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 garden class we hosted an incursion from Resource Smart Schools Victoria on Waterbugs and their impact on the health of waterways.   Prep/1s and 2/3s were able to investigate water specimens from the creek to discover the wide range of aquatic invertebrates that live in the water and contribute to the health of the ecosystem.  Emily and I planned this session to be a taster for the River Detectives programme, which the school will be participating in next year.  This will run as a club that kids can sign up to. You can check out their website here

The 4/5's are taking on the garden surrounding the four square courts and turning it into a picking garden.  We had an impromptu discussion about the difference between vegetative propagation and growing from seed, with some great questions and discussion.  This week the students 'adopted' a plant - either a Zinnia, a Dahlia, Snapdragon or Marigold.  We have grown the Zinnias and Snapdragons from seed at school.  I brought in some Dahlia tubers from home and the students learned how to divide them for planting.  Each of the students created a colourful plant label for their plant (you should check these out next time you visit the school - they are gorgeous!) and prepared a spot using compost and organic fertiliser.  I'm really impressed by how carefully the students planted their seedling/tuber and how much care they took with their plant labels.  I can't wait to see this garden evolve!

*If anyone has Broadbean pods that they would be happy to part with I'd love some extras as the Prep/1s will be harvesting and podding ours next week and I'd love to make sure that we have enough to keep everyone busy.  We'll have our 2026 Preppies joining us too, so lots of helpers!

cooking with Chris

This week in cooking Grade 5 and 6 cooked a Mexican Feast of Soft Tacos with Pumpkin Chilli Non Carne, Corn Salsa, Pumpamole and Green Chutney.

From the garden we used Pumpkin, Celery, Coriander, Silverbeet, Parsley and Tomato Passata and steamed pumpkin from the freezer. 

Grace, Tahj, Anais, Javier, Chloe, Lizzie and Scott’s team made the dough for the Soft Tacos and kneaded it, rested it, divided it and rolled into even portions ready for the class to roll out the tacos after recess.

Patrick, James, Levi and their team made the Pumpkin Chilli Non-Carne. They chopped the onions,, celery, greens and de-seeded and chopped the chillies and cooked them together with the pumpkin and tomatoes.  James had fun adding the spices to the mixture especially his favourite spice - cinnamon! 

Andrew, Lenny and their team mashed the pumpkin and prepared the herbs and limes for the Pumpamole.  Liv and Elsie did a great job of packing the dishwasher and drying the dishes as we cleaned up after preparing the ingredients and cooking the dishes for our Mexican feast. 

Angel, Dante Sophia, Javien and their team made the Corn Salsa. They chopped the tomatoes, herbs and spring onions finely and carefully cut the corn kernels off the corn cobs. They cooked the ingredients together and then squeezed the limes and added lime zest, juice and seasoning to make a delicious Corn Salsa. 

After recess everyone had a turn of rolling out the soft tacos ready for cooking.  Anais, Lizzy, Chloe and their team cooked the soft Tacos in the frypans so they were golden and puffy.

While they were cooking, the rest of the teams, plated up their dishes, set the tables, collected some beautiful colourful flowers and herbs from the garden and tidied up ready to share the Mexican Feast.  James grated lots of cheese for us to enjoy with the Mexican Feast.

Thanks Lee-Anne and Scott for great help with the cooking today.

Thanks Cam for sorting out the spices in the pantry before class today. We really appreciate your help.

As this was the last cooking class for the Grade 6 students, while we were sharing the Mexican Feast they reflected on their experiences in the SAKG programme over the last 7 years. They talked about the memorable things they grew and cooked over the years with Mel, Mike, Eve and Chris.  

This is what they said…

We always have fun in cooking.  When we were young it was a good way to meet new friends in our class.  My favourite dish to cook is Potato and Spinach Torte. I also found out I like eggplant and pumpkin!  Lizzie

I liked getting flour on my face today! I liked cooking Eggplant Parmigiana.  I recommend you cook it again next year. Grace

I really liked cooking and eating the Potato and Spinach Torte, Spring Onion Pancakes and Vegetable Okonomyaki.   Anais

I didn’t know I liked Pumpkin and Eggplant, but I really like it now.  I liked that we tried different foods in cooking. Chloe (Corny)

Thank-you! I hope you inspire and give more kids a new taste of food. Lenny

Thanks for great cooking this year, Grade 5 and 6 students.  Good luck Grade 6s and hope you continue your cooking adventures with the great skills you have learnt at TPS. Chris C