Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden
SAKGP Garden and Kitchen Programme
News - from the kitchen & garden with Chris and Eve
Our cooking and gardening classes are each Tuesday
We would love to have more volunteers in both the garden and kitchen classes.
No garden or kitchen skills required, enthusiasm to support the students as they learn is all you need.
If you would like to know more, come into the office and see Chris (Principal)
gardening with Eve
The prep/1s had a busy garden session this week. First stop was the kitchen garden up by the multipurpose room to sow some radishes. The students mixed their seeds with sand to disperse them and make it easier to space them out a little, then sprinkled their sand into gaps in some of our garden beds. Radishes are great fillers and Chris (the cooking teacher Chris) is keen to make some quick pickles with them to accompany some dishes in cooking class. We sowed French breakfast radishes and watermelon radishes. We also had a look at the garden make-over that happened on the weekend at the school workingbee - it's looking amazing!
Next we headed down the hill to the outdoor investigations area where the kids are preparing some garden beds to grow native fibre plants. We held hands and stretched out in an oval shape to create the shape of our bed, marked it out using everyone's feet as a guide, then began digging the edges. We have a new set of garden mattocks that the kids are really enjoying. The bed that we started a few weeks ago has been turned over nicely and we added a barrow of extra soil to raise the bed slightly and give our plants some extra soil to establish their roots as this part of the school yard is very compacted generally. The students found lots of worms while digging and we had a look to see if they were adults or juveniles by checking to see if they have their saddle yet and talked about how to tell which end of the worm was the head. I was so impressed by how much the students have retained about worms after our worm lesson a couple of weeks ago! Everyone was careful to replace them into loose soil so that they could burrow their way back out of the light.
We also found quite a few curl grubs and talked about how, although some of these can be pests, many of our exciting native beetles start life as curl grubs too and it's nearly impossible to tell them apart, so any that we found we gently put under the mulch of nearby trees. We found some beetles as well - a couple of them were introduced pest species (which I still generally leave alone) but the another was a scarab beetle. There was a constant stream of exclamations as students found things to show me! If anyone is interested in curl grubs you can read a brief article about them here.
The 5/6s continued working on their spinners while some students from the class helped me with garden jobs. Patrick took all of the indoor plants out of the library and watered them with worm wee, washed the dust off their leaves and gave them a tidy up. Levi took some cuttings of Strawberry grapes - a wonderful Italian variety with big fragrant fruit that I'd like to grow at the school (We will have some for sale too if all of our cuttings strike). We planted some violas and snow peas in the 'snacking beds' near the library.
The 4/5's are fixing up the Tea Garden - the space just outside their classroom so we had our garden class there, settling in to do some work on our spinners and some garden jobs. The sunshine was absolutely divine! Lea, Henry and Vega potted up some globe artichokes. The students had saved the seed from these last term and we are going to plant quite a few around the garden hoping to get enough to have a feast of them in cooking class. Vega also sowed seeds of some heirloom purple podded peas and some native billy buttons which we will pot up once they've sprouted. The 4/5s are going to weave a fence around part of their tea garden to make it feel more cosy so I also put in the stakes for that ready for some weaving action in the next few weeks.
gardening photos below
cooking with Chris
This week in Cooking Grade 2 and 3 made Caramelised Pumpkin Calzone and Eggplant Parmigiana Calzone.
From the garden we used pumpkin, parsley, thyme, silverbeet and tomato passata and eggplant from the freezer.
We used a Basic Pizza Dough recipe for the calzone which I made before the class so it had time to prove and rise and be ready for our cooking.
We divided into 4 groups to prepare the calzone dough and the fillings.
Oliver, Douglas and Bobbie kneaded the pizza dough until it was soft and warm and ready to roll out. They divided the dough into 18 pieces, ready for everyone to knead and roll out into circles. Marlin carefully kneaded the soft GF dough and put it in the fridge so it remained cold before it could be kneaded and shaped to make the GF Calzone.
Marlin, Percy and Noah cooked the pumpkin in the frypan, chopped the silverbeet and herbs, and added spices and stock for the Pumpkin filling. They stirred it carefully as it cooked.
Owen, Jayden and Pete chopped the cooked eggplant, garlic and parsley for the eggplant filling and added the tomato and herbs and took turns stirring the filling as it cooked.
Rui, Aleida and Sidney did a great job grating the mozzarella and parmesan cheeses.
Everyone worked really well to make sure the two fillings were cooked and ready to cool over recess.
As we finished using the dishes and utensils, Noah and Pete did a great job rinsing the dishes and stacked them ready to be put into the dishwasher.
Before recess, everyone prepared and shaped their calzone dough, ready to fill after recess. We kneaded the dough until it was warm and soft. Then we folded and turned the dough and used the heel of our hand to knead it well. Then we shaped and rolled the dough into a ball to make it easier to start rolling out the circle for the calzone. Every one worked well to get a circle shape and then learnt how to make the circle bigger and thinner by rolling the dough from the centre out and turning the dough and rolling again until the dough was the size of a bread and butter plate and about 1/2cm thick.
After recess, everyone decided which filling they would like for their calzone and did a great carefully adding the grated cheeses and filling to one half of the calzone dough. They made sure they left an edge around the dough so they could fold them over and seal them well. Everyone did a great job, filling and folding and sealing their calzone. They basted the tops with olive oil and some students added some grated parmesan or mozzarella too. We carefully placed the calzone onto the trays and put them in the oven to bake. Marlin made his GF calzone and cooked it in the new airfryer, which worked very well. While the calzone were cooking, everyone divided into teams to clean down the tables, rinse the dishes and set the tables.
Aleida and her group went out to the garden to pick jonquils and leaves to decorate the table. When the calzone were ready, everyone sat at the table and waited patiently to be served the calzone they made.
Everyone enjoyed their calzone. Great cooking Grade 2 and 3 and thanks Emma and Scout.
This is what Grade 2 and 3 said about what they cooked and tasted.
I loved the Pumpkin Calzone with the pumpkin filling that Marlin, Pete and I made. Noah
I liked that everyone did a really good job and helped. The eggplant filling tasted amazing, 100,000/100,000! Sidney
The pumpkin and the pizza dough tasted good. Oliver
I give my Eggplant Calzone 9/10. Owen
I really liked the Eggplant Calzone. I made the eggplant filling and grated the mozzarella. Aleida
I appreciated and liked how everybody helped. Rui and Marlin washed the dishes and Jayden, Oliver and their team grated the cheese. Bobbie
I made my calzone with 1/3 eggplant filling, 1/3 pumpkin filling and 1/3 Mozzarella! Jayden
The gluten free calzone dough tasted very good.! Marlin
recipes and photos below:
