Kitchen and Garden & Sustainability News

Garden & Kitchen News Wall

We now have a news wall along the wall at the office. We love sharing what our students have been up to so please check it out when you next pop in.

Kitchen

Our Summer Seasonal round of recipes was a fun one, using our abundance of cherry tomatoes and zucchinis in a focaccia and a bread.  So many amazing flavours with the all the summer produce popping up in our garden at the moment.  

We learnt about the Wadawurrung seasons and what the first nations people on this land used to harvest and cook with in this season Biderap, the butterfly season.   We are becoming very familiar with our summer seasonal produce and on the look out to purchase this summer fruit and veg to support our local farmers and reduce our food miles.  So many wonderful suggestions this week to use this seasonal food!

Here are our recipes this week:

Please check out our Term 1 Kitchen Garden Timetable if you would like to volunteer in our classes

Jam and Chutney Crew

We would love to start up a Preserving team who is available to come in a couple of times a term to whip up some jam or chutney at times of high harvest. 

If you are interested in being part of this group, we would love to hear from you!

Please emailfleur.kilpatrick@education.vic.gov.au or clancey.mckenzie2@education.vic.gov.au

Garden News

This week the year 4's investigated what is growing in The Patch or their home gardens now. They selected a plant and then did a deep dive, learning everything they could about it. We stumbled across some very interesting facts too! Did you know that tomatoes have been to space!? Did you know that potatoes were once considered as valuable as gold!?

Each term our students will select a new plant to investigate and learn more about. By the end of their journey at Surfside, they will know what to plant and when and also have some yumming ways to cook them.

In your garden

It is time to start thinking about what you want to grow in the coming months. Its hard to imagine the weather starting to cool off given these hot, dry days we have had, however autumn is fast approaching and all gardeners need to be ready to plant our cooler weaterh crops.

Now is a good time to start your brocolli, cabbage, cauliflower, leeks and brussel sprouts in seeds trays under cover. It is very important you keep your seed trays moist and not them dry out on hot days. Seeds are very vulnerable to changes in conditions.

Depending on the germination times, your seedlings will  be ready to plant out in 8-10 weeks.

Keep plating your carrots, beetroot and lettuce too. With good planning you can khave crops all year round.

GARDEN WATERING HELP NEEDED

We are in need of some garden helpers please. You dont need to be a gardener you just need to want to help and have a spare hour or half hour to help. The weather has encourged the weeds to grow and also patches of the garden are a little dry where the sprinklers dont quite reach.

Please contact me if you can help in any way! 

 clancey.mckenzie2@education.vic.gov .au