SAKG NEWS
We have started off Term 4 in the kitchen with pasta, and not just any old pasta, but hand- made and hand rolled spaghetti with bolognaise or napolitana sauce. The students have done an amazing job with the pasta rollers, laminating and cutting, hanging and cooking the spaghetti to perfection, topped with the sauce, that has been seasoned and flavoured with herbs from the garden. It is wonderful to see the culmination of the skills that the kids have developed over the year that they are able to coordinate well known but complex recipes, working well as teams to make sure that the food is well flavoured, timed right and served beautifully.
We served our pasta with a salad of the imagination and grissini. The students have been given charge of a platter of salad ingredients and are making their own decisions on how to cut/slice/combine and present it. We have snow pea tendrils and snow peas, lettuce and rocket from the garden, topped up with tomatoes, capsicums, cucumbers and a variety of cheeses and sprouts, with very salad being different. It is great to see students giving salad a go. We flavoured the bread sticks with olive oil and salt and sometimes with poppy seeds for a bit of colour. These are very simple but are often served in restaurants as a starter and ours would rival any 5-star restaurant!
Last but not least we have made Chocolate Brownies with a hint of mint, using fresh mint from the garden. The flavour is still mainly chocolate, but with a slight scent and aftertaste of mint. This menu has been an absolute hit as proven by very little scraps being left for the chickens. Recipe for pasta can be found in the link below.
In the Gardens the trees and plants have sprung to life, bringing the birds and insects as well! To coincide with this the students are participating in the Aussie Bird Count, identifying and counting birds they see in the garden. Jodie will be uploading the data to the Bird Life website as part of a nationwide citizen science project. Also, during class time garden beds are being cleared of old plants, compost is being added and new seedlings planted. Seeds are being germinated in punnets and then go into the greenhouse. Being Spring it is a very busy time in the garden!
At the end of last term students were given the opportunity to design a poster or pamphlet for a Healthy Soil competition during garden classes. We had a number of students complete these and their entries can be seen below. We have some very talented students!
Also, this term students to making mini greenhouses for young plants in the garden so we are calling out for large recycled plastic drink and milk bottles (1-2 litre varieties). This gives our plants a head start, protects them from cold weather and bird damage! We are also excited to make a DIY fly trap, so the Year 5s can feed their Venus fly trap! If you have any lying around at home, we would love them. A tub is in the staffroom where the bottles can be placed.
And to finish off our SAKG news we like to say a new thank you a few people. Firstly, to our Delacombe Broadcasting Kids who kindly gave up their lunchtimes to help put together a video explaining our Organic Food Recycling system and our goal for increasing compost. This was then used and submitted to the Coles/Planet Ark Sustainable competition. We are still waiting to hear if we were successful. Secondly a big thankyou to our families – Paul and Lillian W Q, Eli M, Celeste and Sebastian D and Ryder and Rory C for caring for the animals of the holiday break. The SAKG team, along with animals greatly appreciate your time and devotion so thank you!
