Garden
Gardening Program Update
Garden
What is growing?
Finally our garden is looking lush again after the soil top up. While we are already picking some vegetables, others are just starting to shoot. We have snow peas, broccoli, potatoes, garlic, red cabbage, carrots lettuce, five- coloured silver-beet, kale, brussels sprouts, broad beans, capsicums, rhubarb and a range of herbs including coriander, parsley and rosemary.
What are we planting
We are still finding a few empty spots in the garden beds and adding some green silverbeet, red cabbage, garlic and more Cavolo Nero.
- Juniors planting silverbeet
- 3/4s planting garlic
- 5/6 planting Cinderella's carriage
What are we harvesting/eating
Snow peas, snow peas and more snow peas! We have a bumper crop and students love it.
At the last assembly, Esha and Chiara sold our first silverbeet crop. I received a lot of positive feedback and we might do it again. In the meantime we have to work on real estate selling skills
Cooking
Marshmallows - the real deal
Marshmallow plant is praised for its medicinal properties, but did you know it is also used to make the original marshmallows? Marshmallow roots are soaked in cold water overnight. The mucilage it seeps is used to soothe irritated mucous membranes in the digestive or respiratory tracts. When I was a child, marshmallow root tea wasn't my favourite, but it was great against a persistent cough.
We have a marshmallow plant in the garden. It dies back in winter, but it's starting to shoot as soon as the weather warms up a bit. Drained and combined with the gelatin and sugar, honey or maple syrup at soft ball temperature, then beaten in a mixer for about 15 minutes, gives you a fluffy, pourable mass that turns into pillowy marshmallows once dried.
I made bicolour marshmallows: white with vanilla paste and pink with hibiscus tea. They melt in your mouth and are so different from the rubbery once we buy. Plus, they qualify as medicine.
Rhubarb cake
As the weather heats up, our rhubarb is virtually exploding in growth. The first huge harvest went into Oma’s rhubarb cake. We had plenty to make two big tins, plus a smaller one without gluten eggs and dairy so we can share with grandparents and special friends. The colour is deep yellow as we had a privilege of baking the cakes using farm fresh eggs - see below.
Thank you
A big thank you to the grandmas of Will B and Christelle for donating fresh farm eggs for our cooking. No shop-bought eggs can compare to the incredible quality of these, and the colour of the yolks is absolutely amazing. Your kind gift is greatly appreciated by us all! In return, chickens are getting some damaged leafy greens from our garden.
Thank you Sandra (Chiara’s mum) and Elisa (Sammy and Julian’s mum) for purchasing coloured silverbeet bunches from our garden at the assembly auction. I’ve heard the dishes you prepared were really delicious.
Vesna Simic
Learning Support Officer