Pumpkin Competition Winner and a RoWAN Waste Audit

This week, we are pleased to announce the winner of the Lewis MacKenzie Trophy.  Our primary school cluster were invited to grow pumpkins this year and Strathpeffer Primary School came out top with the largest, measuring in at...wait for it...18 cm circumference (!)  Admittedly not the largest pumpkin ever, but it has been a challenging season for growing them with a wet spring and dry summer!  So well done to pupils at Strathpeffer.  We hope all our primary schools have enjoyed planting the seeds and growing the pumpkins and that you will look forward to next year's competition (whatever that will be!)

 Meanwhile back in our garden it was time to harvest our own pumpkins.  The plants have been frosted now and died back so we needed to collect the fruits...

 ...no enormous ones either, but enough to chop up and turn into pumpkin pie for our Christmas dinner (I'm sure it will keep in the freezer for a few weeks).

 Also this week, Toni and Norman from Rosshire Waste Action Network came in to run a Waste Audit.  They collected all food waste and rubbish from the canteen bins at lunch time for three days and weighed it.  DiGGers were there to help.  You can see the RIDAN above - a bit smelly with the lid off, but it's lovely and hot in there and making good compost from...

 ...food waste and...

sawdust.

Helping to weigh all the bags.  Thanks to Danielle, Connorhan and Carrie for coming along.  These results will be compared with a previous audit to see if we are now wasting less - let's hope there has been progress!

 Also this week, we made slight progress with our new compost bay by ensuring the first post was secured in an upright position.  Here we are using a spirit level to check it is not sloping as Carrie knocks it in.

 Other news: the IDL (Interdisciplinary Learning) class cut back the runner bean plants and we have started to collect the seeds to store for sowing next year.  (Notice also the beans are sitting on a list - al the jobs we want to get done before the winter sets in!)

 We also have a lovely seed head from the garlic - we could collect the seeds, but thought we might dry it out and use it for a centrepiece on our Christmas Dinner table!

 The fruit garden has now had all trees pruned.  Here you can see before...

...and after.  Some of the pruning seemed quite drastic but it will allow the branches to thicken up next year as they grow again.  Next we need to feed and mulch them ready for the winter ahead.