A Meeting of Montessori Minds

Mountain Laurel Montessori (Virginia) students and faculty were delighted to host 

Metro Montessori (Oregon) last week. 

We worked together on the farm building a new sheep shelter, weeding the hoophouse, mulching the flower beds, preparing lunches and dinners, and repairing the electric fence around the  bees. 

Many hands make quick work of weeds in the hoophouse

We also played some great soccer games, made music together, and exchanged ideas about current events. 

Preparing food together

It was a great meeting of the minds for both students and faculty.

Fearless Leaders

Thank you to Metro for your visit!

We officially apologize for the rainy weather and leaky tents. 

Next time you visit, we'll schedule a sunny day.

Hoophouse before the windstorm February 2012

We were just ready to harvest early spinach, lettuce, and radishes when we had a big windstorm that destroyed the plastic on the hoophouse.

Students water the plants daily

Chard

Lettuce

Plant's eye view

Radishes! We ate some for dinner on an overnight recently - yum!

The good news is that within 1 week we had ordered new plastic, repaired the damage, and added new anti-billowing straps to keep the wind from damaging the new plastic. 1 week after that, we had 60 mile per hour winds and the hoophouse came through it just fine! We're replanting now.

The bad news is that all of that fresh produce we grew for the Food Pantry was frozen when the plastic was damaged.

First Hoophouse harvest!

Our first Hoophouse for the Hungry harvest is in!

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School students have planted cool season plants, and have already harvested spinach and kale. The garden chore group has taken on seeding, transplanting, and daily watering.  

We took our first harvest to the Rappahannock Food Pantry and helped unload a bread delivery while we were there.

Thanks Mimi for your leadership at the Food Pantry!

Plastic Goes Up On the Hoophouse!

There may have been snow and ice on the ground in the morning, but by the afternoon it was 80 degrees inside the hoophouse!  Eric Plaksin, co-owner of Waterpenny Farm, volunteered his day to teach us how to put the plastic on the hoophouse.  

The first step - getting the plastic up

Ron Makela, owner of Yellow Brick Road Construction, 

has spent countless hours volunteering his time to build the structure.  

Working together to pull the plastic up and over

Thank you to both Eric and Ron 
for your time, energy, and patience!! 

Securing the plastic with "Wiggle Wire"

The Hoophouse For The Hungry is a joint project between Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School and Plant-A-Row-For-The Hungry (Rappahannock Food Pantry).  Hal Hunter generously donated the hoop structure, and has helped coordinate community volunteers.  

Eric teaching how to add the "wiggle wire" to the bottom 

 We will raise fresh, healthy food year-round to be eaten by students at Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School, and to be donated to the Rappahannock Food Pantry.

Helping out

The idea is simple and makes a meaningful impact: plant an extra row in your garden to give to those in need who might not otherwise have access to fresh vegetables.  

Trimming the plastic

 If you are a gardener and want to "Plant A Row For the Hungry" go here for more information:

Plant A Row: http://www.gardenwriters.org/gwa.php?p=par/index.html 

Plant A Row Rappahannock County, VA:
http://plantarow.rappahannock.com/

Trimming the plastic and getting ready to staple and add the furring strips

MLK Jr. Day 2011:"Everybody can be great because anybody can serve"

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School students and faculty honored the 25th anniversary of the Federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by helping in their community.  They visited senior citizens in two Front Royal nursing homes.  Together, the adolescents and seniors made collages, played games, and spent time telling stories about their lives.  We hope to make this a regular event throughout the year.


"Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love". 
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.


For more information on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and community service, visit the Corporation for National and Community Service: http://mlkday.gov/

We All Pitch In To Make the Playground Safer

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School students joined in with parents and teachers this fall to make the playground safer for our youngest students. Together we moved and spread 9,000 pounds of rubber mulch to our playground at the Front Royal campus. Our Toddler (ages 16 months to 3 years) and Primary (ages 3-6) students use the playground every day and will be much happier now.

 It was wonderful to see the faces of our youngest students watching with fascination as the "big kids" worked, and to have an opportunity for our adolescent students to give back to the campus that nurtured them from the time they were toddlers and on through elementary.

One of the unique aspects of Mountain Laurel Montessori is the strong community that nurtures children through the whole continuum of childhood, from birth through 9th grade.

Hoophouse for the Hungry - Students Work Together to Make Fresh Food a Reality

Filling the raised beds with topsoil

Students from Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School and Rappahannock Public Schools' Farm-To-Table program worked together last week to move a mountain of topsoil and gravel into the Hoophouse for the Hungry.

Connecting the hoops

The Hoophouse will be used to grow fresh, nutritious, produce for Rappahannock Food Pantry clients during colder months of the year.  It will also be used to grow plant starts in the spring so local residents will be able to start their own gardens.

Raking the topsoil smooth

The Hoophouse for the Hungry is a wonderful intergenerational community project bringing together middle school students; Master Gardeners; professional builders, landscapers, gardeners and chefs; and community volunteers.

