Girl Scout Herb Harvest with Troop 1441

August 12th, 2011 - Last Friday at 1 p.m., Junior Scouts Troop 1441 (four girls total) came to help me harvest my herb garden at Elawa Farm! Not only did they help me with my Girl Scout Gold Project, but they also obtained a "Journey" (the new version of the badges that Girl Scouts used to achieve). It was a win-win situation for everyone and I believe that everyone had a great time.

Before the girls arrived, my mom took a picture of me with my Girl Scout Overseas shirt (which is a tad small for me; I had to keep pulling my shirt down..) and my new Elawa Farm cap. According to Mrs. Cartwright, I am an Elawa Farm Ambassador when I wear that hat. Guess I'm a Girl Scout Ambassador AND an Elawa Farm Ambassador :)

Once the girls arrived, I gave them a tour of Elawa Farm and let them explore the Garden Market (for more info, check the Garden at Elawa located in the "Links" section). There the girls met Mrs. Cartwright and she showed them nasturtiums which are edible flowers! In addition, the girls were able to take a look around at the organic products grown from the Garden itself!

Once we entered the Garden, we first took a look at the sheds containing the gardening tools and materials. Suddenly, my mom and Mrs. King spotted a small birds nest above a doorway and there were tiny newborn birds in there, chirping for their mother! It was so cute and the momma bird came flying in with food to feed to them. They are momma's children from the start :)

The girls and I explored the Garden to see what great, organic products would end up at the Garden Market next! We saw almost everything you can imagine: potatoes, pumpkins, squash, okra, lettuce, broccoli, and more. The picture above shows hot peppers ready to be ripened into spicy-ness.

In addition to a vegetable/fruit garden, the Garden contained a whole flower section near the back. The flowers were very fragrant and gave off this sweet smell of summer :) Bumblebees buzzed from flower to flower as they happily exchanged nectar between each. Any beautiful flower you can possibly imagine is grown right at Elawa.

Now the harvesting begins. The girls were very ecstatic about these fresh herbs and taking them home to cook with. They couldn't wait to find out what they would be having for dinner that night and sharing with their families. Each girl got their own plastic bags and each bag contained one type of herb. I explained to them that they should use their herbs within two days max because they taste best when they're fresh. I allowed them to take three rosemary stalks, five thyme stalks, three oregano stalks, eight basil stalks, five basil stalks, and all of the parsley.

The many plastic bags that the girls got to take home to share with their families for dinner!

The troop and I standing next to the herb beds. They're happily holding their bags of goodies :)

Thanks Mrs. King and Troop 1441 for coming to help me harvest my herb garden. I hope that you enjoyed all of your fresh herbs in your cooking and in making your food flavorful! Good luck with the rest of your Girl Scouting years ahead!

Harvesting Herbs 101

August 10th, 2011 - Thanks to Mrs. Cartwright (for everything!), I've been able to learn how to harvest herbs since it is almost the end of the season and school is just coming around the corner (yay...). She has been wondering when I would start harvesting my herbs and she told me that I had to do it ASAP because the plants would soon die. That's when I got to work.

Mrs. Cartwright explained to me that you should harvest the herbs before they start flowering and that you should harvest little by little as time progresses because that's when the herbs taste best. In addition, herbs continue to grow as you keep harvesting little by little. She also recommended using a "snipper", a tool used to easily cut off the stalks of plants. Here's the jist of harvesting each type of herb...

ROSEMARY: Cut from the bottom of the stalk to obtain a whole stalk filled with rosemary leaves. When cooking, pluck off the leaves.

THYME: Same as rosemary.

OREGANO: Same as rosemary and thyme.

BASIL: Cut off stalk or pluck off leaves right from the plant. Harvest before it flowers.

PARSLEY: Pull plants out of the ground when ready. Remember, parsley needs drainage in order to survive.

CILANTRO: Harvest before it flowers. If it does grow too much, cut off the leaves from the bottom of the plant; these are the herbs used in cooking.

DILL: Harvest before it flowers. If it does grow too much, cut off the leaves from the bottom of the plant; these are the herbs used in cooking.

It's best to use the herbs when they're fresh. But if you wish to store them, you can dry or freeze them for later on. Happy Harvesting!

THANKS CROYA!

I just want to thank CROYA (Committee Representing Our Young Adults), Robert, and Joanne Yorro for helping out with my herb garden! CROYA also has gardening beds at Elawa Farm and every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, volunteers come and help out with the garden from 10 am - 1 pm. They've been so generous with helping me water my garden every two days while I was gone in the Netherlands and in Florida. They've also lent me gardening tools, like a spade and a pitchfork used to discard weeds and break down the soil. Thanks so much! I couldn't have done it without your help.

For more information on CROYA, please visit http://www.croya.com/ for more fun activities.

