Roots and Shoots 2012 Awards

 On 3rd December, Lewis and Charlotte along with two pupils from the "Fantastic Plastic" recycling elective course were at the Zoological Society of London's headquarters in Regents Park.  They presented their Dingwall Academy activities to Jane Goodall and her Roots n Shoots charity and were presented with the Gold Award.

 It was a real privilege to meet Dr Jane Goodall in person.

 They gave a talk and presentation with lots of photos in.

 The Roots n Shoots charity encourages the Youth of today to do something to help people, animals and the environment that we all depend upon.  To see more photos of the event, visit the charity's website at: http://www.rootsnshoots.org.uk/blog/2012/12/08/jane-goodalls-roots-shoots-awards-2012/

Photos on this page were taken by Miss Canham who accompanied the group on their overnight journey to London.

Christmas Dinner

A snowy Wednesday this week saw us in the shed enjoying our Christmas dinner.

 It felt nice and spacious after we cleaned it out last week.

 Par boiling the vegetables before roasting and frying the bacon/garlic/walnuts/sprouts and curly kale mix.  We didn't grow sprouts this year, so had to buy those in!  The vegetables included several varieties of our own potatoes - Blue Belle, Highland Burgundy Red, Golden Wonder and Smile.  We also enjoyed sweet potato, butternut squash and swede in roasted selection.

 Keep that tongue in Danielle!  Carrying hot food out to the shed: Cameron carries the mash, Danielle the roast vegetables and Grigor the jug of gravy.

It was a freezing day, but the crowd and hot food soon warmed up the shed!   

 We enjoyed the bad cracker jokes!  Everyone had seconds and even "thirds".

We had mince pies for second course, and when the bell went, there was nothing left!  A feast enjoyed by all!  Happy Christmas to all members and I look forward to seeing you in the New Year for more gardening.  Happy Christmas also to our followers - we hope you have enjoyed following our activities this year, and look forward to your comments next Year.

Feeding the Birds

 We have not managed to plant any more hedge trees this week as the ground has been frozen!  Instead, we filled the bird feeders and hung them up (above).

 

Danielle and Connorhan also started putting up decorations in the shed ready for our Christmas Dinner next week!  We moved lots of "stuff" - boxes, bits of timber etc into the greenhouse for temporary storage in order to create space in our shed.  Now it needs a good sweep ready for setting the table up.

Hedge Planting

 It's been a cold week.  The frost stayed on the ground all day Thursday.  Above you can see Cameron, Kyle and Callum planting hedge plants.  We finally made a start!  It's very stony ground however so the going was slow.

 On Thursday, Miss Swallow dug lots of holes ready for planting so next week we should get more done.  Here you can see Danielle and Lexie picking up stones for the stone pile.

 We will fill the holes using the soil from our potato competition bags, to give the trees a better start.

 We used carpet strips so keep the frost off the new holes so the plants don't suffer root damage.

Roots and Shoots Gold Award

Dingwall Academy will be presented with a Gold Award from the Roots and Shoots charity, founded by Jane Goodall.  DiGGers are proud to have been instrumental in us gaining the award.  Our very own Lewis and Charlotte will travel to London soon to spend a day at London Zoo along with two pupils from the "Waste Not Want Not" elective course.  They have been selected along with just a few groups to do a presentation about what we have achieved in the garden to improve our environment in school, grow our own food and encourage greater biodiversity.

We pledge to continue working to improve the garden and encourage others to enjoy it and learn about plants and how important they are to us!

Red Crisps!

 On Thursday this week, we had a go at turning our Highland Burgundy Red potatoes into crisps.  Actually, we tried 3 different varieties: Golden Wonder and Blue Belle as well.

 We were kindly allowed to use one of the HFT rooms (that's Health & Food Technology).  It was a bit of a rush, but we lit an oven and used potato peelers to take thin strips off the potatoes.

 It was quite tricky to get them just the right thickness.  It was really something of an experiment.

 We brushed a tray each, placed the potato slices, then brushed again with a little olive oil.

 By this time, the oven was hot, so we popped the trays in and cleared all the equipment away.

