We teach our great kids many things about the food they help grow on the farm, but the one thing they constantly remind us adults of is that the farm is a very FUN place to be. You see, magical things happen there. Mounds of dirt and a handful of seeds turn into big delicious things to eat and enjoy. So for the sheer fun of it, each year we plant pumpkins and lots of them in anticipation of one of the most fun days of the year – Halloween. The first year we were moderately successful and we had 50 or so gorgeous little pumpkins for the kids to take home and enjoy at school both visually and as tasty treats. In year two, they came a bit too early and suffered from the nasty pumpkin rot that afflicted so many growers in the area last year. But this year…. We hit the pumpkin jackpot! We started with a brand new bed just for our round orange babies. A pie shaped bed. We know this is a little silly but we serve the needs of children. We know the power of silly.

The vines went mad all through August and then came the flowers.

And then the dark green babies.

And then lots and lots of orange.

Until Halloween saw the gathering of well over 100 pumpkins. They were everywhere!

And made this day the happiest of celebrations! A celebration of not just the treats and mischief associated with the day but a celebration of the gifts our farm gives us.

Four times a year Whole Foods Market holds Community Giving Days (otherwise known as “5% Days”) where five percent of that day’s net sales are donated to a local nonprofit or educational organization. The groups that benefit are as varied as the communities themselves.

This 5% day will help establish seed money for the first Club in DC Schools that focus on bees, beehives, environment, science, gardens and fun! The Junior Bee Club mission: engage students in the magic of beekeeping! The new pilot program will include outfitting each school with new hives, providing field trips to area farms with bees, school visits by local expert beekeepers, life science education and beekeeping.

Jeff Miller of DC Honeybees has been a major supporter of bee and beehive education in the DC Public Schools. Jeff’s expertise will help establish beehives for the Junior Bee Club in each of the schools listed below. Jeff’s generous support offers equipment, feed and bees at cost and offers free education programs for the students of:

Walker Jones Elementary 100 L St NW, Washington, DC 20001
Horace Mann Elementary 4430 Newark Street NW Washington, DC 20016
Maury Elementary 1250 Constitution Ave. NE Washington, DC 20002
Garrison Elementary 1200 S Street Northwest Washington, DC 20009

Walker Jones Education Campus has been the first and only school in the district to incorporate a beehive into their learning environment, but not for long! We are happy to be mentoring Mann, Maury, and Garrison as we all move forward on this journey together. So exciting! We know how valuable the experience has been for our students, and we can’t wait to see the fun and learning spread.

Please stop by Whole Foods P Street on Tuesday for a little (or a lot!) of shopping, and 5% of your purchase will go directly to developing these school programs. Jeff Miller will be in the store at 4:30 to exhibit a demo hive and answer questions, and schools information will be displayed throughout the day. We will also be bringing honey from the Farm at Walker Jones for sampling. And it is YUM!

In the culinary world, fruit and herb or spice pairings are both a science and an art: strawberries with sage, peaches with rosemary, pears with vanilla, and the ubiquitous citrus with just about anything! Unfortunately there are some fruits and plants we simply cannot grow on The Farm at Walker-Jones – vanilla is a tropical orchid from Madagascar, and can only grow in USDA Zone 10 or higher (we are Zone 7); growing peaches and pears in humid East Coast climates can be problematic with regard to insect pests; and citrus like oranges, lemons, limes, although possible to grow indoors, are also unable to survive the first cold weather in DC preferring sunnier climes like Florida and California… however all is not lost!

Among the diverse selection of plants grown in our Herb Garden, we have collected a number of tropical spice alternatives and various fruit/herb combinations. A staple ingredient in Polish vodka, Vanilla Grass (Anthoxanthum nitens) contains the chemical compound coumarin which imparts a vanilla flavor to salads and refreshing drinks; coumarin is also found in Sweet Woodruff (Gallium odoratum) and is used extensively in Germany to flavor everything from icecream to sausages. An alternative to allspice and long used by Native Americans, we feature a shrub native to the mid-Atlantic, Spicebush (Lindera benzoin), which produces red berries (drupes) which ripen during apple season and which can be used to flavor traditional fall pies and pastries.

