Our Square Foot Garden

In an effort for to take another step towards being healthier and going green (ecologically friendly) we started our own version of Square Foot Gardens last year. This year we still continue to enjoy reaping the benefits!!

We turned this into a wonderful school project! The children were responsible for completing a sun gride for each box from Spring until Fall. They also researched 'companion plants' and plotted their gardens on paper before we planted the seeds. Even though it was real sad that gummy stem rot attacked and destroyed Aravis's pumpkin plant it was a great learning experience!

While the plants grew they had to research visitors (good and bad) and find natural methods of repelling those critters that were not welcomed. It was a lot of work but SOOOO rewarding.

Ancient Israel Locusts for Tea-time?

Today for our History project we made an adaptation of Locust cookies. Apparently locusts were a staple back in Ancient times. Originally we had a recipe for locust biscuits which we were planning on baking until late last night I found this recipe over at Crafty In Coffeeland. After finishing our map-work today we made a quick inventory of the pantry and refrigerator shelves and created our own adaptations for today's tea-time. They turned out very crunchy and yummy!!!

Here is our adaptation:

2 cups freshly ground White Rice Flour
1 cup Tapioca
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup sucranat
1 stick cold butter-grated
3/4 cup buttermilk with 1tsp vanilla.

Mix all dry ingredients thoroughly. Then mix in the butter until crumbly. Then mix in buttermilk and vanilla mixture until a soft ball of dough forms.

Then the kids made small balls of dough and patted them into oval shapes onto greased cookie sheets. Then they added almond slices to make the cookies crunchy. Feel free to be more creative with raisins etc...

Preheat oven to 400. Bake about 12 minutes until golden brown.