Telegraphing our Thrillingly Tasty Tomato Tally for 2019!

🍅  🐝🌱🐛🐞🍅  🐝🌱🐛🐞🍅  🐝🌱🐛🐞🍅  🐝🌱🐛

Remember Snowmageddon?  Our tasty tomato talent search began during the depth of the snowstorm!

Hmm which tomatoes is she going to plant this year?

Many of the following 65 varieties were started indoors while the snow piled up outside.  Most are Heirloom varieties, with the exception of Sungold our only hybrid. Can you see the snow outside?

Uh Oh!  Someone left a shovel out in the snow!!! :(

Heirlooms are famous for their flavor and their fantastic variations in shape, size, color, and interior and exterior patterns.  Many of our students have never seen tomatoes like these before!

Here is our tantalizing tally of tomatoes already started or on order this year! (names in quotations are names I created when I lost the plant tags--we save seed every year!)

• Amish paste  
• "Big Monster"
• Big Rainbow  
• Black from Tula  
• Black Krim  
• Black Prince  
• Black Sea Man  
• Black Zebra  
• "Broad Paste"  
• Bumblebee cherry red w/ green stripes 
• Bumblebee cherry red w/ yellow stripes 
• Bumblebee cherry yellow w/ red stripes  
• Caspian Pink  
• Cherokee Purple  
• Chocolate Cherry  
• Chocolate Pear  
• Cuore de Bue  (ginormous!)  
• Cuore De Toro  
• Dester  
• Federer  
• Giant Belgium  
• Hillbilly  
• Honey Drop Cherry  
• Indigo Blue Beauty 
• Indigo Cherry Drops  
• Indigo Pear Drops  
• Indigo Rose  
• Japanese Trifele Black  
• Jaune Flamme  
• Kellogg’s Breakfast   
• "Long Pointy" 
• "Long Striped"  
• Mariana’s Peace  
• Martina’s Roma 
• Mortgage Lifter   
• "Mystery A, B, and C"  
• Nebraska Wedding  
• Old German  
• Opalka 
• Paul Robeson  
• Peacevine Cherry  
• Pineapple Hawiian 
• Pink Berkeley Tie Dye  
• Pink Brandywine  
• Polish Giant   
• Principe De Borghese Determinate 
• Red pear 
• Red Zebra 
• Ripley’s Believe It or Not  
• San Marzano  
• Snow Cherry  
• Speckled Roma 
• Striped German 
• "Striped Paste"  
• Sungold  
• Ten fingers of Naples  
• Thessaloniki Tomato  
• Tiger Mix  
• "Triplet Huge Paste"  
• Uncle Wilfred  
• Vintage Wine 
• Wild Boar Beauty King  
• Wild Boar Mint Julep  
• Wild Boar Solar Flare 
• Yellow pear 

Can you spot the fluffy seed of a very nasty invasive plant called Canadian Thistle?  It blew in on the wind and landed in our tomato patch! (Hint...it is resting on top of one of the yellow tomatoes and is trying very hard not to be noticed!  Need another hint? It is resting on top of the yellow tomato just under the red tomato.) 😊

Want to learn more about tomatoes?  Check out these interesting websites!

Tomato Facts For Kids
https://www.natgeokids.com/za/discover/science/nature/ten-top-tomato-facts/
http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/food/tomatoes.html

Tomato Growing Info
https://www.craiglehoullier.com/
https://www.growingagreenerworld.com/?s=tomatoes
https://www.tomatofest.com/organic_heirloom_tomato_seeds_videos_s/102.htm

🐞🍅  🐝🌱🐛🐞🍅  🐝🌱🐞🍅  🐝🌱🐛🐞🍅  🐝🌱

 

Who we are and what we do! :)

Once upon a time, our former PTA President, Alexis Derry, told me about the Washington State Potato Commission Grant to fund school gardens--the rest is history!

Kapowsin’s Garden is a magical place where

kids take turns volunteering during recess

in order to grow food and flowers

for those in need while learning about

working together for the common good!  

We are in our 9th year!  Hundreds of students

have helped build this thriving

garden of “eatin” ;)

from

a once forgotten area

to a now

thriving source of

beauty and bounty!

We grow organic veggies, apples, pears, plums,

peaches, grapes, berries, figs,

and kiwis

tucked amidst a

forest of flowers and a

plethora of pollinator friendly plantings!

We even brew our own fertilizer from Comfrey

—stinky but with spectacular results!

Hundreds of pounds of produce are shared with:

Harvest House Food Pantry
Families in need
Students

Did you know tomatoes are really a fruit? ❓❗

You can even grow and eat your own flying saucers! 😮

From Kapowsin PTA Giving Garden and Fruit Forest to Harvest House Food Pantry with 💕

Fresh Organic Apples!

Eat a rainbow! 😊

Can you spot the cucumber?  Hint:  It's not green, is sort of round shaped, has a thin stem, looks a bit prickly, and is kind of small. (Give up?  See the end of the blog for the answer.)

Purplelicious!
(not a real word...)

Tomatoes anyone?

Fruit and flowers for Harvest House!

Did you know that Rhubarb leaves are poisonous but the stalks are edible if cooked?

Fried green tomatoes anyone? Green tomato salsa? Green tomato pie?

Are those blue things tomatoes?!? Answer:  Yes!! :)

Look out Harvest House, here we come...

These grapes came from one plant that has been growing in a very large pot (but the roots have probably broken free into the ground)

Chives taste like onions and the bumblebees love their flowers. 🐝

Who needs candy when you have garden ripened tomatoes?

Apples that were thinned from the trees make good applesauce.

Our student gardeners helped clear the land

Where is that shovel anyways?!?

Oh Boy!  Mom is going to love this!😉

sift the soil

fill in the beds









haul poles for bean tee pees



plant

Pole Beans

Peas!

weed


water

a little

or a lot!

mulch

compost

and most fun of all...HARVEST!

Valuable lessons are learned while we garden such as how to::

respect each other and our environment
be kind and inclusive
solve problems peacefully
work cooperatively
manage stress and other feelings

New friends can be found in this exciting process

along with a sense of pride, purpose,

self confidence and most importantly

a feeling of belonging.

Adult Volunteers always welcome,

as are donations to help keep us growing!

Our Spring dahlia tuber and plant sale,
along with grants and donations,
fund our vibrantly verdant adventure!

Come Grow With Us! :)

 

PS.  ** Answer to the question "Can you find the cucumber?"

The cucumber is the pale yellow semi round shaped object just to the right of the light green patty pan (flying saucer shaped) squash.  It is called a lemon cucumber and they are really good! :)