Here are pictures from last winter when a group of FYS students planted seeds in flats which we grew out under lights. This is how they looked after one week. And a week or so later.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Growing our own transplants
Here are pictures from last winter when a group of FYS students planted seeds in flats which we grew out under lights. This is how they looked after one week. And a week or so later.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Wednesday Garden Parties
Join the garden party during our regular hours while the
weather holds
Wednesdays 12-2pm
In the Learning
Garden (just outside of the cafeteria)
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bush beans growing |
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flowers in the squash |
- Adding Minerals to our PNW soils. what minerals? what benefits?
- Making an earth worm bin ( With Rebeca Potasnik )
- Managing raspberries
- Mulching
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Greetings from the Learning Garden at SMU
I would like to introduce myself my name is Lynn Villella and I have been organic gardening for a few decades. I learned it from my Italian father who learned it from his relatives and J. I. Rodale Press publisher of Organic Farming and Gardening magazine to which we had a subscription. I was and avid reader and gardener from an early age. I have been working with students and faculty for one season in the Learning Garden and have pictures to share with you. The workshop on Wednesday September 5, 2012 went well
above you see our ingredients are assembled for our Fried Stuffed Squash Blossoms (recipe to follow) Squash plants often make more flowers then they need to make plenty of squash and the male flowers are very prolific, both types of flowers are great for stuffing. I also stuffed some lettuce, mustard and arugula leaves dip in egg and fried in raw virgin Coconut oil absolutely the best oil for this type of cooking!
RECIPE
six or more squash blossoms
Important collect the blossoms in the morning they curl up as the day goes by. They can still be used after they have curled, but are harder to work with.
a dozen or so leaves from tender greens like Mustard, Arugula and Romaine Lettuce.
THE STUFFING:
6 ounces Creamy Goat Cheese split in 3 parts
2/3 cup Roasted Pine nuts
2/3 cup Roasted Hazelnuts (with pelicles removed, skins rubbed off) chopped
2/3 cup Walnuts chopped
By hand or food processor
3 T spoons minced, fresh Garlic
Fresh Herbs! Basil, Parsley, Cilantro, Fennel whatever you have and whatever you like!
Mix one 3rd of the cheese and one Tablespoon Garlic with each kind of nut add herbs as you please.
3 or 4 fresh eggs whipped
Coconut oil for frying
salt and pepper to taste.
Put a teaspoon or so of stuffing into the blossom and fold petals over dip in egg and fry
if blossom has curled gently unfurl and then stuff, refurl, dip in egg and fry
simply wrap a leaf up (start at stem end) around a teaspoon of stuffing and dip in egg and fry.Easy and delicious... Enjoy.
When we were done cooking we moved on to a little gardening we transplanted some Heirloom Lettuce plants into gallon pots to go into the greenhouse. I found some winter hardy bunching onions similar to scallions or green onions. also into the green house and a basil plant. We finally have the heat Basil loves plus the greenhouse boosts the heat factor.
My next workshop will be next Wednesday September 12, 2012 I will cook Green Beans Almondine. Please join me from Noon to 2:00
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Wednesday, Sept 5 Garden Workshop and Party
We are getting that new roof up on the shed today hooray! This Wednesday, Lynn will bring
the camp stove again and prepare fried stuffed squash blossoms for people
to try between noon and 2:00pm.
Cooking
from the garden will be a part of the September series workshops.
We also have lettuce starts
for transplanting into gallon pots to put in the greenhouse as well
as seed some lettuce directly into pots and into the greenhouse.
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fried squash blossoms |
This will be great fun and delicious!! Lynn will have her books
for plant Identification and garden questions too.
Next workshop is Wednesday, Sept. 5 from 12-2pm in the Learning Garden (located just outside of the dining hall by the outdoor tables)
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Harvesting Green Beans
Greetings gardeners and food lovers alike, August brings the heat we need to make our crops ripen. We are enjoying a bounty of perfect green beans in the Saint Martins Learning Garden!!
Our first crop of green beans went to the Thurston County Food Bank!
Our first crop of green beans went to the Thurston County Food Bank!
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
August Harvest!
Students from American Seminar class will be harvesting potatoes and garlic in the garden tomorrow.
Lynn Villeilla will be leading the garden lesson and also boiling off some freshly dug potatoes for tasting. Come taste fresh potatoes with garlic and garden herbs as a side for your lunch!
