Marjoram pesto

Marjoram Pesto


3 cups marjoram

2 cups olive oil

1 cup walnuts

3 cups parsley

1/2 cup water

salt

pepper

4 cloves garlic

1/2 cup cheese

1tbs balsamic vinegar

blend all together for a few minutes till smooth

Getting ready for our first Garden of Eatin' sale

For your blog today please make sure to include:

1. Recipe for Marjoram pasta and pictures of Production making it.
2. Pictures of labels for our packaging.
3. The questions from our customer satisfaction survey and why it is important to get this information.
4. Our cost-benefit analysis:
a. Determine fixed costs: employees (number of hours x hourly wage) up to the date.
b. Determine variable costs: Projected total cost of materials divided by the number of units= Material cost per unit.
c. Since we know the price we can determine the "break even point." How many units must we sell to break even?
d. How many units have we sold so far? Have we reached the "break even point" or have we made profits? What are the projected profits as of today?

5. Your reflection of the team and the morning. How did we do? Do you feel we accomplished a lot? Why or why not? What did you enjoy? etc.

When I was at the farm gathering our marjoram and herbs, Camilla, the farm manager offered us her harvests from three berms: baby spinach, mixed greens and radishes. We are so lucky!

Farm Blog for May 8th

Last week: Ezra, Bobby and Albert chopping up the greens compost from our berm to add to the compost bin in layers with brown ingredients to speed up the decomposition process:

This weeks farm assignment:
On your blog please post:

Part I: Your observations and general feeling about the work you did at the farm.

Part II: We will all complete science experiments in class, though if you need it for your portfolio you will need to write a 3 page background paper to go along with it.

Research Question: What are you trying to figure out?
Hypothesis: What do you think will be the result of your experiment based on background research?
Independent Variable: What is the thing that you are testing or comparing?
Independent Variable: What will react to the test/comparison?
Constants: What will you make sure to keep the same in your test/comparison to really see if the independent variable you changed makes a difference?
Procedure:

Part III:
A list of the crops that you are growing in your berm and an approximate harvest date: This will be useful for planning our sales.

New Garden, Art and Economics class

I'm excited that this spring Jane and I have teamed up again. This cycle students will spend Tuesdays at the farm and Thursdays at school planning our new business. It has only been a week and we have made so much progress. Each student will keep a blog that will record their experience at the farm and in class. This will serve as the final project for the class. To make a blog, you can use either blogger or wordpress. http://www.blogger.com http://wordpress.org Follow the easy directions which include deciding on a title and URL. When you are done, please send Jane and Naima the URL address: naima@cityas.org Jane@cityas.org

For this week students should post two entries: Art and Economics: Introduce yourself and your department. Why did you choose your department? What are your responsibilities? What is the name of the company? logo? Mission Statement? What are the company values?What products are you planning to sell? How did the group make decisions? Urban Farming: How was your morning? Post 2 photos. Update on your berm: What seeds are growing? What was harvested? What companions do you have or plan to have? (list 3). What plants/seeds do you need? Is soil alive? Why or why not? How can we manage our soil? What were the nutrient test results for your berm?

Read this if you want info on the compost assignment and need data!

Hi Everyone,
Well, we are busy gathering and interpreting our data. At the moment we have Brandon going down to the farm to count carrot seeds and Brocolli leaves, Tiara going tomorrow to count the brocolli leaves in her berm and Bridget going tomorrow to count Bok Choy leaves and all of the brocolli leaves (just to have as much data as possible). Please post on your blogs, so all of the students can share!

Here are the individual assignments for the compost book: You are responsible for one piece of your section (previously decided by your group).
Part 1: data, history, impacts
Part II: Biology, chemistry and physics
Part III: How it is used, studies on effectiveness and examples of innovative ways to compost in large-scale project.

Remember you are being graded according to:
Support from Reading/Research: "Demonstrates effective use of text support to answer prompt."
Controlling Idea: "Controlling idea that states the purpose and/or addresses the task's question."

The Effects of Trash
What afect does our production of garbage have? After looking at the graphs, videos, websites, articles, etc. write a brief explantion that examines how much waste is produced. what types of waster are there and where does New York city garbage go? Explain the effects of waste on the environment, health and resources of the planet. What impilcations can you draw? Support your discussion with evidence from your research (include the links within your essay)

How Does Decomposition Happen?
What makes compost happen? After reviewing the sources that your group has accumlated, write and essay that explains the deomposition process. Be sure to address the effects that Carbon, Nitrogen, Water and Air have on the biological, chemical and physical properites of the process. Support your description with evidence from your observations and from your research (include links).

Benefit of Compost:
What are the many benefits of creating and using compost? After analyzing the data, write a chapter for the book that showcases the benefits of composting on various aspects of the environment. Support your discussion with evidence from your research(include the links within your essay).

What else is due?

In addistion to the other assignments listed on the previous post we now have a couple of new things due:
1. Description of pH experiment
2. Description of field trip to BKFarmyards to learn about hoop houses.
What are they? What are the pros and cons of them? Can CAS have one? Would you build one?
3. Final reflection: What did you like about the class? What are you still interested to learn about or be involved in? What do you recommend be different for the next class?
4. Your part of the chapter of the Garbage to Gold (Trash/compost) book.

The Compost Book

Our garbage affects our health and the environment. Unfortunately, there is no safe and easy place to put all of our waste indefinitely. We can, however, decrease our trash flow by separating and composting the organic waste.
Your job is to create a compelling book/resource guide that describes the problem, how decomposition works and the benefits of using compost.
Each student will:
1. Choose one area from the three sections described above and find at least 5 sources of information. These sources should include a variety of information, graphics, data, etc.
2. Meet as a group to identify which sources (should be 5 from each person) should be included.
3. Write your section of the guide using your sources as reference material. Each student will be responsible for a part of the section.
The problem with our trash: Each student pick one area:
a. history
b. data
c. impacts
How decomposition works:
a. The biology
b. The chemistry
c. The physics
The benefits of compost:
a. How it is used
b. Studies on effectiveness
c. Examples of innovative ways to compost in large-scale areas.
4. Each section should have at least 2 visuals (graph, table, picture, etc.), 1 video, 1 podcast and 4 written articles.