Turnip Time!

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School students grew turnips from seed and are reaping the fruits of their labor this November.

Farm School students have the option to become managers of an area of the farm in their 9th grade year. The 9th grade Garden Manager and one of her current garden crew members came in from the garden with a basket full of freshly dug turnips this week asking "can we please cook them up for people for lunch?!?" We were happy to oblige.

They used a cookbook recently donated by a parent, "From Asparagus to Zucchini: A Guide to Cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce" to learn about preparing and cooking turnips.

They then peeled, chopped, sauteed and baked the white and pink roots and shared them with all of the students and faculty members.  We compared the taste of those sauteed vs. baked and salted vs. unsalted.

The initiative and follow-through demonstrated by these 12 and 14 year old girls is characteristic of the Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School. Such amazing young people!

Backpacking the Massanutten

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School students backpacked 22 miles in the Signal Knob area of the Massanutten Range in VA.

In addition to helping each other to accomplish a physical challenge, the students learned many other skills.

Here, they learn how to light a one match fire: 

Brandon McCrary of Weasel Creek Outfitters taught us about the geology and the Civil War history of the area:

Students also enjoyed the plants and animals of the mountains:

Harnessing the Sun's Energy

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School students made solar ovens from simple materials: cardboard, aluminum foil, plastic, and black paper.  They applied their knowledge of the properties of heat and light in their designs.  We hope to really get cooking by June!

The solar ovens were part of the Solar Energy Occupation Project (project-based science class focused on the physics of energy).  This project helped us to prepare for the installation and use of the new greenhouse.

Proud of our Heritage

Here at Mountain Laurel Montessori we are proud to be raising heritage pigs.


Our pigs are Tamworths, one of the oldest known breeds. They are listed as threatened by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.

Heritage breeds are important because they help preserve the genetic diversity of our livestock. They tend to be hearty, withstand disease, and are often better suited to being raised on pasture.

Our Tamworths are happily soaking in all of the belly-rubs offered by the students and eating vegetable scraps from both of our campuses and a local restaurant.

Food, Inc. Makes an Impression

Farm School students, faculty, and parents attended a showing of the film Food, Inc. in Warrenton, VA with a follow-up Question and Answer session with Joel Salatin. The film made quite an impression.

At breakfast and lunch the next day, there was a lot of talk about food choices and analysis of where the ingredients for our meals were grown.

While the movie painted some pretty dire problems in the US food system, the students noted that they were proud to be a part of the solution - raising our own pigs for pork, chickens for eggs, and garden for fresh and healthy vegetables and herbs using sustainable farming practices.

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.

Rappahannock County Farm Tour

Come visit the Farm School during the 1st annual Rappahannock County Farm Tour Weekend: September 26th-27th.
Students will be giving tours, you can join us in planting garlic in the garden, or learn to spin wool into yarn or felt it. We'll be serving up pork BBQ from our own school-grown pigs and many yummy side dishes, all cooked by the students and teachers. And, you can pet the sheep, hold a chicken, gather eggs, and generally spend a nice day on the farm.
For more info: http://farmtour.visitrappahannockva.com/index.html