Thursday, August 2, 12pm
In the Learning Garden (located just outside of the dining hall)
Lynn Villeilla will be leading the garden lesson and also boiling off some freshly dug potatoes for tasting. Come taste fresh potatoes with garlic and garden herbs as a side for your lunch!
Thursday, August 2, 12pm
In the Learning Garden (located just outside of the dining hall)
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Chinese Medicinal Plants in the Garden
Last Friday in the garden - Dr. Louise Kaplan, director of SMU's new nursing program, brought visiting students from Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine to plant medicinal herbs and shrubs in the SMU's Learning Garden.
Thanks to visiting professor Dr. Jie, Xu (Daisy) who compiled the list of medicinal plants for us to get and to all of the students who volunteered to go to the market, find the starts and to plant our first Chinese medicinal herbs for future classes to enjoy.
Ginkgo (pictured above) is an especially good medicine for a university garden as it helps with memory and concentration!
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from Dr. Jie, Xu (Daisy) list of medicinal plants for the garden |
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Shanghai student, Zhang Zhuhui (Vicky), watering the Ginkgo after planting |
Monday, July 16, 2012
Micro-irrigation continued
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setting up micro-irrigation |
This is a
continuation of last week’s workshop. Newcomers welcome. You did not have to
have come to the last workshop to attend this one. Rebeca will continue setting
up the micro-irrigation system. Come and learn how it works!
Garden Party Workshop
Micro-sprinkling for a small garden
The Learning Garden (just outside of the cafeteria)
Thursday, July 19
Learn about how to set up a water-saving small scale
irrigation system. You can do this at home. It’s inexpensive and
saves you water and time. Learn by helping set up our own
micro-sprinklers in the garden beds. It’s so easy you will be amazed.
Everyone is welcome! Workshop led by local gardener
Rebeca Potasnik
Also, come taste the ripe berries and take some herbs
home – there are still raspberries in the garden and fresh oregano and
mint!
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Workshop drip-irrigation for a small garden
Where: In the Learning Garden (just outside of the cafeteria)
When: Thursday, July 12 11am-1pm
Local gardener Rebeca Potasnik will teach a workshop on how to set up a water-saving small scale drip irrigation system. You can do this at home. It’s inexpensive and saves you water and time. Learn by helping set up our own micro-sprinklers in the garden beds. It’s so easy you will be amazed. Everyone is welcome! The workshop is free.
When: Thursday, July 12 11am-1pm
Local gardener Rebeca Potasnik will teach a workshop on how to set up a water-saving small scale drip irrigation system. You can do this at home. It’s inexpensive and saves you water and time. Learn by helping set up our own micro-sprinklers in the garden beds. It’s so easy you will be amazed. Everyone is welcome! The workshop is free.
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drip irrigation |
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Monday, June 25, 2012
June Work Party
A lot got done in the garden during the work party. New potatoes dug up, strawberries and currants tasted, herbs picked, weeds plucked, plants planted and watered.
Keep your eye out for our next workshop on setting up a micro-drip system in the garden!
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tasting strawberries |
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kids are welcome! |
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oregano |
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garlic! |
Thank you David Suter for taking the photographs.
Monday, June 18, 2012
Saint Martin’s Learning Garden Party with Lynn Villella
Garden expert Lynn Villella says that “after the new moon is a good time for above ground crop planting.” Lynn will be leading another planting work party in the SMU Learning Garden during this post new moon week.
Come and learn about gardening from an expert, ask questions, dig in the dirt, plant some plants, check out our new greenhouse, find out what’s growing in the garden and taste some ripe berries. Have you ever tasted a red currant? Maybe you can get some strawberries too.
Saint Martin’s Learning Garden Party with Lynn Villella
The Learning Garden is located just outside if the St. Gertrude Dining Hall.
Thursday, June 21
12-2pm
Come and learn about gardening from an expert, ask questions, dig in the dirt, plant some plants, check out our new greenhouse, find out what’s growing in the garden and taste some ripe berries. Have you ever tasted a red currant? Maybe you can get some strawberries too.
Saint Martin’s Learning Garden Party with Lynn Villella
The Learning Garden is located just outside if the St. Gertrude Dining Hall.