A True Community

This morning at Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm school 15 children and youth (current students, incoming students, graduates, and siblings), 2 parents, and 2 staff members gathered for community work.  Community work is a weekly event - students, siblings, parents, staff members, and neighbors gather voluntarily, taking time out of their summer vacations, to work together at the Farm School.

While we worked very hard moving our chickens to fresh pasture, weeding the garden, mowing paths, turning the compost, and cleaning the beekeeping equipment, it was truly joyful work because we worked together as a community.

Building community is hard work and a long term process.  It takes dedication by all included.  Joyful days like today remind us what good work it is.

Adolescents Mentor Younger Children

Farm School students mentor younger children during community work. 

The pigs helped out too.

MLK Day: A Day of Service

“Life's most persistent and urgent question is,

'What are you doing for others?'”

- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

On January 18th, the Farm School Community celebrated the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by doing service for those in need in our wider community.

One group cleaned up the grounds and garden of the Fauquier Family Shelter in Warrenton. The work inspired some of the students to suggest bringing vegetable seedlings grown by Farm School students to the Shelter's garden in the spring.

Another group helped to organize and price donated goods at the Fauquier Food Bank's Thrift Store. This group also enjoyed the work, and appreciated the element of recycling while also helping those who need access to lower cost household items and clothing.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is often quoted as having said: "Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education." Setting aside time to recognize the needs of others around us, and to lend a hand to those in need, builds character.

The Farm School students returned from their service projects on Monday filled with optimism.

"Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love." - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Students and Sheep Star in Shepherd's Play

Two Farm School students acted in The Shepherd's Play in December. The Shepherd's Play is a local tradition in Washington, Virginia ("Little Washington"). One of the sheep had a surprise cameo as well!

Hoophouse for the Hungry

Montessori Farm School students will be able to grow food for those who need it most during the winter months.

Thanks to a generous donation from a Rappahannock citizen, Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School is working with Plant-A-Row for the Hungry and the Rappahannock Food Bank to move a 70 foot long hoophouse to the Farm School.

The students will grow cold-hardy vegetables during the winter months. These will be donated to the Food Pantry so those in need will have access to fresh produce year-round. They will also be able to start vegetable plants in the spring that will help Food Bank patrons grow their own gardens.

Pictured here, the students take the first step - measuring the dimensions of the greenhouse in order to plan for the space and order new plastic covering.

Digging out from the snowstorm

Good will abounded as students, parents, teachers, and neighbors came back to school on the first day of winter vacation to help dig paths to the animals.

Two feet of snow fell during the weekend before Christmas 2009 in the biggest December snow storm ever in Flint Hill, Virginia.

Volunteers dug paths to the pigs, sheep, and chickens, and made sure all were warm and had access to fresh water and food.

It was a wonderful demonstration of the dedication of the Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School Community.

Holidays are a time for appreciating and enjoying family, and at Mountain Laurel Montessori we really value ours.

Saving the Basil from the Frost

We harvested the rest of the basil on Friday and are proccesing it into pesto to be frozen for the winter. It will be wonderful to have something to eat from the garden when there is snow on the ground outside!

The basil crop did very well this year. It germinated better, grew better, and has continued to grow longer into the Fall than we expected. This explains the huge piles here in our final harvest. The de-stemming was a whole community effort.

Grapes make great community service

Grape vineyards and wineries are integral parts of the landscape and culture of the Blue Ridge.

Farm School students learned about this aspect of our local agriculture up close this week when they picked Chambourcin grapes at Narmada Vineyards in Amissville.

The group picked over 3 tons of grapes!

Many thanks to Pandit Patil and Rob Cox for the opportunity.

No school today? No way!

Friday was technically a holiday. Students and teachers did not have to go to school. So what did we do? We went to school anyway! Students, younger siblings, teachers, and parents gathered at the Farm School to do community work.

In the morning, we built greenhouses to cover the raised beds, worked on the portable chicken house ("chicken tractor"), dug the hole and began to build the walls for the primitive pit fire (in which we will fire our clay pots), unloaded hay, and reorganized the Farmer's Market materials. In the afternoon, we ate lunch and played soccer.

It was a wonderful day. I was touched by the willingness of so many in the school community to volunteer their time and talents when they could have been sleeping in. The students have such ownership of the Farm School that they love to be there working together to get things done. It is a joy to work with these young people.

-Susan, Farm School Director

Plant-A-Row for the Hungry

Throughout the summer, Farm School students have donated their extra produce to the Plant-A-Row for the Hungry program, part of the Rappahannock Food Pantry. It is amazing to walk in to the Food Pantry and see a wall of fresh produce; many of the Pantry's clients would not have access to fresh food if it weren't for the generosity of local gardeners and farmers.

Visit the Plant-A-Row website to see Allie's photos (Allie is a 9th year student at Mountain Laurel) and to learn more about this great organization: http://plantarow.rappahannock.com/gallery?album=8