Farm Stay 1

Spooktacular Event Schedule!
Saturday, October 24th, 2015, 4-8pm

4 - 5:30
     Markets (Land School produce, student products and food)
     Face Painting
     Pumpkin Carving
     Find the Eyeball!
     Guided ¨Haunted¨ Hikes (for lower Elementary/CH; parents, please accompany
      your children)

5:30 - 6:30
     Potluck!
     Baked goods available for purchase

6:30 - 8
     Markets (Land School produce, student products and food)
     Guided Haunted Hikes (for Elementary and JH students and adults)
     Campfire w/s’mores

by Aidan
October 13

This was the first day of the farm stay. For all of the seventh graders and new eighth graders this was very fun as well as confusing. The returning eighth graders really helped us stay with everyone else. We went on hikes around the perimeter of the farm to refresh our memory and even show others for the first time. Over all it was a great orientation day that will make sure we don’t screw up in the future.

by Thea

October 15

On Saturday October 24th from 4:00pm-8:00pm the Land School is hosting our annual “spooktacular” event! This will be a fun and Halloween-y event open to all locals and Lake Country School family and friends. The students staying on the farm this month will be selling different types of food and crafts ranging from brownies, cheese curds and rice crispy bars to candles, coasters and warm fleece blankets. There will also be all types of events like a haunted hike in the woods and pumpkin carving. We are also hoping that you can bring a dish for our potluck because that will be our dinner for the evening, but we do ask that that dish is nut-free and isn’t a dessert. We hope to see you there!

by Holden

October 18

We have had some time to get used to life here on farmstay. Our group has learned how to work together and we have been able to find our peers strengths and help them with their weaknesses. We are working in groups to make great quality and variety of micro economy projects. As a group we are staying on top of our work very well, both for the farm and for school.

We are also doing lots of fun activities like capture the flag and ultimate Frisbee. All together the beginning of this farmstay has gone very well.

by Sophia

October 19

Today on farmstay 1 we are preparing for our event called the Spooktacular.  We have been settling in on farmstay and some would say it is starting to feel like an extension to our homes. 

For work we have: micro-economy, a science project (many of us are either studying weather at the Land School, while some of us are working with the animals or going out to the bird blind), occupation work (where if you are in the food group you are doing a small project on food. For example, some of us are comparing how much sugar intake has increased in certain years until now and making a graph). We also have our English books that we started when we were at the urban campus, either: Blood on the River or The Scarlet Letter.

Today we had students from Class E come and visit us at the Land School and they made apple cider, and shared with us!

All of the Farmstay students are looking forward to the visit from our Junior High classmates tomorrow!

by Lily

October 20

Today was day nine. It was the day that the whole Junior High came to visit us on Farmstay 1. Personally, I was very excited for this event; the Junior High coming meant that I got to see my sister and a lot of other friends that I missed. But, for others there were a lot of mixed feelings. Now you might think that that sounds crazy, I mean why would anyone not be excited to see old friends? But when you spend so much time being in a group of 12-13 you get used to being in small groups, and it is kind of hard to interact with a group of about 40 people. But by the end everyone got to see their friends from school, say goodbye to them, and get back into the natural rhythm of Farmstay. During their visit we got put in groups to work in. In the end, it was a great visit, we got a lot of work done, and I am excited to hopefully see a few of them on Saturday for the Spooktacular.

Aidan 

October 24

Today was the day of the Spooktacular. It was very exciting and everyone had lots of fun. People were selling a variety of different products, from candles and tie-dye shirts, to coasters and bird whistles, along with many baked goods. I enjoyed seeing all of my family that came to the event. For activities we had pumpkin carving and painting, "find the eyeball", face painting, and a haunted hike. It was very exciting and everyone enjoyed it.

Lovely Land School Days with Class F (and this Week's Harvest List)

Class F had the opportunity this week to spend three beautiful days at the Land School. After coming this past May to plant this year's potato rows, they were now able to harvest the fruits of their labor! As is the yearly Class F tradition, the work in the field was followed by the crispy snack of french fries, made by the 3rd years.

Harvesting potatoes!

