Welcome!

The garden was once a cement courtyard in a Cambridge public school building, shared by the Martin Luther King Jr. and Amigos schools. In August of 2006, construction began. The cement was lifted out with cranes, and volunteers from both schools wheelbarrowed truckloads of loam into the transforming space.

Today the garden is a vibrant outdoor classroom that directly supports teachers' curriculum. During volunteer drop-ins, students and their families share in garden maintenance, overseeing the entire growing cycle from seed to compost.

Thank you for your interest!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Looking back on apple pressing

October was a month of non-stop apple pressing in the school gardens. Classes came out to learn how to make their own apple cider.



To make the apple cider, we used a fruit press. Fruit and cider presses separate fruit solids, such as the skin and seeds, from the fruit juice.

While apple juice is filtered, unfiltered apple juice is called apple cider.





Making cider

1. The first step involved cutting the apples and removing the apple cores.

2. Next, the apples were passed through an apple grinder. This step compresses the apples so that the juice is easier to extract from the solids.

3. The crushed apples were pressed in a cider press. This involved placing the fruit in the juicing cage, laying wooden blocks on top of the apples, and turning the silver ratchet handle to extract the juice.

4. The juice funnels into a the container at the bottom of the press, and we enjoyed the most important step of the process: drinking the cider! It was wonderful to enjoy this 100% fresh and natural apple cider, without any added sugar or preservatives! Read more about the nutritional difference between juice and fruit drinks.

Thanks to Annabelle Ho :)