today I was at McGlone Elementary in the Montbello neighborhood.  I harvested 7 bags of chard and romaine and 4 summer squash.  The local pantry was not accepting donations today, so I went to Denver Urban Ministries (DENUM) instead, closer to my house.  I was greeted very warmly by Jennifer Stone and she was very excited for the produce.  Their shelves were empty of fresh produce.  She gave me a nice tour of the facility and explained how they are trying to improve the nutritional content of their donated food.  She expected the produce to be gone within a couple of hours.  All together they credited us with 9 pounds of produce.

Overall, the experience was very nice.  DENUM is convenient for several of our school gardens and even from my house.  I expect to be making weekly trips!

How awesome is that?

Making Paper Pots

Make sure your can does not have any sharp edges!!!  

What a great way to recycle...but beware your hands will get extremely dirty with newspaper print ink.

We used the Aspen Paper w/o staples
Folded it in 1/2 vertically

Start to roll around the can leaving 1/3-1/2 off the can

This flap will be folded in

Fold it into the can

Pull it off the can

Push the cuff that was created downward to create a bottom
It will look like a paper cup

Use a glass to really push down on the bottom
to crease the bottom well so it holds shape

Here it is!
Fill with dirt and plant!