The potato washing team

Following the potato harvester

Earthworms! 

Much time was spent playing games at the Athletic Field and on the sidewalk, visiting the sheep, llamas, and new chicks, and playing at the Tree House. 

Playing games on the front sidewalk 

Meeting at the Homestead Fire Circle 

While Monday afternoon's activities revolved around potatoes, Tuesday's variety of activities included work with the bees, study at the pond, and book binding in the classroom. Having just returned from the Junior High Odyssey, we were happy that Doug was able to come out for the day, suiting everyone up in bee suits to extract honey from the hives! It has been an abundant year inside the honeycombs.

On the way to the bee hives!

Preparing to extract honey

And lastly, a harvest list for the week!

Broccoli

Cabbage (Napa, Savoy, Green)

Carrots!

Cauliflower

Cucumbers

Eggplant

Flowers

Garlic

Green Beans (actually, Purple Beans!)  

Japanese Turnips

Kale (Dino, Curly, Red Russian, Siberian)

Kohlrabi

Lettuce Mix 

Melons (cantaloupe and watermelon)

Onions (bunching, red and yellow)

Parsley

Peppers (sweet and hot)

Potatoes

Shallots

Shiso

Swiss Chard

Tomatoes

Zucchini

September 10 Market

This Thursday will be our fourth produce market of the season. Class G will spend the day at the Land School, helping with the big harvest. It looks like we will have a sunny and crisp day! Our projected harvest for the week includes:

Broccoli
Cabbage (Napa, Savoy, Green)
Cauliflower
Cucumbers

This year's shallots and onions

Eggplant
Flowers
Garlic
Green Beans 
Japanese Turnips
Kale (Dino, Curly, Red Russian, Siberian)
Kohlrabi
Lettuce Mix
Melons (cantaloupe and watermelon)
Onions (bunching, red and yellow)
Parsley
Peppers (sweet and hot)
Potatoes
Shallots
Shiso
Swiss Chard
Tomatoes
Zucchini

I hope we will also have carrots, but they may be asking for another week to size up. If you don't see them tomorrow, be sure that they are coming soon! We began harvesting the squash with our E1 visit today, and will let it cure for a few weeks before bringing it in to market (a process which toughens the peel, making the fruit less prone to bruising, and which also improves the flavor, as starches are converted to sugars). We sadly will soon see the end of the basil this year, as it has almost all succumbed to what seems to be downy mildew. I do not see any frost projected in the forecast, so let's hope that the tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and other frost sensitive crops will continue to be with us for several more weeks!

 

Shiso

In the past, we have grown a Vietnamese variety of shiso, which is green on the top and a deep burgundy on the undersides of the leaves. This year, at the request of one of our weekly market shoppers, we are growing Japanese shiso, which is bright green all around. Just as tasting the earthy, pungent flavor of epazote (a Mexican herb) brings me right back to the kitchen that was home to me during a semester spent in the Costa Rican cloud forests, I have had market shoppers tell me of their own experiences with shiso and the love they developed for it during time spent in Japan. It is a new herb to me and I am eager to experiment with it yet this season, and encourage you to do the same! Let this also be an invitation for you to request certain plants that you would like to see grown at the Land School and to appear at the market (with no promises, but with the best of intentions to fulfill any wishes!).

Japanese Shiso

Market Credits

For those of you interested in buying market credits, you are welcome to do so at any time. Market credits are a way to ease your experience of shopping at the weekly produce market by eliminating the need to bring cash. You may simply drop a check off in the office (for an amount of your choosing, depending on how much you anticipate spending this season) and then fill out a form in the binder that will be at the market each week. While market credits are non-refundable, they can be used for other things throughout the school-year, such as harvest baskets, winter produce markets, and Land School syrup. 

Our Beloved Oak Tree

Those making a visit to the Land School this fall will surely notice the fall of the great white oak tree that for many years graced the front yard of the farmhouse. Because of a significant split running down the length of the trunk, the decision was made that it needed to be taken down. While this news is shared with sadness, it also comes with the exciting prospect of a sunny yard full of flowers, herbs, and fruit trees. If you have any perennials that could be divided sometime this fall that you would like to have find a home at the Land School, please contact me (Laura) at lkosowski@lakecountryschool.org.

