SuRu’s Blog
A treasure trove of great information on a wide range of topics. You’ll laugh, you’ll learn, you’ll get hungry reading about delicious food. Lots of great stories from the adventures of the Rubin Rodeo along with plenty of recipes and strategies for better health.
Learning to Love Compost
Camp Ballibay is in the middle of their second year of composting food scraps from the kitchen and dining hall. This environmentally friendly strategy reduces waste and creates a nutrient rich supplement for the camp garden. Recently, our giant camp compost bins were...
Adventures in Campout Cooking
Yesterday I wrote about extending campout fare beyond burgers, dogs and s'mores. Today was the day I put theory into action. G1, the youngest cabin of girls, were the subjects of my little food experiment. Tonight at campout, in addition to the usual veggie burgers,...
Beyond Hot Dogs & S’mores
When I'm not busy in the garden, one of the fun aspects of my job as food educator here at summer camp involves joining each cabin of campers on the cooking portion of their campout. As a former Girl Scout leader, there's nothing I love more than cooking on an open...
Up, Down and all Around
The Ballibay garden and staff continues to teach me all sorts of things
The Oil Song
Interrupt fun at summer camp for a grim reminder: Good planets are hard to find. Let’s stop screwing up this one.
Smoothies
Today was the long awaited opening day of Camp Ballibay. For me, that means smoothies. As the camp "food expert" my job gives me the opportunity to meet parents as they are dropping off their kids at camp and tell them about how great our food and our garden is this...
Ode to Mulch
The more you learn about gardening, the more you come to appreciate mulch. It puts the kabosh on weeds, helps to keep your plant's roots evenly hydrated, and encourages earthworms, Mother Nature's rototillers. I haven't seen many earthworms since I arrived, so I'm...
Its the Journey, Not the Product
This concept is at the core of the Camp Ballibay philosophy. The road that leads to a completed project, artwork or performance is the most valuable to the student, regardless of the final outcome. If the process of development and discovery is positive, then valuable...
Eating Weeds
Today for lunch at Ballibay we had weeds in our soup. No joke!
Day #1 in the Camp Garden
This year at camp, I’m in charge of 1000 sq. feet of garden along with some other food related projects.
