monday's thumbs meet.

Monday's Green Thumbs had their first meeting for the spring.  They planted marigolds and a variety of tomatoes.  After clean up, the crew was officially initiated into the club by dipping their thumbs in green paint and then taking a photo in Bowling Green Park.  It's bound to be a great growing season with this crew!

chicken gyros with the cooking club.

Ms. Pitkin and Ms. Bell invited me to join them for cooking club again this week...this time to make chicken gyros with a wide array of fresh ingredients.  I really enjoyed seeing the kids take part in all the stages to prepare this meal....the cutting, food processing, heating up the pitas, cooking the peppers and onions, making the sauce and crumbling the feta.  This group really worked together to produce a great meal...even their clean up skills are impeccable!  

pure amazingness: the chicken gyro with sautéd onions and peppers, tomatoes, fresh tzatziki sauce, and lettuce.

 the pepper station.

 the girls prepare the tzatziki sauce with greek yogurt.

 Alex showing off his knife skills while cutting a tomato.

 Winta and Xavi making sure there is enough oil on the peppers and onions.

 Ms. Bell overseeing the sautéing station. 

 the natives are restless to eat.

 going back for seconds.

the finished product!

vegetable dumplings with the cooking club.

LMC's cooking club invited Ms. Ribaudo to be guest chef for an afternoon to make vegetable dumplings and a spicy dipping sauce.  The session started with slicing, dicing, chopping and food processing of all the vegetables.  Then we made a soy sauce based dipping sauce with a kick of thai chili sauce.  Students then stuffed their own dumplings and we steamed them before indulging in a delicious snack!

young chefs chopping the cabbage for the dumplings.

 the vegetable stuffing for the dumplings.

 LMC's youngest chefs slicing zucchini.

 chef ribaudo demonstrating how the dipping sauce is made.

chef ribaudo demonstrating how to stuff a dumpling.

student chefs stuff their first dumplings with care and precision.

Special thanks to Ms. Bell & Ms. Pitkin for inviting Ms. Ribaudo to chef it up with the mini-chefs. Every week they do an amazing job getting the kids in the kitchen to make something creative and delicious.

the thursday crew finally meets.

Our second group of Green Thumbs meets on Thursday afternoons and today was the first day we were able to gather and head to the farm.  Our activities included weeding one of the berms and planting spinach and arugula seeds.  Finally, we picked some cherry tomatoes.  Not sure how many more tomato harvests we have left, but you can be sure we will keep picking!

everyone is happy with their crops.

 i'm fairly confident we were playing with the worms here.

  getting the soil ready for seeds. 

creating little burrows for the seeds to be planted in.

another day on the farm.

With fall quickly approaching as temperatures drop, the Green Thumb club salvaged as many cherry tomatoes as they can.  We chose to enjoy them outside as a group after washing them.  Yummy!

 sophia and london taking time out of tomato harvesting to smile for the camera.

 the green thumbs with their tomatoes.

emely and victoria showing off their crops.

first meeting for the green thumbs.

This week, Lower Manhattan Community Middle School's Green Thumb club met for the first time on the farm.  We were able to pick some cherry tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, scotch-bonnet peppers and carrots.  Also, everyone brought home a bouquet of marigolds.  

 check out our carrots

 everyone is bringing home some marigolds to brighten up their home.

amanda, a veteran farmer, showing off her tomatoes.

 getting dirty while planting kale.

david could not be happier picking tomatoes. 

green thumbs always display teamwork.

hui is back in the garden!

The urban farm missed this all-start farmer all summer.  Glad to see he was excited to get back!