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!

More potatoes to weigh out

 On Wednesday this week, Connorhan mixed the compost heap whilst new members Kieran and Callum continued to weigh out the competition potatoes.  It was also Kieran's birthday - so happy birthday to him!

 On Thursday, Danielle cut the sunflower heads so we can dry them in the shed and make fat balls for the birds with the seeds later.

 She then started the mammoth task of raking leaves for the leaf mold pile!

 We now have a potato plant winner - number 11 had looked for a long time as though it would win at a weight of 1070g but at the last moment, it got overtaken by number 19 weighing in at a whopping 1380g!
Watch this space next week to see who the plant was adopted by, and the result of who guessed the correct plant (and gets drawn out of the hat) to win the £20 voucher.

Autumnal Scenes and Wintry Weather!

 Pupils returned on Wednesday of last week.  We met this week and have lots of jobs to do!  As you can see, the garden is looking very autumnal.

 Sunflowers still welcome guests as they enter the garden.

 Lots of leaves to rake up!

 Also, lots of plants to cut back and compost now.  It was very cold this week - and windy on Thursday which felt even colder.  In fact, it snowed too on Friday!!

Connorhan wastes no time gathering the leaves for our leaf mold pile.

  Two new members joined us this week - first years called Kieran and Callum.  They got cracking with the competition potatoes, weighing them out and recording the results.

We have 12 to go in order to find a winner but as you can see, number 6 is the most so far producing 750g.

Garden Update: Wildlife habitat and lots of seeds

 Activity has been minimal for the last four weeks, as Miss Swallow has been off ill!  This has given the wasps a chance to die off, so their nest is no longer a problem!  This week, the competition potatoes were collected from Frank Nicol's and the Greenhouse community shop.  We now need to weigh out the produce from each one, to find a winner.  This will keep us busy after we return from our October break (two weeks, starting tomorrow).

 The sunflowers are looking good and generally the garden is in pretty good shape considering nothing much has been done since June!

 The teasels look wonderfully structural now they have gone to seed.

 Even this hanging basket looked after itself - with some help from the rain!

 There are way too many "Jersey Kale" seeds for us to collect though we will do our best!

 Some Lupins are still in flower though most have gone to seed - again, we are collecting as many as possible.

 The wild flower seeds are also giving an excellent show! The mixture contains: Cornflowers (blue),  Corn Cockle (purple), Corn Chamomile (white/yellow), Corn Marigold (yellow) and Corn Poppy (red).

 Today, we sat for fifteen minutes to watch the insects visiting them.  We were completing a survey for "buglife" to help the Royal Horticultural Society build information about which flowers are best for attracting pollinating insects.

There aren't any butterflies, bees or wasps about now, but we saw loads of hover flies and other flies of all sizes - they preferred the Corn Chamomile and Corn Marigold.

 Our garlic has gone to seed - the heads are architectural marvels!  Not sure if that affects the garlic - we'll dig it up after the break, as we love our garlic bread!

 The strawberries have grown runners that have rooted into the soil - new plants for next year!

 Hopefully, bugs and insects will be finding a nice home here for the winter.

 In November, we will be planting hedge-row plants along the side of the wild flowers - this will make more wildlife friendly habitat in future.

 Seeds drying in the shed