From Herb Garden to Jungle

August 2nd, 2011 - Starting from seedlings and seeds, the herb garden has been thriving ever since it made its new home at Elawa. In fact, the basil and dill plants are reaching to about three feet tall already and flowering! It's amazing how fast plants can grow, even the weeds. It boggles my mind.

However, not all of the plants survived (sniff sniff). The sage has had a hard time from the middle of July because there is no drainage for my beds at Elawa, and sage plants need drainage. I had to harvest the two remaining plants that I had left; I had five originally. I plucked the leaves and took them home. When I got home, I soaked them in water for a few days and my mom used them for cooking vegetable stir-fry (yum) as the days passed by. They created this fantastic flavor; my family and I enjoyed our delicious meals filled with "sage-ness".

The following pictures display the progress of my herb garden as of the beginning of August. I also posted just some sidenotes to keep you updated. Enjoy!

ROSEMARY: the rosemary plants don't seem like they've grown :( Maybe it's because of the hot and dry weather that we've been having in Chicago. But they've still managed to maintain their fresh scent all summer!

THYME: Just like the rosemary, the thyme plants haven't been growing but they still maintain they're great smell :). Please mind the weeds that have been ferociously growing all over my bed.

OREGANO: Again, this plant has failed to grow and due to the dry and hot weather, some of the leaves have turned yellow and brown. In addition to this little patch of oregano, I also have another patch that started from from seed!

CILANTRO: As you can see, the cilantro has grown to be HUGE! At least three feet and it's also flowering which means... HARVEST TIME! More to come on that note. Again however, the hot weather has made some of the cilantro leaves become yellow and brown on the bottom of the plant.

BASIL: These pictures are taken from my mini patch of basil grown from seed! Can you believe it? Watching plants grow is such an enlightening experience, no matter how cliché that sounds. I also have another patch of basil that is huge on Bed #2, which you shall see in a bit.

PARSLEY: Sadly, some of the parsley has died (again due to the hot and dry weather). They have turned yellow and brown. However, maybe it was my fault because I should have harvested them earlier... I shouldn't blame Mother Nature for everything...

SAGE: As I had said before, three out of the five sage plants have died. Now I know what to do if I ever want to grow sage at my own house, drainage will be needed!

BASIL (BED #2): There's only one word to describe this.... HUGE.

DILL: Just like the basil, the dill has grown to be about three feet. However, the bottom of the dill plant has also become dried out and it is a sort of reddish, yellowish color. I must say though, that the color of dry dill is quite pretty.

BED #1

BED #2

And still growing!

July 16th, 2011 - It's mid-July and the herb garden is still growing. I'll keep you up to date through a few pictures:

Bed #1: Note how much the cilantro has grown!

Bed #2: The basil is growing pretty quickly!

The progress of both beds.

The Visitor!

July 2011 - My family and I left at the end of June to go to Florida for a family reunion. While I was gone for ten days, I asked Maia if she could help me water and weed the garden for volunteer hours, since she lived so close to Elawa anyways. She agreed and about five days later, she texts me and says that I have a visitor... who's eating my rosemary plant! Guess who it was?

IT WAS A TURTLE!!! I LOVE TURTLES!!! It kept eating my rosemary plant but Maia said that she shouldn't move it; it was fine because I LOVE TURTLES!! Not to mention that this looks just like one of the turtles that I owned about six years ago. Their names were Lilo and Stitch. Sadly, the two turtles both died and I had to bury them in Altoid tins. I'd like to think that one of them came back for me by showing up at my herb garden... but that will never happen :'(

Anyways, Maia texted me a day later and said that IT LAID EGGS! NEXT TO MY ROSEMARY PLANT!!! Who knew that my bed could be a place for everyone?!

However when Maia came back the next day, she said that the turtle and the eggs were gone. We both guessed that the Elawa Wildlife Center took them to a safer place and they probably didn't want the turtle to keep eating my rosemary plant. I really wish I had seen the turtle and the eggs though! It would have been nice to see a passing visitor! :)

Thanks Maia, Mrs. Brearton, and Iain for tending my garden while I was gone and for welcoming our visitor!! Hopefully, we'll get more!

More seedlings and weeding

June 21st, 2011 - I just got back from my Dutch Exchange trip and I was a bit jet-lagged and drowsy. Plus I really missed my Dutch buddy, Rosemary (Roosmarijn - don't ask me how to pronounce that) and also my group. But my garden was missing me at Elawa, so I had to go.

When I got there, I was shocked. In a bad way. There were a ton of weeds growing everywhere. Mrs. Cartwright said that those tiny weeds were good because they help nurse the growing seedlings. But I still I got really annoyed/angry/anxious (alliteration skills right there). Don't worry, these were all internal feelings; I don't do tantrums. There was just a lot of work to do and due to my drowsiness, I had to forcefully put myself through it. But I had to be willing to do it. "Don't do it for the sake of doing it," is what my mum always says. And she's right (as always).