From the largest genus in the mint family we have Pineapple sage (Salvia elegans) with pineapple-scented leaves (and beautiful tubular red flowers loved by our native butterflies and the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds), and two salvias (Salvia microphylla) with Wild Watermelon or Maraschino Cherry scented leaves. Among the lemon/lime-scented herbs, we have both Lemon and Lime Balm (Melissa officinalis), Lemon Basil, Lemon Thyme, and the delicious Lemon Verbena (Aloysia citrodora), and a new mint, Lime Mint. Some new mints also include Orange Mint and Grapefruit Mint, and in our growing room on the farm, waiting for planting next Spring, we have cuttings of a rare mint from France, Banana Mint, which tastes and smells like a combination of mint and ripe bananas! Our citrus herb collection is rounded out with a tangerine-scented Southernwood (Artemisia abrotanum) ~ take that, Florida!

Pink Grapefruit-Mint-Tarragon Granita
This alternative to sorbet (so you don’t need an ice cream maker) can be a delicious dessert on its own or a palate cleanser between rich and strongly-flavored entrées and a cheese course.

1 tablespoon freshly grated grapefruit zest
3 ¾ cups pink grapefruit juice (not from concentrate, approx. 4 large fresh grapefruits)
6 tablespoons clover honey (or more to taste)
2 6-inch sprigs fresh French or Mexican tarragon, plus 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh tarragon
4 6-inch sprigs fresh Grapefruit mint, plus 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh mint
Place a quart-size (or larger) storage container for the granita in the freezer to prechill.
Place grapefruit zest, grapefruit juice, and honey in a large saucepan and stir thoroughly. Bring just to a simmer over medium-high heat, stirring until the honey dissolves. Taste and add more honey, if desired. Stir in tarragon and grapefruit mint sprigs
Remove from the heat and set aside to infuse the mixture, about 1 hour.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a large, shallow container, pressing to extract as much liquid as possible. Stir in chopped tarragon and mint. Cover and place on a level surface in the freezer for at least 5 hours, stirring with a fork every 30 minutes, moving the frozen edges toward the slushy center and breaking up any icy crystals. To serve, let the granita stand for about 5 minutes at room temperature to soften slightly, then break up and fluff it with a fork.

Contributed by David Hilmy, lead teacher for the farm.

The Farm at Walker Jones is excited about participating in two farmers markets in the city this summer. The first is right in the neighborhood at the NoMa Farmers Market. “The NoMa Farmers Market is a free neighborhood amenity that connects NoMa residents and workers to top local farmers in the region, while providing a relaxing community gathering place for neighbors to meet. Patrons can pick up dinner or buy groceries after work or on their way home, then head over to NoMa Summer Screen for outdoor films. Vendors provide a variety of fresh and organic produce, orchard fruits, meats, cheeses, prepared foods and baked goods, all from local farms. The market also features monthly cooking demonstrations from popular chefs in the District of Columbia.”

The market has a new location this year at the NoMa Metro Plaza at Second and N Streets, NE, adjacent to Marriott, Au Bon Pain and ATF. The market will be held Wednesdays, from May 30 to October 31, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

We have been having lots of fun there talking to neighbors, and thanking all the DCPS central office folks profusely for all their support (they are our best customers!). Please come by and see us, and pick up some fresh produce from our farm, picked just before market.

If you miss us on Wednesday, please head out to the Glover Park-Burleith Farmers Market in the Hardy Middle School parking lot at Wisconsin Ave & 34th Street NW (across from the Safeway) on Saturdays from 9:00 – 1:00. This market is sponsored by the good people at DC Greens, and there is always a lot of fun going on there – local produce, live music, food trucks, chef demos, bike clinics, hula hoops, face painting and more. Check out there website for calendar updates.

All proceeds from our sales at the markets go directly to getting the farm and food lab inside school ready for our great kids when they return to school in late August. Many thanks for your support!

Sharing the same properties as the medicinal herb Burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis), Salad Burnet has been used for over 2,000 years. The Latin scientific name, Poterium sanguisorba or Sanguisorba minor, translates as “drink up blood” referring to its astringent qualities and so it has been used to prevent hemorrhages and internal bleeding; in past centuries, soldiers would drink a tea made from the herb before going into battle in the hopes that any wounds they received would be less severe.

Salad Burnet was first introduced to the New World from its native Europe and north-west Africa by the English colonists of the 1600s. The English statesman and scientist, Sir Francis Bacon was fond of this herb when planted on garden pathways “to perfume the air most delightfully, being trodden on and crushed”; even Thomas Jefferson knew the value of Salad Burnet as excellent fodder for livestock, having once ordered 8 bushels of seed , enough for 16 acres of plants!