Thursday, June 21
12-2pm
Friday, June 15, 2012
Early Summer in the Garden
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
The Greenhouse is Here!
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Spring is here!
leveling the ground for the greenhouse |
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planting potatoes |
red currant |
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Winter Garden
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Students Write about Sustainability
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St. Gertrude dining hall |
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The Farm 1950 |
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Wild Edibles for Pacific Northwest Gardens
The first three edible weeds that every PNW Garden can easily include are Chickweed Stellaria media, Dandelion Taraxacum officinale, and Wintercress also known as Shotweed Cardamine oligosperma. These three weeds are true guardians of the soil. They return and recycle nutrients back into the garden soil. They are succulent enough to be natural green manures. Their flowers, seeds and leaves attract pollinators and encourage birds and wild things to come to the garden. They can be fed to chickens and are easy to control. Most importantly they can be enlisted to compete with and help with keeping the less desirable weeds at bay. All of them provide food that is palatable and high in vitamins and minerals for both man and beast throughout the year.
Cardamine oliosperma is at its best in the winter. It is used like water cress. If you can keep track of the newly emerging basil rosettes they have better flavor. It is very tasty mixed with goat or cream cheese and put on toast or crackers or in a cucumber sandwich. This lovely plant is above ground during the colder wetter months providing a protective cover of green leaves to catch and slow the incessant rain here in the winter months preventing erosion of topsoil. When the soil dries out in the spring Wintercress goes to seed with amazing seed dispersal hence the name Shotweed. The plant dries up and disappears reappearing in the fall from self sowing.
Dandelions are deep rooted and draw minerals up to the top soil. Dandelions have been eaten for millennia. They can be found almost everywhere on the planet. In the PNW they grow primarily in the spring and fall or in areas that are irrigated in the summer. Try them sautéed in olive oil with garlic and then pile between two pieces of crusty Italian bread maybe a little Parmesan cheese hmm delish! Most important always remember Dandelions have only 1 flower per stalk! Lookout for other much less tasty cousins of the Dandelions that have similar flowers but the flower stalk branches and bifurcates.
Chickweed our beautiful Stellaria media star shaped flowers and succulent leaves. Chickweed will linger into the warmer months but disappears in the hottest part of summer in full sun. If you pull it twice a year it keeps pretty tame. The nice thing is, it is a fine green quite lettuce like, and good in omelets soups.
These plants augment the plants growing in the garden and provide early spring greens. It is also good knowing that you could leave your garden fallow for a year or two and come back to find it mostly full of edible plants.
by Lynn Villella
Cardamine oliosperma is at its best in the winter. It is used like water cress. If you can keep track of the newly emerging basil rosettes they have better flavor. It is very tasty mixed with goat or cream cheese and put on toast or crackers or in a cucumber sandwich. This lovely plant is above ground during the colder wetter months providing a protective cover of green leaves to catch and slow the incessant rain here in the winter months preventing erosion of topsoil. When the soil dries out in the spring Wintercress goes to seed with amazing seed dispersal hence the name Shotweed. The plant dries up and disappears reappearing in the fall from self sowing.
Dandelions are deep rooted and draw minerals up to the top soil. Dandelions have been eaten for millennia. They can be found almost everywhere on the planet. In the PNW they grow primarily in the spring and fall or in areas that are irrigated in the summer. Try them sautéed in olive oil with garlic and then pile between two pieces of crusty Italian bread maybe a little Parmesan cheese hmm delish! Most important always remember Dandelions have only 1 flower per stalk! Lookout for other much less tasty cousins of the Dandelions that have similar flowers but the flower stalk branches and bifurcates.
Chickweed our beautiful Stellaria media star shaped flowers and succulent leaves. Chickweed will linger into the warmer months but disappears in the hottest part of summer in full sun. If you pull it twice a year it keeps pretty tame. The nice thing is, it is a fine green quite lettuce like, and good in omelets soups.
These plants augment the plants growing in the garden and provide early spring greens. It is also good knowing that you could leave your garden fallow for a year or two and come back to find it mostly full of edible plants.
by Lynn Villella
Thursday, December 8, 2011
The History of Sustainability at Saint Martin's
Saint Martin's University has a rich history of sustainability and continues to aim at sustainable practices today. This video gives a brief overview of that history. Also check out Saint Martin's Insights Magazine, which comes out the third week of December.
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