Club Day. The Nature Version.

I had an epiphany almost immediately after our last Nature Club meeting.  As it turned out, as the week came to an end, I could see ahead to the weekend.  And the weekend was to bring "Seedy Saturday", a local event for gardeners to get together, swap seeds saved from last year's garden, or peruse the offerings of heirloom or organic seed from local vendors.  Somehow, wires must have crossed in my brain, and I thought that an epic trek through a season of gardening would be something the Club could do all summer. 

It seemed perfect.  Not much prep work on my part - meetings would kick off with a story or poem, followed by observing our garden plot, weeding, watering, and generally enjoying the great outdoors.  Diving into the deep recesses of my memory brought back the idea of creating a pizza garden, from Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots.  While our garden would not be a massive, circular, pizza-shaped plot, one of our raised beds would hold the essentials for a nicely dressed pizza. 

Today's meeting focussed on getting some ideas of what the children liked for pizza toppings.  I was silently dreading that the only emphatic responses would be ham and pineapple, which I had no intention of trying to grow in my backyard!  Fortunately, the group came up with a pretty impressive list:

  ~ Peppers
  ~ Tomatoes
  ~ Carrots
  ~ Zucchini
  ~ Peas
  ~ Basil
  ~ Mint
  ~ Garlic
  ~ Onion
  ~ Cucumber (for on the side)

We also talked a bit about a pizza with an enormous amount of cheese.  And again, while it would be neat to have a cow in the backyard, it's illegal.  But, it got me thinking of a session where we make our own mozzarella cheese.  Hmmm....that could be interesting.  I'll need to look into that.

We finished off our reverie of all things pizza and garden by starting some seeds.  Today, we planted onions and the Club will care for them when they are here.  We agreed I should look after them when they aren't here (of course!).  We also planted some herbs in empty eggshells and origami newspaper cups (project idea from Alphabet Glue) that the clubbers could take home.

I'm looking forward to a yummy summer wrap-up party!