Yesterday, the farm was happy to host a large group of first grade students from Maury Elementary School. The students received the usual tour complete with bees, farm chores and composting, and had plenty of time to harvest produce as well.

They were also lucky enough to work side by side with new OSSE School Garden Specialist, Sam Ullery. Who is a very laid back guy, but will still enforce the hand-washing-before-lunch rules on the farm.

Would you like to bring your school group over for a field trip? Please see the guidelines and sign-up information on our Field Trips page. Just click on that tab above. We would love to welcome as many students as possible to the farm.

The NoMa Farmers Market at 1200 First Street NE is open every Wednesday from 3:00pm until 7:00pm, and offers local residents some wonderful choices for locally grown produce, dairy, meats and baked goods. There are chef demos most weeks, and the market aims to make its offerings more accessible to all in the community by accepting food stamps in the form of WIC (Women, Infants, Children) and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). This is a vibrant program that is drawing an ever-expanding crowd in this its first year of operation.

The Farm at Walker Jones is proud to announce that it will make its debut at the market this week, October 5. We will be bringing over spicy mustard mix, red Russian kale, dino kale, Swiss chard, gourmet baby lettuces, snap peas, pumpkins, collards, basil and herbs. There may even be a few of the beauties you see above still left. All produce was grown on our farm with the assistance of our great students, and all profits will support our urban gardening project. So stop by, say hi, and take home some beautiful produce that was organically raised in your own neighborhood.

We have been talking about getting chickens for a long time, entertaining a variety of different options yet never quite satisfied with any plan. And then these drawings for Chez Poulet came along. Stunning. A poultry palace. And just the type of beauty piece we are looking for as we march forward in the development of the farm. Take a look at these details from the website of designer, Heather Bullard.

Many of our students are very excited about adding chickens to the possibilities of the farm just because they appreciate them as animals. Once some of them (especially our first graders) realized that we will be adding eggs to the list of edibles our farm produces that excitement really intensified. Manure as compost is still creating more than a few wrinkled noses and skeptical looks but this is a process. Knowledge is a powerful thing and their poultry education is just beginning.

The cost of materials will probably be over $1,000 for the project. The rest will come from what designer Bullard identified as “sweat equity.” Anyone wanting to participate in the process, please email Farm Operations Director, Sarah Bernardi at sarah@wjfarm.org and/or Farm Executive Director, Frances Evangelista at frances.evangelista@dc.gov.

The farm welcomes an amazing array of volunteers every week. It is not only a great place to give back to the community. It is also a great place to meet the most interesting people imaginable. One of our volunteers, Saule, blogs most splendidly at 2 Sisters, 2 Kitchens, and just recently shared a yummy ice cream recipe that can be made with fresh mint. She just happened to pick hers up from the farm. Thanks for everything, Saule!

Fresh mint chocolate chip ice cream

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
2/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp. light corn syrup
¼ kosher salt
2 cups fresh mint (stems count)

¼ cup whole milk
4 tsp. cornstarch

6 oz. dark chocolate

Mix heavy cream, 1 cup of milk, sugar, corn syrup, salt, and mint in a large pot. Cover and bring to boil. Boil for 1 minute, turn off the heat. With the lid closed infuse the mixture for 2 hours. Strain the liquid into a large bowl and press the mint through a chinois/fine mesh strainer to extract the mint flavor. Discard mint and pour the liquid back into the pot. Bring the liquid to a rolling boil.

While the mint liquid is getting warm, mix cornstarch and remaining milk until the mixture is well combined. Stir the liquid into the pot and cook until the mixture thickens for about 2 minutes. The mixture should be thick enough to coat the back of the wooden spoon. Turn off the heat.

Place cream cheese in a bowl and pour in ¼ cup of hot mixture, whisk until smooth. Add the cream cheese mixture to the pot and stir the base for a minute. The ice cream base is almost finished.

Fill a large bowl with ice water. Pour the ice cream base into a large Ziploc bag. Place a closed bag into the ice water. This will allow the base to cool just in 10 minutes.
Once the base is cool, transfer it into the ice cream maker and follow manufacturing instructions.

Several minutes before the ice cream is ready and your ice cream machine starts to sound like an old Soviet train, melt the chocolate in a microwave or a water bath. Turn off the ice cream maker.

Drizzle the bottom and the sides of a large plastic container with melted chocolate and top with a layer of ice cream. Drizzle more chocolate over the ice cream and top with another layer of ice cream. Using a dining knife, break frozen chocolate into small chips. Continue layering chocolate and ice cream breaking the chocolate every 1 or 2 layers.

Freeze the ice cream for at least 2 hours and enjoy on a hot summer day after few hours of farming.

