Kitchen Garden Program Update

It has been a huge month in the Kitchen Garden this May. We took inspiration from our excursion to the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show earlier in the year where we saw people having high tea. 

We based our menu on the English tradition of enjoying small finger food while drinking copious amounts of tea. We came up with our own version using produce grown in our very own kitchen garden with a slight Aussie twist. Students learnt about what it means to ‘bake’ food and the different terms and techniques when using butter in baking recipes such as melting, rubbing and creaming. 

Together we made 

• cucumber sandwiches, 
• ANZAC biscuits, 
• scones with jam, 
• Coronation Quiche and 
• lemon myrtle tea. 

The lemon myrtle leaves were picked from our tree at school. Lemon myrtle is sometime referred to as the "Queen of the lemon herbs". It has been used by Indigenous Australians for over 40,000 years to flavour dishes and treat headaches. It is also great if you have a sore throat and runny nose!

The quiche was jam-packed with warrigal greens, a native type of spinach that is growing beautifully in our garden. Alli shared some of her cucumbers grown in her garden at home and Chantel and Chihiro also shared some different variations of rhubarb jam they had made with the rhubarb grown at school. Chantel’s mum even donated some figs from her tree for the fig and pear jam. 

If you have ever watched the Great British Bake Off you will know that baking involves lots of waiting so students took the opportunity to create our own paper crowns to wear while we ate the dish invented to commemorate the coronation.  

The recipes from this month can be found here;

Thanks to the parent and carer volunteers that have shared their time to support us and keep us safe while cooking. There are still some sessions that need volunteers this term so please sign up here- https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b094baba62ea3f85-term1#/

Remember if you are free on a Monday Alli is always looking for support in the garden. Contact her on allison.shanahan@education.vic.gov.au 

Another easy way you can support the KG program is to help us keep an eye on the garden before and after school. We often have produce that is almost ready to harvest and it mysteriously disappears. If you see people in the garden please gently remind them that the produce is used by the students in their lessons each week. 

Also, whilst picking flowers and making potions is fun, a lot of the time those flowers grow into the fruit and vegetables we have big plans for. Please discourage students and their younger siblings from picking anything in the garden unless they have been directed to by staff member. 

Chantel Jose

Kitchen Specialist