Kitchen Garden
From Jill & Simone
April 30: LA10C returned for their second week in Kitchen Garden on Thursday April 30, joined by Max K’s dad Drew. Riley B-W gave an Acknowledgement of Country in Mandarin, translated for the non-Mandarin speakers by Adam E. In preparation for a few warmer days, we headed straight outside to water and fertilise. The students put science into practice after learning about acidity & alkalinity and did pH testing on the worm wee and four of the compost bins. All were still alkaline but tending closer to neutral.
Students also learnt about botanical naming conventions. Each group chose a plant from the garden & researched its botanical name, other common names and an interesting fact about the source of the Latin species name. A representative of each group then presented their results to the class.
After lunch students helped label chutney and carefully packaged and labelled our organic coriander seeds and dried Old Man Saltbush, ready to sell at the school market stall.
May 1: On Friday we welcomed Jill’s friend Kat, who works at Preston North East Primary School and is helping establish a kitchen garden program there. She came to observe & lend a helping hand.
Today the students made zongzi, a traditional Chinese dish made using glutinous rice & a sweet or savoury filling. For our savoury filling, LA10C mixed dried mushrooms with freshly cooked greens from the garden. For the sweet zongzi it was a sultana filling, then dipped in a little sugar when eating. The zongzi is wrapped in bamboo leaves held together with cotton string and then steamed. Lots of helping hands needed for the wrapping!
We also had a herbal tea/tisane taste testing with herbs from the garden. Out of lemongrass, pineapple sage, lemon verbena & lemon thyme, LA10C voted lemon thyme the winning tea!
Thank you LA10C for all your hard work and enthusiasm during your time in Kitchen Garden.
May 7: LA11C started in Kitchen Garden this week. Because no Kitchen garden classes ran in term 1 due to Simone’s broken ribs, all classes will be two weeks this year to ensure everyone gets their time.
After Acknowledgements of Country from Cristiano and Finn, everyone went outside to harvest. There was lots to pick! Ripe carrots, beetroots, potatoes, warrigal greens and silverbeet harvested outside, and tomatoes ripening inside. For LA11C’s herbal teas/tisanes, pineapple sage, lemongrass, lemon verbena, lemon thyme and mint were picked.
Duo discovered an interesting looking beetle & drew it in our gardening journal. Beds remediated with compost, charcoal and worm castings at the end of term 1 were planted with new rainbow chard and carrots which we’re hoping will get a boost before soil temperatures decline. Thanks to Duo’s mum Hua for coming to help.
LA11C also made the focaccia dough for their focaccia tomorrow.
May 8: LA11C baked the focaccia they started yesterday, covering the top with potatoes & rosemary from the garden. They also used yesterdays vegetables to make some delicious dips: Beetroot dip, pumpkin hummus, creamy warrigal greens dip and a carrot, roast tomato & cumin dip. LA11C paid a lot of attention to taste testing their dips to make sure the flavour was just right. They adjusted the seasonings (& made notes on the recipes) & they were so delicious.
LA11C had their herbal tisane testing, and lemon verbena was the clear winning drink!
Wanted: more washed and dried eggshells (thanks for the donations in the last 2 weeks, much appreciated). Thank you also to everyone for the 10c containers; another 12 bags were collected last week & money used to support the Kitchen Garden program.