We’ll let you in on a little secret. We’re picky. We have a highly defined sense of our project and that includes the aesthetics of how it is presented. As you can see from a recent post, we consider signage to be an important part of the farm experience, but we have been waiting for just the right sign design to hit us. And then fate introduced us to Corcoran College of Art and Design graduate and employee, Sarah Robbins. Just look at the photo of the signs she just created for us! It is like she could read our minds. She took our logo design by Ivan Indigo as an inspiration, and developed compatible signage for our various needs. Here is a quick bio from the very talented Sarah with whom we hope to continue working.

“Originally from Rochester, New York, I moved to D.C. to attend the Corcoran College of Art and Design. I received my BFA in Fine Art this past spring, and have a job working at the school. I work in all mediums, but my favorites are painting, photography, screen printing, and sculpture. Currently, I am in the middle of painting a mural for the British Embassy, working on personal commissions from D.C. organizations and residents, as well as getting ready for an upcoming show at Transformer Gallery. Eventually, I would love to own my own gallery, which helps emerging artists break into the arts scene. I am excited to be working with the Farm at Walker Jones, I think it is a really great project, and I’m so glad to be a part of it.”

Thanks to all who have come out to support the farm stand! Profits have been used for things like improved signs and irrigation repairs.

Just as a reminder, there are two ways to enjoy the bounty on the farm – volunteer in exchange for food or purchase for the crazy low prices we are charging.

Work Exchange:
Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1pm-6pm and Sundays from12-4pm the farm is open to the public for community volunteer days. Anyone is welcome to lend a hand with various farm tasks and in exchange, you will be given a selection of the day’s produce. Bring your own bag!

Farm Stand:
Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4pm-6pm and Sundays from 2pm-4pm our farm stand will be open, beginning July 3rd. We will be selling freshly harvested produce and cut flowers at extremely low prices. All profits support the school farm.

Nothing gives us greater pleasure than to answer all the questions children (and adults) pose to us about the farm, but ultimately, we would like to see our outdoor classroom become a place that all visitors can self-navigate. A place where children begin to recognize the crops without having to reference the sign at the end of the row. A place where children learn to spell “cucumber” from reading it on the sign as they pick. And a place where the dynamics of our small urban ecosystem come to life on signage that explains rain barrels and composting systems and pest control and run-off water and butterfly migration patterns and… Well, you get the point. There is much to learn on the farm.

With all this in mind, we have begun the process of identifying our crop rows on wooden hand-painted signs, and our perennial herb garden with slate markers. It is a start.

On July 12, the Farm, in partnership with DC Greens, welcomed author Sharon Gamson Danks to our campus to discuss her book, Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation. Danks held the attention of approximately 70 guests with ease as she presented examples of schools around the world that have transformed their play areas from uninspired, cookie cutter spaces to ecologically rich environments that encourage imagination and interaction.

After the presentation, the guests moved from inside the school to the farm where they enjoyed some light summer fare prepared with farm produce by Chef Allison Sosna from DC Central Kitchen who will be in charge of food services for the school this coming year.

It was our honor and pleasure to host this event, the first of what we hope to be many gatherings that embrace partnerships and best practices in bringing sustainable environments to our students and the larger community. Many, many thanks to Sharon Danks, Chef Allison, Daniel Thaeler from Whole Foods P Street, Lauren Biel from DC Greens and our small army of enthusiastic volunteers who made it all happen.

So in order to better serve the community, during the summer, the farm will provide fresh produce on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays in two ways:

Work Exchange:
Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1pm-6pm and Sundays from12-4pm the farm is open to the public for community volunteer days. Anyone is welcome to lend a hand with various farm tasks and in exchange, you will be given a selection of the day’s produce. Bring your own bag!

Farm Stand:
Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4pm-6pm and Sundays from 2pm-4pm our farm stand will be open, beginning July 3rd. We will be selling freshly harvested produce and cut flowers at extremely low prices. All profits support the school farm.

Come out to see us, and bring a bag. And a friend. Or two. Have we mentioned how fast cucumbers and squash grow?

Recently, Elaine Reyes of NBC4 came out to see our farm and chat with the kids a bit before school let out for the summer. Click on this link to see the full video on the NBC4 site. Our middle school kids turned a little uncharacteristically shy when the camera came on. Well, all except our resident arachnophobe. Not sure what I’m talking about? You didn’t click on the link, did you?

All jokes aside, we are very proud of how well our middle school students conducted themselves. This year, they have often found themselves the heavy laborers on the farm when certain tasks were beyond the abilities of younger students. They have risen to the needs of our school project time and time again. As middle school math teacher, John LaRue states in the video, the farm is for everyone. And it has given our older kids the ability to step into the role of school leaders by working hard to make sure that the farm is the best it can be. For everyone.