 As they were cooking, Grigor turned up - just in time to be a taster!

The first tray were a bit on the burnt side!  We ate them though - just plain crisps.  We sprinkled the next trays with salt, and then the next with onion seasoning.

 The slightly thicker slices worked best - one tray was rather thin, and they stuck to the tray!  We had to scrape them off.

We were still scoffing when the bell went, so we quickly gobbled up what was left and everyone headed off to lessons.  Miss Swallow was free, so stayed behind to wash the trays, but a lad from the next HFT class kindly took over after a hint from Mrs MacKenzie!  Thanks for that!  And thanks to Mrs MacKenzie for letting us use her room!

On Wednesday, Miss Swallow unloaded a whole trailer load of bark - thank goodness Danielle arrived to be able to help after she had delivered some potatoes and raffle tickets to staff!

Selling Potatoes, Cutting Turf and Weaving Willow

Another busy week flies by.  Above you can see Danielle weighing out our competition potatoes ("Blue Belle" variety).  We have been selling them to staff to raise funds for the shed roof repairs!  So far, 13kg has raised £26 so it's going well.

 Meanwhile Catriona and new member Cameron dig up our "Highland Burgendy Red" potatoes.  We had a request for 1kg of these, but are keeping a good number of them for our own consumption as we haven't tasted them before!  They are red all the way through.

 Margaret, Catriona's mum came in again to help.  She really has been great with digging turf for the new hedge as well as weeding the raised beds - she's gradually working her way round the garden to catch up on all the summer weeds!

 Here Connorhan, Kyle and Kieran continue preparing for the hedge to be planted.

 On Thursday, Lewis and Catriona spread wood chips round the fruit bushes....

 ...and Cameron wove the willow back into the seat structure to tidy the new growth.  We also gave the top a "haircut" and...

 ...used it to make the edge of a mini border on the steep slope at the bottom of the garden.

We filled it with soil and planted out the iris that Mr Mafarlane brought in before the October break.

Winners Announced! Collecting Bark and Cropping Willow

On Friday of this week, we announced the winners of the Potato Competition - both S2 pupils: Ryan Murray and Finlay Campbell.  Ryan's potato grew the most, and Fin guessed the correct one!  The competition has raised £61 for the Highland Hospice.  We'd like to thank Frank Nicol for hosting it and providing the prize of a £20 voucher.

The announcement was made to the whole school, via the tannoy system...by...our very own Danielle!  She read the message very smoothly, steadily and clearly without any sign of nervousness whatever - well done Danielle, you made us proud!

Meanwhile last Friday, Miss Swallow was up on the roof of the shed, fixing our leak (hopefully).  She patched up the felt and put tar underneath to keep any water out.  

 If this doesn't work, we'll have to buy a new roll of felt - which unfortunately is not cheap, costing just more than we have in our account right now!!  We need to do some fund raising for the club!  Starting next week, we can sell some of our potatoes.  We also have a raised bed to raffle, so need to get it publicised.

 Miss Swallow also visited the local saw mill (just behind the school) where they gave us some chipped bark for free.

 We will use it round the fruit bushes and hedge (when it gets planted) to suppress the weeds.  We may even make some path edging and bark paths for walking on.

 Danielle made an enormous pile of leaves, then the Elective class carried it trug by trug to the leaf mold pile.

 Our two new members Kieran and Callum had a real production line going to transport the bark up to the garden on Wednesday.  They are very hard workers!

On Thursday, we tried an experiment.  We cut back some willow from the overgrown seat, stripped the leaves off the branches and used them to weave an edging for a mini border in order to be able to plant out the iris that Mr MacFarlane brought in before the holidays.  Watch this space for more photos.

Even Mr MacFarlane turned up to get stuck in with the work!  He must have got the date wrong (as he usually turns up for food and parties!  lol)

Catriona's mum came in this week again too, to work away on the hedge border.  She also brought in some fabulous Bamboo Cane plants from her own garden and potted them up for us until we can prepare a spot to put them (and decide on where would be best!)

We also might have a couple more new members in the wings - the garden was a hive of activity on Thursday, with the two potential new members coming to see what it was all about.  Hope to see you again next week!