First Farmers Market

With the first day of school approaching in just a few weeks, it is time for the farmers markets to begin! Our first market will be this Thursday, August 20, from 4-6 pm in the school parking lot. We hope to see you there!

Here is the list of what to expect this week:

Broccoli
Cabbage (Green, Napa)
Cucumbers
Eggplant
Flowers
Garlic
Green Beans
Herb Bunches (Basil, Parsley)
Kale (Dino, Curly, Russian)
Kohlrabi
Onions (Red, Yellow)
Peppers (Bell)
Potatoes
Radishes (Red)
Shallots
Shiso
Swiss Chard
Tomatoes (Heirloom, Slicing)
Zucchini / Patty Pan

Kimchi

Ingredients:

1 head napa cabbage, chopped into thin strips or chunks

2-3 carrots, peeled and cut into strips or disks

5 radishes, cut into disks

1 chunk ginger

2-3 garlic cloves

1 shallot / onion

hot pepper

salt

Directions:

Mix together a brine solution of 3 tablespoons salt / 1 quart water. Place cut cabbage, carrots, and radishes in a large bowl and cover in brine (multiplying the brine recipe as needed). Let sit ~8 hours / overnight. 

Drain vegetables, reserving some brine. Mince ginger, garlic and onions, as finely as possible. Mix with the drained vegetables. Pack tightly into a large jar. Add enough brine as needed to submerge vegetables. Fill a small leak-free plastic bag with brine and place inside of jar, on top of vegetables (this serves to keep the vegetables submerged). Lightly place lid on jar. 

Leave the kimchi to ferment on the counter for 7 - 10 days. Taste it as it is fermenting, and place in fridge when it has fermented to your liking. Kimchi will keep for many months in the fridge and is an excellent way to preserve the bounty of the summer!

Apprenticeship 2, August 9 - 13

by Hazel

During this August apprenticeship there were lots of things that all of us enjoyed. Here are the top 11...

1. Catching birds in the chicken coop! There are always lots of little sparrows that get stuck in the chicken coup and can't figure out how to get out, so they keep smashing into the windows. We discovered that as soon as we caught them they calmed down, so then we went outside and threw them up in the air like in the movies and they flew away! We also enjoyed naming every one we caught: Sebastien, Samantha, June, Judy, Harold, Liam, Lexi, Stewart, and Callie.

2. We enjoyed cooking our own meals as well, including doing the dishes!

3. Watching the chicks hatch!

4. Getting up at 3am to watch the meteor shower and at 6:30 to watch the sunrise

5. Playing with the cats and mocha

6. Getting to know each other much better

7. Working in the garden and on the pizza oven

8. Making and listening to our playlist

9. Picking two water bottles full of wild berries and making an awesome pie that we ate with ice cream by the lake. 

10. Cleaning out the animal pens

11. Playing tiger, swimming at the lake, and movie night

We all loved the peacefulness and serenity of the Land School. Even though for many of us this will be our last official trip to the Land School, we are already making plans to come back often. And while this is only a five day trip, we appreciate and cherish the time that we got to spend here this week and thank the Land School staff for all the hard work they put into making this the best experience possible for all of us. 

The dome of the oven is complete!

Oven Door Facade

By Rio

This is my first Apprenticeship and it has been amazing! I got to know a lot of people that I hadn't known before. We have worked very hard and and had fun while working.  The first day when we got to The Land School we went on a hike and then went right to bed when we got back. The next day we woke up at 7 O'clock made our own breakfast then did animal chores and Stewardship. Some of us weeded and some of us helped build the bread oven. Now that I look back on that day it seems like it was so long ago, and everyday since has gone by WAY too fast. Today we did more Stewardship and in the chicken coop there is a hen named Mrs. Hen who laid 15 eggs and today one of them finally hatched, we named her Delilah. This has been SUCH an amazing experience and I am totally coming back next year!

