Cuisiner en classe

The two days before Thanksgiving break, we made cornmeal pancakes in class from the corn we grew. We ground the corn by hand so it was really fresh. We ate them with butter and real maple syrup, of course. They were different from regular pancakes, very corny and kind of crunchy. Some student loved them while others, well, not so much. We had a lot of fun!
On the second day, we also served mashed squash from the garden.

 

Première Moisson

Première moisson du blé français
First harvest of French wheat
Canaan Rouge

 

 

Touzelle Anone

 

We're hoping we get some good seed of this heritage wheat variety from France. The seed we planted last fall was too old and didn't germinate well. This plant is the only one that germinated and then made it through the winter, but it should provide us with seed to plant in September.

Les melons grandissent lentement
The melons are growing slowly

Qui a mangé les haricots?!
Who ate the beans?!

 

 

                                                                                    

Courge Canada Crookneck et Maïs Canadien Blanc
Canada Crookneck Squash and White Canadian Corn

La Lavande / Lavender

Pois-fèves Laliberté (à droite/ on the right)

 

 

 

 

Maïs canadien blanc / Canadian white corn

Belles pommes de terre!
Beautiful potatoes!

Ils poussent ! They're growing!

Melon de Montréal

Maïs Canadien Blanc

Pois-fèves Laliberté

Haricot Thibodeau du comté de Beauce
Thibodeau beans from the Beauce region of Quebec

Unfortunately, some wild thing devoured the beautiful Saint-Hubert peas.

Malheureusement, quelque bête sauvage a dévoré les belles pois Saint-Hubert.

Spring Planting

Spreading wood chips donated by Chippers :-)
 

 Weeding the wheat trial plots

 Preparing the corn beds

 Planting corn (Maîs canadien blanc)

 Planting winter squash (Canada Crookneck)

Prepping the potato bed

 Planting potatoes
 

Trek to Taste

Three students and Mme Fleishman participated in the Trek to Taste exhibition at the Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historic Site. We had a display that showed the French connection to the garden - the heritage wheat from France and the heirloom vegetables from Quebec.

We didn't have a French harvest yet, so we just shared the idea and some information about what we are hoping to grow.


We did have some grains for people to see and some to grind in the hand-cranked mill.

Another exhibitor had a bicycle-powered blender to make smoothies!

La nouvelle vie du jardin: French classes take over the garden

The French classes at HMMS are working on turning at least half the garden into un champ de blé (a wheat "field"). We dug lots of weeds and planted three small beds with six different heritage wheat varieties from France. We will plant more in the spring and more again next fall.  These first beds are trial plots to see what grows well. We are hoping that the seed germinates.

France is known for its boulangeries (bakeries) selling fresh bread daily in every city and town all over the country. There are many paysans-boulangers (farmer-bakers) who grow their own wheat and then turn it into delicious pain au levain (sourdough bread). That's what we would like to do.

These paysans-boulangers grow des variétés anciennes de blé (heritage varieties of wheat) that are nutritious, delicious, and extraordinarily beautiful. These old varieties have almost been lost and forgotten but are coming back thanks to these farmer-bakers and other farmers and bakers in many different parts of the world and country, including Vermont and Quebec.

Speaking of Quebec, we will also be turning another corner of the garden into "le coin québécois" where we will be growing a variety of heritage crops from Quebec.

For more about the French heritage wheat (le blé ancien de France) and the Quebec Corner (le coin québécois), click on the tabs above.

French students in the garden

6th graders digging and pulling weeds

7th graders planting wheat

6th graders weeding

8th graders fine-tuning the bed prep

8th graders preparing beds for planting

Potatoes for the Haven

We also dug 29 pounds of potatoes for the Haven food shelf. Later we will harvest some dry beans and winter squash and plant some garlic.