Maintenance and use of drip irrigation at the school garden
We are in the third year of implementing a school garden at Parr Field. For the last two years, we had collaborators who were responsible for setting up the drip irrigation system and utilizing the greenhouse. This year we don’t … Continued
The “three sisters” emerge at school garden
This is the awesome time of year when we exclaim from our heart: IT WORKED!!! ITS ALIVE!!! WE DID IT!!! This photo shows maize (corn) on the left, squash in the middle, and beans on the right. The battery in … Continued
Preparing garden soil at Parr Field
Thursdays are typically field trip days for Chrysalis Alternative School so today we put the ‘field’ in our field trip by going to Parr Field and making some progress on the soil preparations for next week’s planting activities. In an … Continued
Checking out Parr Field
While we were planting garlic, it dawned on us that we still had some hoses, tools, and crops out at Parr Field. So here we are tidying up the field and getting the last of our crops. As we plan … Continued
AIRE provides chicos for student luncheon
A recent development in our programmatic activity is trying to figure out the best way to bring these food traditions and products to the most number of students possible. We had the students participate in the planting, care, and harvest … Continued
More preparations for our Thanksgiving Feast
Today we continued our activity of turning our calabasa mexicana (local winter squash) harvest into pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving. As before, we open the squash with a knife and take out all the pulp and seeds, saving the seeds for … Continued
Processing squash for pies
Today was the beginning of getting our squash harvest ready for pumpkin pies! We also have plans for soup, bread, pancakes, and pumpkin rolls using this same method. First we cut open the squash. Sometimes with a native squash this … Continued
Processing and eating chicos
After we have had our fill of fresh roasted chicos with butter, salt, chile, lemon pepper, and other toppings, we have to get to work on stringing up the chicos so that they can dry completely. We use needles that … Continued
Making chicos I
At what point are we actually making chicos? It could be said that we were making chicos when we planted in May… Or maybe we weren’t making chicos until the horno is ready and as seen above, we started wetting … Continued