Farm to Cafeteria Program in November

–from Ashley Randall —

K-5^th Farm to Classroom: During the first week of November, we met local botanist, Madrona Murphy, and her favorite plant, Great Camas. We explored the plants relationship to the Native Salish diet and local pollinators. After slow cooking the tuber for three whole days, we were able to taste its “sweet, mushroom-like, yummy” flavor.

With the sun shining bright the following week, we raked fallen maple leaves for compost, identified mushrooms around the school, and sorted through a large collection of fava beans.

Lastly, we handmade ornaments for our class tree at the Rosario Resort’s Festival of Trees. This annual fundraiser supports several Orcas non-profits. During the month of December you can view and vote on your favorite tree in the mansion. Raffle tickets are $1 per vote, or you can make a cash donation. All proceeds go directly to the organization of your choice. This year our tree theme is “Water is Life.” To honor water protectors everywhere and our gratitude for the water in & around us.

6-8^th Grade Exploratory: This semester, our middle school class is working with natural fibers. To kick off our first day of class, Jennifer Pietsch and Amy Lum guided us in shearing three sheep! We each had a chance to use the electric shears, thank the sheep, and clean the wool.

The following class we practiced four different methods for carding the wool starting by hand, moving to carding brushes and manual devices, to finally, an electric drum machine. We learned about the elastic properties and benefits of making and wearing clothes from natural fibers. Dyeing the wool will come next.

On the menu in the cafeteria: Chicken noodle soup; Chicken teriyaki and veggies on rice with broccoli salad; Ham and cheese sandwiches with split pea soup; Clam chowder; Chicken pot pie with roll and squash; Thanksgiving dinner; Baked fish and rice pilaf; Beef tacos; Philly cheese steak and tomato basil soup; Lasagna and Caesar salad; Sweet and sour chicken

Give Where You Live Campaign the Orcas Island Community Foundation is running this holiday season. From Dec 1 – Dec 22, you can donate (online) to your favorite Orcas non-profit organizations. Farm to Cafeteria is among a long list of amazing organizations. The monies raised for F2C will be used to bring in more local meats and produce to our cafeteria.