Thankfully, I got the help from my mum. She never complains and she's always willing to help me; I just can't thank her enough. Even though it doesn't show sometimes, I really appreciate her support for me. The picture above shows her weeding and planting the seedlings that we seeded with Maggie, Maia, and Grace.

The progress of Bed #1 after we weeded and watered. Lookin' good if I must say so myself, all that hard work really paid off. Here I planted (from front to back) rosemary, thyme, oregano, cilantro, basil, and parsley.

Bed #2 also lookin' good. Here I planted (from front to back) sage, basil, dill, and oregano. My mum and I got the sage from The Garden Fresh Market right before I left for Holland. Only 99 cents, pretty good deal if I must say so myself.

Watering Bed #1. Guess that being-annoyed-ness wore off.

Watering Bed #2.

Hammering the pegs into the ground. These pegs help prevent the hose from interfering with the herbs when I'm watering.

After about four hours of another hard day's work, I felt accomplished again. I overcame the previous feelings and felt relieved and happy that my garden looked great. Maybe being a farmer isn't so bad.

Planting the seedlings!

June 3rd, 2011 - It was the last day of school and what did I do? Went to go plant my seedlings of course! At around 11 a.m. after a treacherous chemistry final (don't worry, I passed), it was such a relief to be outside, enjoying the fresh summer air. Especially when you're completely relieved after the endless pressure of school. I felt like I could breathe again. Thankfully, Elawa Farm helped me revitalize.

At first, it was just Maia and I. We had lunch from Panera Bread (good stuff right there) at the park nearby. Maia gets sunburnt easily so we had to go back to her house so she could find the right apparel; good thing she lives close by to Elawa Farm. And let me just say, we found the perfect outfit for her (trying to hold in laughter). Sadly, I do not have a good picture to share, however I can tell you this: it was a mix between a farmer and an attempt to be a professional camper of some sort.

So, we both began working on the beds. The soil needed to be broken down so we had to use a spade to crunch the soil under the blistering sun. In addition, we had to lay out three wheelbarrows of compost onto the soil. After about two hours of that, we sat down beneath a shady tree enjoying the sips of warm water going down our parched throats. Then, (thank God) we saw three other girls entering the garden. It was Nina, Grace, and Amanda! They have come to save us all.

From left to right: Nina, Amanda (in her fancy workout clothes), me, Grace, and Maia (hiding her awesome outfit). Nina and Grace are the two that are showing off their amazing chem tie-dye for extra credit on their final exam. They look like twins! In fact, they are twins. Really, they are.

The picture above shows us five laying out the seedlings that are about to be planted. To plant seedlings, we simply had to dig a hold about 5 inches deeps or till the seedling's soil is completely buried within the soil. The only seedling we didn't plant was the mint because Mrs. Cartwright says that it's too invasive. In addition, we had to create a ditch around the seedlings that were about 1/4 inch deep because when it rained, the water would be collected within that ditch, going directly into the soil.

We also planted seeds within rows that were set about 1 foot apart from each other. We placed about three seeds in each hole in case the seeds failed to grow.

Grace and I analyzing the beds to make sure that plants have enough room to grow.

We were there till about 4 p.m. planting, seeding, and watering. It was a lot of physical labor work, not to mention the downright heat coming from the sun. But after a long day's work, I've never felt better. I felt that we accomplished a lot during those five hours, and my garden was actually going to grow! I was to leave the next day for my Dutch Exchange trip, so I wouldn't be able to tend the garden for two weeks. Thankfully, I received enormous help from Robert who watered my seedlings daily while I was gone. I also received a ton of help from Mrs. Cartwright who gave me advice on the seedlings and gardening from the very beginning; I honestly could not have done it without her. Thank you to all of you who have helped me begin the garden!

Of course as this long day of gardening marked the beginning of summer, what did we do next? We hit the library, played with animal puppets, and went home to watch Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World. You can't get nerdier than that.

THANKS HOME DEPOT!

Thanks to The Home Depot of Vernon Hills's generous donation for my Gold Project, I was able to receive seedlings and seeds to plant in the garden! The manager, Dan, was extremely kind and gave his approval to donate seedlings and seeds for my project in no time. This donation included six seedlings of rosemary, four seedlings of oregano, and four seedlings of thyme, and two seedlings of mint. THD also gave me parsley seeds, basil seeds, and oregano seeds.

In addition to the seedlings and seeds, THD gave me their paint sticks for FREE to use as herb labelers. The picture above shows an excited me holding my many paint sticks in front of The Home Depot!

The following pictures shows the paint sticks used as labelers in my herb garden bed:

I would just like to give a big "THANK YOU!" to The Home Depot for their generous donations for my GS Project. I could not have done it without you.