November 6 - Beginning and Ending

We have finally accepted that our outdoor growing season has officially ended, especially with the layer of snow currently covering our garden.  We still have a couple beds we need to put to rest, though.  That work will continue this week.  Raking is also a job that can still be done in the garden.

But, as some things come to an end, others begin!  This week we filled the terrariums in the Grow Room with soil in preparation for the indoor growing season.  We also have a few hardy plants surviving in our greenhouse, even though it does not yet have a door!  It's great to know that growing can continue year-round here at All Peoples.

Other groups busied themselves with the traditional indoor cleaning jobs, and did a great job!  It won't be long before we have to clean out the box corral again.    

And we were able to cook one last recipe with the produce from the garden!  We saved a whole bunch of green tomatoes from the garden just before the first frost.  They were put to good use in a salsa that had quite a kick to it!    

October 30 - Dia de los Muertos

This week was extra crazy as we experimented with stations for the first time!  Rather than having one task for each group, we had 5 tasks for each group and rotated them.  This week we had two special projects and we wanted to make sure everyone got a chance to help out.  The first project was making art for the greenhouse door.  The door is specially designed to be able to display paintings and drawings, and we want to be ready for when it is completed.  Stop by sometime soon to take a look!

The second special project was decorating the sanctuary for Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.  This holiday, which originated in Mexico, commemorates friends and family members who have passed away.  Relatives gather on this day to honor the deceased by building ofrendas, or private altars, and decorating them with pictures, flowers, candy skulls, and food.  We decorated the church with these things and more. 

The other stations included work like putting stamps and addresses on the soon-to-be-mailed newsletter, recycling our abundance of cardboard, setting up for Wednesday Night Alive, cleaning the nursery, and several other important tasks.  

October 23 - Dirty Jobs

This week, KWTS got down and dirty – in the garden, that is!  We haven’t been taking good care of our compost, so Wednesday was the day to fix it.  That meant raking out a lot of the food scraps, rotting plants, and other decomposing things so we could put them back in the correct ratios.

We also recently heard that catfish guts buried in a garden make a wonderful fertilizer for tomatoes.  Luckily, Ms. Susan found someone willing to give us some catfish, so we decided to try it!  This is probably one of the grossest jobs that KWTS has ever tackled.  You’ll have to look at our garden next summer to see if it was worth it!

Because it was pretty cold outside, we also had a variety of indoor tasks so that no one was outside for more than an hour.  We cleaned up the sanctuary, cleaned and sanitized the nursery, broke down some boxes, and even organized the KWTS supply closet! 

Check back next week to see the kids do some more messy tasks!  (spoiler alert: there’s paint involved)   

October 16 - Treat-or-Treat

Wednesday was the day of kitchen chaos!  The kids from KWTS were responsible for cooking five (that’s right, five!) dishes for the evening meal!  We had a large crew in the church kitchen preparing chili, pasta and pasta sauce, coleslaw, and mashed potatoes, while another crew was in the ministry house preparing bread pudding.  Each dish had an unexpected delicious ingredient from our garden.  We’ve included some of the recipes below so you can try them yourselves!  These dishes are great if you’re trying to eat more vegetables and especially if you’re trying to sneak healthy food into your kids’ meals.  Here’s a few pictures of the cooking activity:

We also tried to get some of the last harvest from the garden.  There’s not a whole lot left, but we’re making sure we water and weed the plants that are still hanging on.  We are also starting to prepare the greenhouse so that when the growing season is officially over, we can still learn about gardening!

An inside crew set up for Wednesday Night Alive, had a lot of fun braking down some boxes, and cleaned up the sanctuary.

And finally, here are two of the Treat-or-Treat recipes; we hope you enjoy them as much as we did!

Zucchini Slaw - KWTS Original!

6-8 Zucchini or KWTS 1 really huge Zucchini ( big is better texture!) grated
4-6 carrots grated or chopped thin in circles
1 onion chopped fine (optional)
3 garlic crushed (ask KWTS cooks how to crush it with the side of the knife!!)
2 tablespoons Vinegar
Ranch to taste
1/2 teaspoon Dill
Shred and chop all the above and toss in large bowl.
Add vinegar & ranch dressing to taste.
Finally mix in dill! Toss & refrigerate for 20-30 minutes.
Serve.

Bread Pudding

1/2 stick butter or margarine (soft)
12 slices of bread
3 cups whole milk (can use old sour milk)
4 eggs & 2 yolks whipped to frothy
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar or 2  brown bananas Or 1/3 cup apple sauce
1 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 bag of marshmallows (optional)
1 cup raisins (optional)
Dry bread out if fresh (old dry bread is best)!
Break up bread in bowl in 1 inch round chunks.
Mix melted butter, milk, eggs, sugar, banana if used, vanilla & cinnamon in bowl. Beat for 3 minutes.
Pour over bread in bowl and toss mixture. Add raisins & marshmallows if used and toss again.
Pam spray 10 x 12 pan and pour mixture into pan. Pat down so resembles dough and not bread.
Place pan in larger pan that has 1 inch of water. This is called a water bath and keeps the pudding from drying out especially on the edges.
Bake at 375 for 1 hour.
Top with Caramel sauce, chocolate syrup, frosting drizzle (thin store frosting) , cinnamon sugar or milk!
Finally - If you are short on some items just adjust: no banana or more banana, half milk and water!
And the best way to mix up the pudding is to wash your hands and dive in and squish!
This is a KWTS favorite to make and eat!

October 9 - Welcoming Guests

Today we had several different guests visit KWTS!  The first was Tim from Thrivent who gave a presentation about money management.  Part of KWTS is learning about Christian stewardship and financial responsibility.  We promote the concept of 10-10-80.  For kids, 10% of the money they earn should be tithed to the church.  They learn that because God has given to them, they should give back to the church.  Another 10% is available as spending money.  The last 80% should be saved, either in a financial institution or at home.  This money can be used in the future for school fees, fun outings with friends, or even for college.  Tim helped promote these categories by giving out piggy banks from Thrivent with three categories: spend, save, and share. 

The second group of guests were students from UW-Milwaukee filming a documentary!  They were here during the church work day and wanted to learn more about our community garden.  Check back in the future for more information about their film. 

It was a great day for them to join us because we had an abundant harvest, despite the fact that the growing season is almost over.  We were able to get a lot of green tomatoes, ripe cherry and pear tomatoes, and even a few cantaloupe. 

We don’t have any recipes to share with you this week because we’re saving all the great food for next week!  Look back this Thursday for all of our Treat-or-Treat recipes: food that has an unexpected, yet delicious secret ingredient.    

October 2 - Moving toward Fall

This week we started the transition from summer to fall as we prepared a room upstairs for indoor gardening.  But the growing season’s not over yet!  We cleared half a bed in the garden and put in some snow peas in hopes that we might still see new vegetables.  Other garden work included watering, weeding, and harvesting our tomatoes and beans. 

Two other groups were hard at work making our building look better.  One group did some weeding and raking by the parking lot…

…while another was hard at work on the sidewalk!

One group went above and beyond.  They worked in the Grow Room on the third floor, cleaning out the terrariums and hauling the dirt out to the garden.  It was a messy job, but someone had to do it!  And don't worry, the floor is no longer covered in dirt.  

Additional projects include organizing the nursery, picking up trash in the neighborhood, and moving brush to a pile in the parking lot.  It was a great work day!

September 25 - Salsa!

Yesterday was an extremely productive work day!  Thanks to the hard work of our youth, we were able to get a lot done.  Here’s just a few of our accomplishments:

·         Picked up trash in the garden
·         Mopped the nursery floor and cleaned all of the toys
·         Folded and put labels on the newsletters
·         Prepared terrariums for this winter
·         Cleaned windows and mirrors
·         Cooked salsa and bread pudding

We don’t have a bread pudding recipe to share with you today, but look for it in the near future.  Believe me, you don’t want to miss it!  In the mean time, have a look at our salsa recipe and try it for yourself.  We had plenty of rave reviews at Wednesday Night Alive.  And, as even better evidence of the salsa’s deliciousness, almost all of it was gone by the end of the night!

The best part about salsa is that it’s so adaptable.  If you only have a few of the ingredients or even a few extra, you can throw what you have together and viola!  Salsa!  We included a recipe for those who need something exact to follow, but feel free to experiment.  I know we certainly did! 

Yield: Makes About 3 Cups

Ingredients:

4 tomatoes, seeds removed, diced

1/4 cup chopped onion

2 tablespoons lime juice

1 tablespoon fresh chopped cilantro

1/2 cup corn kernels, cooked

1/2 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained

1 tablespoon finely chopped jalapeno pepper

salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preparation:

Combine tomatoes, onion, lime juice, cilantro, corn, beans, and jalapeno in a bowl; toss to blend. Add salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate until serving time.

We hope you enjoy making your own salsa and hearing updates about KWTS.  Remember to join us on Wednesdays from 6 to 8 for Wednesday Night Alive to get a firsthand account of everything we’re up to! 

Welcome!

Welcome to the brand-new KWTS blog!  Please be patient as we get this project off the ground, but regular posts should be coming soon.  Expect to see updates of the work we completed, photos, recipes, and thoughts from youth.  If there’s anything you’d like us to add, let us know in the comments section.  Thanks!

-the KWTS blog team