We don’t quite have 16 acres of this perennial herb planted at the WJ Herb Garden, but its fresh tangy cucumber taste makes it a great ingredient in many French and Italian recipes (all recipes tried, tested, and plates eagerly licked clean by the author!)

Onion, Corn and Potato Soup with Salad Burnet Purée
This is a rich and comforting soup, with the Burnet puree adding a refreshing accent. (Adapted from a recipe by Linda Gilbert, a Bay Area freelance journalist and co-owner of a Sonoma catering company.)
3 tbs. butter
3 large yellow onions, chopped
3 ½ cups vegetable stock
¼ tsp. mace
1 ½ cups milk
3 medium russet potatoes, peeled and diced
½ sp. minced garlic
kernels from 2 ears of yellow corn
salt and pepper
½ cup Salad Burnet leaves
Sprigs of Salad Burnet for garnish
3 pans
Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a soup pot. Slowly sauté the onion until golden. Add the vegetable stock, mace, and potatoes. Raise the heat until the mixture simmers, cover and cook until the potatoes are soft. Add the garlic and the purée the soup until smooth. In a separate pan, sauté the corn kernels in the remaining tablespoon of butter. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt. In a separate container combine the Salad Burnet and ½ cup of the pureed soup. Puree this mixture until blended but there are still some flecks of green visible. Add the corn to the pot of soup and heat through. Adjust salt and pepper, and add more milk if the soup is too thick. Ladle the soup into individual bowls, and using a spoon, decorate each portion with the pureed green mixture: swirls, hearts, lettering — whatever is fun. Garnish with sprigs of whole leaf Salad Burnet.

- David Hilmy

Recently, our students spent an entire morning out on the farm working with a group of Fulbright scholars visiting the city. The kids were very curious about all of the places the volunteers hailed from, and the questions they directed at our new friends from Australia and Germany and many other points were seemingly never-ending. However, the questioning had to continue through an ambitious work schedule for the morning.

The high point of the day for our younger students was the worm farm that the scholars put together for the farm.

They are laughing in this photo because despite the instructions coming in five languages, all of them known by at least one member of the group, it still proved a challenging project. While the kids waited for completion, they made a kale salad for the worms.

And poked around in the bucket of worms to make sure they were ready for their new home.

And then could not get enough of them once moved to their permanent house. Mrs. Felder, second grade teacher, here helps the students understand how worms are beneficial to our farm.

The older kids had plenty to do as well.

And were even joined by Assistant Principal Hill in weeding the butterfly garden.

And how did we keep them all going strong? We encouraged them to eat the blossoms off these kale plants. They LOVED them! Well, most of them did. There were the three children who claimed they tasted like dirt.

Many thanks to the Fulbright scholars who helped make for such a happy and educational morning on the farm!

We tend to think of herbs mostly from the culinary point of view as plants that lend flavor to food whereas vegetables provide substance, but in a broader sense, herbs are any plants with leaves, or seeds, or flowers that are used to not only flavor food, but are used medicinally, spiritually, and for perfume. It is with this broader sense in mind that the Herb Garden at Walker-Jones has now developed into a resource not just for culinary flavorings, but which now incorporates a number of species traditionally used by native Americans for medicine and sacred rituals, and plants that provide intriguing or inviting scents.

By far the most prominent plants featured in our herb garden belong to the Lamiaceae, the mint family, however we’re not just talking about mints like peppermint, but also rosemary, savory, marjoram and oregano, lemon balm, hyssop, lavender, thyme, and sage; as well as bee balm, catnip, self-heal, and deadnettles. Most of the over 3,000 species in this family have aromatic parts often used in medicine and cooking. They have leaves in opposite pairs which are usually toothed, they often have square stems, and their flowers are bilaterally symmetrical with five unified petals (forming a lower and an upper lip) and five unified sepals.

The design of the Herb Garden takes some inspiration from Japanese tradition: the gateways are always open, so as not to shut anybody out; because evil spirits are said to only travel in straight lines, the paths wind around, leaving evil spirits behind; and in the meander of the paths some stones are set unevenly, focusing a visitor’s thoughts on their walk, rather than problems the world outside.

This post was contributed by David Hilmy, Walker Jones EC Physical Education teacher and coordinator of student Green Team initiatives. Mr. Hilmy is responsible for the renovation of our perennial herb garden this season.

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