SAKG NEWS

Over the past fortnight the focus in both the kitchen and the garden has been in celebrating NAIDOC week, which fell during the school holidays. Students have had the privilege of engaging in some indigenous activities and cooking. In kitchen we have been experiencing a fusion of indigenous flavours and incorporating some traditional foods into our menu. The kids have enjoyed making and eating kangaroo burgers with bush flavoured buns and salad from our garden.  We have also made banana bread with a bush twist, namely lemon myrtle and wattleseed. A big thanks to Salt Bush Kitchen for providing the herbs and spices and also the recipes.

Some of our kids from the re engagement program invented a parsnip soup recipe this week and have called it "Parsnip Power Soup".  It was awesomely delicious, scrumptious and incredibly flavoursome. Here is the recipe attached to try: 

We were lucky enough to have some parsnips from Jodie's garden, and they were the fattest and tastiest parsnips that we have ever seen, but don't be disheartened if you can only get your hands on supermarket parsnips. They give the soup a lovely creamy and nutty flavour.  Please give Parsnip Power a try today!

Our Grade 1s have had fun making jam drop biscuits with bush flavours and rosella and strawberry jam. It was a lovely twist on an old favourite. Once again, thank you to the Saltbush Kitchen for the ingredients and recipes. 

Our Multicultural Club kids have made a bush version of the good old yoyo biscuit, using aniseed myrtle as the flavouring and all I can say is that there was not a crumb left over!  We used plain icing, but you can vary this as you wish. These biscuits really pack a punch and are quite simple to make.  

In the garden students have been learning about:

• first nations cultures’ seasons which are based on changes in mother nature and watching the stars; 
• food from the land including seeds, nuts, root vegetables, animals and flowers; 
• caring for country whereby keeping a sustainable balance between what we take from country and what we give back. 

In addition to this the regular animal, harvest, grow and observe rotations have occurred. Students have been caring for the chickens by cleaning nesting boxes and the paths, replacing their water, feeding them with the kitchen scraps and pellets, collecting the eggs and giving them cuddles. The harvest groups have been collecting lettuce leaves, Warrigul greens, parsley, mint, saltbush stalks and radishes for kitchen classes, along with planting spring onions. The grow group have been weeding the indigenous garden, as well as mulching.  And the observe group have been making a map of the indigenous garden and using the indigenous symbols to draw an artwork or create a story.  So much activity!!!

If you haven’t heard we have two new guinea pigs join the SAKG animals after sadly having our girl guinea pigs stolen. Their names are Squeaks and Sparkles and they love cuddles.  These two little fellas have been kindly donated by a family who is relocating interstate and we know that our students here at DPS are going to help them settle into their new home.

An important date to pop in your calendar is this coming Saturday 29th July.  The SAKG team will be hosting a working bee to get some much needed jobs done. Some of the Baha’i community will be joining us but we would love to see as many of our school community there as well. The Baha’i group have kindly invited us to join them for a light breakfast which will take place at 9:30am and then we will look at commencing our jobs at 10:30am. These will include weeding, dismantling an arch and mulching. Morning tea will be provided at 11:30am with a finish up time of 12:30. You don’t have to stay for the entire time, any time that you may be able to offer will be greatly appreciated.  If you wish to come for breakfast please let us know to assist with catering.

On top of our working bee we continue to look for volunteers in both our kitchen and garden program.  This involves working with small groups of students overseeing a task/activity.  We welcome everyone, whether it be new parents/families or ones who have been at the school for several years.  To be able to volunteer you will need is a current Working with Children Check (Volunteer Card – free) which is available online, and to have completed an induction (information) session which we run here at school.  If you are interested in volunteering in the program please contact Mrs O’Brien, Kate, Jodie or see the ladies in the front office.

Mrs O’Brien, Kate & Jodie