Kitchen Garden

Kitchen Garden Update

Over the last two weeks, the students in Year 1/2 have been busy cooking puff pastry pin wheels. We revisited our puff pastry pinwheel recipes from Term 1’s cooking sessions with the Year 3/4 students. This recipe is very forgiving when it comes to construction, in that the volume of ingredients and the size and shapes of the pinwheels can look a little messy before they are placed in the oven to cook, but once cooked they all seem to look perfect and delicious! Pinwheels were a good choice as they also showcase different vegetables and the different varieties of flavor that can be created using the same techniques of filling, rolling and cutting.

We accompanied the pinwheels with a fresh, mixed leaf salad. A small number of students along with a parent volunteer took on this task, while also being introduced to basic knife handling skills. Cherry tomatoes, cucumber and lettuce leaves were sliced and chopped with precision before a drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice were added. Before long, our zesty side salad was ready! Students in Ms. Buccieri’s class also gave the salad a ‘whole group’ mix, with all hands in the bowl, with gloves on of course! This gave new meaning to the phrase, ‘tossing the salad!’

Seeing the student’s enthusiasm and excitement when it comes to our Chatham Garden and Cooking sessions is a huge joy; it is wonderful to be able to provide our students with the opportunity to try new vegetables, fruits and flavours. Sometimes the flavours are not for everyone’s palette, but it is great to be able to encourage students to try new things and then also suggest other options as a substitute that might be more appealing. Cooking is always about trial and error when it comes to personal taste. One of the students said they were not too keen on the broccoli, but added that they might like it when they get older. This is so true. I believe our sessions create a sense of achievement within our students and can instill confidence in being able to grow, harvest and then cook now and in the future.

We have had a very fruitful Term 3. Our garden continues to flourish and supply a variety of vegetables and herbs, which we can use to prepare and create recipes for our cooking sessions. We have another cooking session planned for Year 1/2 and our Foundation students in Term 4, and I will be recipe-testing over the holidays and trialing a few ideas out on my family. We hope that by next term, our Chatham potatoes, beetroot, brussels sprouts and carrots will be ready to harvest and use.

Thank you to the parent and carer volunteers who came along and shared in the cooking experiences with us. We hope that you keep cooking at home with the recipes attached to this newsletter.

We are looking forward to a fantastic Term 4!

Leda Semercioglu

Kitchen Garden Coordinator