Pepper mandala

These are garden grown peppers, arranged in a complex design.

Critters in our garden

The garter snake we did not photograph today during first period showed up later in the day for a shoot.

One of the composters

Shown at the top is a scoop of our ground brown and green waste of reduced particle size. Shown at the bottom of the composter is the black gold we put back on the raised beds.

Today in the MBA garden

Today as we weeded, we found a garter snake in a tree. Sadly, we did not have the camera. Also, we scared up a bullfrog! The students did get a good view of our some of our pest controllers. Mr. Bullington shares the frog sighting with his 2nd period Earth Science students. Also sighted was this bumble bee foraging on the Russian sage.

Making compost with 8th grade Earth Science classes.

Today we ground up weed waste and vegetable peelings (pre-consumer) from the cafeteria. This gives us a nice green base for nitrogen, but comes out gooey and may clog the chipper/shredder. So we mix in brown carbon waste in the form of wood chips (from the tree trimmers that maintain campus trees), and we get a balanced and finely ground material to put in the compost bins for rapid decomposition. This composted plant food goes onto our raised bed gardens and the cycle is complete. Our 8th grade students learn firsthand of nature's processes. See the film and pictures.

Peppers on Display

These fruits of the raised beds are on display in the cafeteria and bring color and aroma to where all can see. Thanks to Steve, our Cafeteria Manager, for putting this display together. Pictured in the bowl are basil, rosemary, lemon verbena and sage with tomatoes and peppers.
Peppers displayed in a semicircle are (left to right): Del Diablo (tabasco type) Scotch Bonnet (habanero, Jamaica jerk pepper), Bhut Jolokia (hot jabanero, Indonesia), Red Savina (habanero type), pepperocini (Greek salad pepper), Ancho San Luis (stuffer), Chilhuacle Negro (from Mexico, mole sauce pepper, suggested by Jesse Gray), and Green Bell. We have 21 varieties of peppers in the garden this season (09')!

MBA "Big Red" homegrown salsa

All tomatoes in this salsa are from the MBA garden, as are all jalapenos and other seasoning peppers. In addition, sweet onions, cilantro, lime and sea salt have been added. This production run produced three quarts. Mmmmmmm! Get your tortilla chips out!

Monster tomatoes

These are Big Boy variety tomato fruits from the MBA garden. They were started under grow lights in Mr. Chenery's lab in March. They were transplanted by Mr. Spiegl into the herb bed in late May. This is the same bed that was enriched with composted horse manure from Mrs. Christeson's farm, unloaded and spread by the 8th grade (class of '13) in April. Faculty Dell computer and current copy of "the Bell" yearbook are provided for scale. The large tomato weighs in at 1,141.2 grams and the smaller of the two weighs in at 631.7 g. They will be appearing in a bowl of Big Red salsa soon!