SAKG NEWS

We are finishing off our summer harvest in the kitchen this fortnight with recipes that highlight and use up our summer harvest. First up is ratatouille that is chock full of our amazing summer zucchinis, tomatoes, basil and herbs, kale and greens, chopped up and simmered to be used as the sauce base in our Summer Harvest Lasagne. We have been layering this amazing sauce with freshly rolled pasta straight off the pasta machines and lovely smooth cheesy sauce. There are many parts to getting all the bits for layering the lasagne, but the result has been worth it, many of the kids claiming that it is the best lasagne that they have ever tasted! Please see below for the recipe. We used a "Frenchish" recipe for the ratatouille as we didn't grow any eggplants, and you don't have to be exact with the ingredients, just so long as you have a long stewed flavoursome sauce base to work with. We also didn't fuss about layering the veggies like the recipe I have shared, as we blitzed it in the blender before using in our lasagne. We just added it all to the pot and cooked it. 

To complement our lasagne, we made a mega summer salad with croutons, using capsicums, cucumbers, olives, basil and some parmesan. The hero of this dish is the croutons, followed closely by the salad dressing. We substituted red wine vinegar for apple cider vinegar that we made here at school, but you can really use vinegar or lemon/lime juice that you have on hand.  

Last but not least we made pear and rhubarb crumble, using our harvest of rhubarb. The trick to really bringing out the best in rhubarb is to pre roast it with orange juice and brown sugar. If you don't have time to do that just add some orange zest and juice and an extra sprinkle of brown sugar. This will help to caramelise it and bring out the sweetness. You can use either pear or apples, pears cook quicker, but apples are delicious as well. Don't forget to serve with some ice cream or whipped cream!

In the garden we have had some excitement with introducing some of our little people, that is the preps, to the garden under the guidance of grade 4s. Understandably tasks were kept simple and included things like collecting eggs and feeding the chickens bread, harvesting beans and zucchini’s, watering, collecting leaves for the chicken and scattering them over the floor of their pen, and sweeping/raking the paths. This is a great opportunity for our older students to be leaders and for our younger years to get exposure to a program that they otherwise would not.

For other garden classes tasks have been a bit more involved. Animal groups have been responsible for raking the chicken pens, cleaning their water, cuddling the guinea pigs and cleaning the lodge. The harvest group have been collecting rhubarb for the kitchen and preparing pears for the freezer so they can be utilised later in the year. Our grow group have been creatively decorating planters for the fete, planting seeds in trays, watering the hot house and planting garlic, which is an ingredient frequently used in the kitchen. And lastly our maintenance group has been clearing our paths from leaves and placing them in the chicken pen.

Some other exciting news is that DPS have been chosen to be a River Detectives school.  On Monday Mrs O’Brien and Wendy attended the training and we hope to be able to integrate the program into garden classes next term. River Detectives is an exciting education initiative of Catchment Management Authorities inspiring teachers and students to understand, appreciate and care for their local waterway through engaging, cross-curricular, citizen-science activities. It is a free, flexible and fun way to connect young people to nature through monthly water quality testing. Students will learn how water, land, plants, animals, people and communities are all integrally linked. We can’t wait to sink our teeth into it!

And to conclude our SAKG news we want to do a call out to any families who are keen to care for our animals over the holidays. We have 3 lots of guinea pigs to be billeted out and are chasing a family that would be willing to come into school on a daily basis to feed, water, collect the eggs and check on the chickens. All are easy tasks and our animals are guaranteed to return the favour with endless pleasure and joy. If you are interested in caring for either of the animals please don’t hesitate to contact Mrs O’Brien, Wendy, Kate or see one of the girls in the office.

Mrs O’Brien, Kate & Wendy