St. Aubin Youth Transformation Farm Experience

Guess What????
Thanks to all who donated your bags of leaves last spring when the southern live oakes were bombarding us in excess. We were able to raise the main bed another 5" as a result, we're at about 24" from the swamp level back in 1994.
Our "Toot and Scoot" curbside pickup of all your clean leaves for our STYFE students and staff rotertill into our organic vegetable growing machine is needed. We have a goal of 500 bags by onion planting time. Last fall, the goal was 350 that came and went quickly. Our success was from our callers notifying that neighbors and neighborhood's wanted to participate.
Clotile, my trusty gps lady with a voice sexier than my wife.....always got me to da donations.
Contact your favorite STYFE Alumni to help ous out this year. We have a goal of 500 bags this year for our fall sweet onion crop. Last Spring, we were Blessed with a 95% yeild, netting about 300 lbs of onions that you'll have everybody telling you " you put suger in da rice and gravy"??
Help us reach our goal. Sorry, only a 25 mi radius of the STYFE, fuel costs ya know.
Thanks

Pictures of the onions are on this page somewhere, I not a master fb user, not even novice....
Just Sayin'

Waitin' on those bare root succulent strawberry plants to come in, and praying for a mild and late winter so we can again have an abundance of vegtibles to give away......

Sunset at the STYFE

Good Morning from South La.

It's bout dat time again....Preparations are under way for the Fall planting season here at the STYFE. The Strawberry patch is tilled and ready to be covered in pine needles for planting of our new crop. Strawberries make less and less each year, we replace ours every 3 years.
The Okra has passed 12', the guy behind the feed store where I bought the seeds told me these were the seeds Jack used to get to the giant. The bean story is a hoax.

First day of beautiful sun in what seems to be over a month.....Just finished pruning, and harvesting the Okra.
Bout to jump on my trusty steel steed and deliver some of those fresh picked organic vegetables we grow here at the STYFE to those special folks who can no longer garden, but greatly appreciate the freshness..

I think I need a bigger ladder or taller helpers....

Stay Tuned for fall planting....Okra available at this time.
Plenty of weeds, all you want.....

Typical morning at the STYFE. Here these lads are cleanung out the raised beds preparing them for post summer planting.

Somtimes ya got to break it all down after a busy canning season here at the St.Aubin Youth Transformation Farm Experience.

The consensus here was no Emerson Blanding, "Chunky" said the staff at the STYFE....

Here at the St.Aubin Youth Transformation Farm Experience, our students have been slacking off at the NASA youth camp all week. The staff is setting up for another batch of Grandma's Near World Famous tomatoe sauce. This is probably the last batch, according to a close friend of mine, "The 5th Wife is the charm", the 5th batch is going to be the best...

Videos from the onion processing.

Well, the onions we had stored were begining to decay so it was time to call in some more students to assist with processing them tp store in tge freezer. This was the last 40lbs of approximately 300lbs God blessed us with.

The STYFE Pesto 201 course was a huge success. Here the students are shiwing off their final product.
35 4oz and 36 8oz jars ready for the freezer.
We use 25-30 plant trimmings, still have about 70 plants ready for harvesting. Contact a STYFE member if you need any Basil.

Bringing the Basil to the STYFE kitchen after harvesting.

Pre-staging material and supplies for tomorrow's classes. Almost at max capacity for the class.

Our Authentic Cajun Sauce must be worth $10 a jar....

A couple follow on question's from California, "The sauce looks Chunky and Where do our ingredients come from"?
We grow the tomatoes, onions, basil, rosemary oregano, bell peppers and other ingredients here at the St.Aubin Youth Transformation Farm Experience using organic material whenever possible. The picture earlier was pre-emersion blending. Here's a pic after.
Wish I had "Smell-a-Vision.....

Another follower from Florida ask if we were "For Real".
Here's the first 3 batches of sauce in our pantry and 3 batches of pickles from this years harvest.

Special thanks to the team from Cabinets Plus, I overloaded the shelf with this years harvest (Every year if you must know), and the hole in the plywood failed. Thank God, the installer put screws in the oposite corners or our first 2 batches of pickles and sauce would have been lost. Who would of though this simple attention to detail and asking questions about our intended usage would pay hugh dividends years later...Thanks Again.

One of our followers from California asked for a close up of the sauce, here ya go Juan.

God continues to bless us with bountiful harvest here at the St.Aubin Youth Transformation Farm Experience. Our Basil crop of approximately 100 plants are phenomenal.
We are having a basil 101 harvesting and processing course tomorrow beginning at 0930. Following successfully completion of this course we will go into our Pesto preparation and canning 201 course..
Contact one of tge staff for more information.

The staff here at the St.Aubin Youth Transformation Farm Experience started this batch of Grandma's secret recipe tomato sauce before the students arrive this morning. We're going to mandate the students spend rhe night on Friday's so they get full credit for the Tomato harvesting, preparing and canning 101 course.

Well, sorry for the huge gap reporting on today's class activities. This young student in assisting with the transfer of "Grandma's Near World Famous" homegrown tomatoes and vegtables recipe that made the St.Aubin Youth Transformation Farm Experience so popular.

If you live within a 20 mile radius of Lafayette and have extra 1 quart canning jars you are not using, the STYFE would appreciate all donations.
We have the lids and rings, just need more jars.