Friday, March 19, 2010

Seed Balls

Today we made seed balls!

It's a technique for planting in abandoned places, and often inhospitable land, that was developed in Japan by Masanobu Fukuoka, a pioneer in natural farming. And its fun.

1 part seeds, 3 parts compost, 5 parts clay. Mix in a little water to make the consistancy of play dough. Roll into small balls and let dry in the sun. Then the fun part....5,4,3,2,1...throw!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

It's Maple Syrup Time

Here in the Northeastern part of the United States the days are becoming warmer and at night the temperatures still fall below freezing. These are ideal conditions to collect rising sap from sugar maple trees. We are very blessed to have six large sugar maple trees in front of our school. Each year we tap the trees, collect the sap and boil it down into maple syrup. It is a wonderful expereince for our students as we include our maple syrup project in lessons on science, practical life, history, nutrition, language, math and more.