Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program

Milky Moo the cow, painted by our Year 6s, depicting dairy products and their health and nutritional value. Look for her strong bones in her legs! We look forward to letting her out into the 'meadow'! Well done Year 6!

Garden

Although it has been a cold and wet start to the term, our garden continues to thrive with plenty of maintenance and preparation underway for spring. Students have been busy completing seasonal jobs to keep the garden healthy and ready for the warmer months. Despite the cooler weather, we are still harvesting a wide variety of fresh vegetables, which students use to prepare and enjoy delicious, seasonal meals in the kitchen.

Our Year 3/4 students made biodegradable paper pots in preparation for raising seedlings, ready for planting later this term.

On National Schools Tree Day (24 July), students planted trees, shrubs and groundcovers in the front garden as part of our new Pollinator Corridor. This exciting project aims to attract bees, butterflies, birds and other beneficial insects while increasing biodiversity across our school. We are also thrilled to have received the Landcare Grant, which will support additional planting and the creation of new wildlife habitats around the school. We were fortunate to have our local councillor, Shane McCluskey, join us and help with the planting. It was wonderful to have his support as we continue to grow and improve our school garden.

We were delighted to receive the Victorian Schools Garden Grant – Veggie Patch Seed Bundle, generously sponsored by The Diggers Club. The bundle includes 12 autumn and 12 summer seed packets, providing students with a wonderful variety of vegetables to grow throughout the year.

Before planting our new spring seedlings, classes analysed the soil to make sure it was healthy and contained the nutrients needed to support strong plant growth.

Our newest Isa Brown hens have settled in well, and two of our young chooks now laying eggs. The maintenance group has also built a mobile chook tractor, allowing the hens to safely graze on fresh grass while fertilising different areas of the garden. The recent bird flu is being monitored and hopefully our flock is safe.

Kitchen

We've had a busy time in the kitchen, particularly with the canteen facilities being unavailable due to our exciting upgrade! We have managed to prepare some delicious recipes using produce from our thriving garden.

Mushroom orechiette, handmade 'little ears' pasta with our two types of oyster mushrooms was scrumptious.

Beetroot and herb risotto - a vibrant red rice dish with parmesan, yum! 

Roasted homegrown beetroot, pumpkin and chickpea salad with feta.

We explored Scottish fare (no, we did not try to make a haggis!) a creamy tattie soup (potato) and melt in the mouth shortbread to celebrate the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

To celebrate the World Cup champions, we made Spanish paella (so easy!) and chickpea balls. 

Many thanks to Jen, Sarah and Tash for continuing to volunteer their time to help us out in the kitchen each week. We can't do it without you!