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
This week in gardening we took advantage of the fleeting winter sunshine and did some sun printing - cyanotype style. The 5/6s and 2/3s learnt about Anna Atkins, who not only became one of the few female scientists, let alone Botanists, to work and study in the 1840s, she was also the first person to use cyanotypes to record and share the details of her plant specimens and went on to produce the FIRST EVER book to incorporate photographs; her book entitled 'Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype impressions.' The students gathered plant specimens from the garden and arranged them on their coated paper and then we headed outside to expose them in the sunshine. The 5/6s also labelled their plant specimens. After 25mins the students rinsed their prints in cold water and we left them to dry in the library. Some absolutely beautiful prints resulted! These will be hanging up in the library during Term 3 and parents and carers are welcome to come and have a look.
The 4/5 class took part in a 'Propagation round robin'. We split into four groups - the Kookaburras, the Magpies, the Chooks and the Fairy wrens and took turns moving around four different activity stations. Students took cuttings of a local Taradale form of Pig Face (thankyou Brian and Colleen for this, and to Meg for collecting it), made up some jars of indoor plant cuttings for the 4/5 classroom, potted up kale, broccoli, cabbage and strawberries, took mint cuttings and chopped up all the leftovers plus some weeds and old leaves from the garden into fine worm muesli for the big worm farm. It was bedlam! But we got a lot done :)
Cooking with Chris
This week in Cooking, Grade Prep and 1 made Pumpkin Damper, GF Dairy Free Pumpkin Damper and Warrigul Greens and Saltbush Damper (with Golden Syrup Butter) that they cooked in the camp fire. We served the damper with the delicious Pumpkin soup Grade 4 and 5 made and the Italian Zucchini Soup P1 made last term, that we froze.
From the garden we used pumpkin, parsley, Warrigul greens, saltbush and from the freezer we used baked pumpkin and the soups.
We made the 2 dampers first. Scout and Erin’s groups made the Pumpkin Damper. Matilda and Edie had fun mashing the pumpkin, and making sure there were no lumps. Phoebe and Jessie, Xavier and their team rubbed the margarine into the flour and took turns mixing the water into the flour and adding the pumpkin. The mixture ended up quite wet so they had to carefully add more flour.
For the Warrigul Greens and Saltbush Damper, Cooper, Nicholas, Atlas, Elio and their team prepared the spinach and the Warrigul greens and chopped them finely. Kendre separated the dried saltbush leaves from the stems and used the mortar and pestle to grind the saltbush leaves into a fine powder.
While we were making the damper, Marcus had the great idea to cook the damper outside in the campfire. While Marcus and his group setup the camp fire, the rest of the class finished the damper and wrapped up the Warrigul Greens and Saltbush Damper ready for cooking in the fire. We pre - cooked the Pumpkin Damper in the oven in baking paper and foil as it was a bit too soft to be cooked in the fire.
After recess we heated up the soup and Scout and Erin’s groups mixed the margarine and whipped in the Golden Syrup to make the Golden Syrup Butter to serve on the damper.
We served the soup in cups at the campfire and everyone tried the delicious dampers with Golden Syrup Butter. It was fantastic way to enjoy the food we made.
Everyone loved the Pumpkin Damper and Warrigul Greens and Saltbush Damper with the Golden Syrup Butter and really enjoyed the delicious Pumpkin Soup and Zucchini soup.
Great cooking Grade Prep and 1 and thanks Erin and Scout for helping and Marcus for organising and cooking the damper on the campfire, it was a fantastic cooking session!
Some photos from our indoor and outdoor cooking session