¨Life Force!¨ - Cleaning out the root cellar
of last year's remaining aspirant potato harvest

Blueberry Season

Dear Lake Country Families, 

I am delighted to announce that we have reached blueberry season! We are enjoying the sweet blue jewels off of our own Land School bushes, as well as those from a blueberry farm about 25 miles from the Land School. This year at this blueberry farm, the Land School is caring for two rows of berries in exchange for the entirety of the harvest. I would like to invite you to come harvest with us, with the arrangement that you take home half of whatever you pick (at no cost), giving the other half to the Land School (to be frozen or made into jam). The bushes are loaded with fruit and we would love help picking and enjoying this beautiful harvest! Please let me know if you are interested: lkosowski@lakecountryschool.org 715-265-4608. 

Laura

Apprenticeship 1, June 21 - 25

by Grace

We have done so many marvelous, exhausting, exciting activities, including: weeding the garden in pouring rain, playing with the adorable cats, planting trees, and much more. Not only do we get to physically exhaust ourselves during the day, we get to wake up at seven in the morning. In the evening we get to relax. One night we watched a movie, another we went swimming at Clear Lake. But when the night ends we have to wake up at seven, to yet another marvelous, exhausting day, where we must either haul mulch up and down a hill for hours, or haul straw back and forth, each time wishing we could be in air-conditioning. Every morning we must make our own breakfast, which is totally different from our normal city life, where we have our parents bring us breakfast, while we watch tv in our pajamas. Of course in the city we also don't have tics crawling on us nonstop. The chores we get to do each morning are to collect eggs from the chicken coop, and feed Llarry, and Precious the llamas. Of course we also get to scrub their water bowls, which of course I'm always "excited" for.

by Sage

The day the apprenticeship took place started off with a nice relaxing “stroll” in the forest as we took our time examining the flowers, plants and other surroundings.  The following day we had the exciting job, and yes I do really mean it, of weeding the garden.  It always meets my satisfaction after the day’s work to look back and see all the weeding that we had accomplished.  We also spent much of our morning, the next day, planting oak trees so that some day when we're about 60 or so we could come back to see the big and strong trees bringing shade and life to the Homestead.  Each moment each day was new, wherever we went or whatever we did.  There was always work to be done and a long list to fill out for chores and work stuff that needed to be finished or started in the fields.  As the many activities filled up our day like weeding, planting and picking vegetables, I could have never forgotten the evening activities of watching a movie, hiking and swimming at clear lake.  I loved each event more and more as each one was new and fun.  I hope to come back next year for the apprenticeship once again.    

Learning to make beeswax candles

Fresh oregano from the garden, picked to be dried
for cooking in the winter

Mulched, re-trellised raspberries

Weeded garlic: the source of much satisfaction!

Tibetan prayer flags, hung in the animals' pasture

Sage, Grace, Mocha and one of our new
Land School oak trees! The two new oak trees
are from this year's graduation and were
planted during this first apprenticeship.

Flowers blooming in the Homestead gardens 

Along with herbs, we also harvested and dried
wood nettle, a relative of stinging nettle,
which can be used in soups all year long!

by Laura

The Land School is always brimming with life - the silent and raucous, the teeming and still, the subtle and vibrant. It is so alive that each time students arrive to spend time here with us on the farm, I am caught by surprise as I remember the new layers of life that their joyful presence unfailingly awakens from the land. For those of us to whom these fields, woods, stars and birdsong have become the assumed landscape in which we awaken each day, the students' enthusiasm and fresh discoveries renew our own capacities for wonder, appreciation, and awareness. Farming and teaching are two of the most exhausting things I do, and they are two of the things which most give me life and for which I feel so much love. After harvesting the wood nettle this past week, during which we got stung, upon which we found leaves of plantain to immediately sooth our irritated skin, one of the students remarked to me - ¨wow, there's so much I don't know,¨ to which I responded - ¨that's why you come to the Land School!¨ While I know that much of my life's work will involve an intimacy with and a deep listening to the land, it is only once I am able to share this passion of mine with others, only once I am given the opportunity to see a child's face brighten with wonder and to see the calm that enters them as they tuck plants into the earth, that my work finds its true capacity to fulfill me. For what are our gifts without someone to receive them? And what is knowledge if it does not continue to awaken and inspire?