Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden

SAKGP Garden and Kitchen Programme 

News - from the kitchen & garden with Chris and Eve

Our cooking and gardening classes are each Tuesday

We would love to have more volunteers in both the garden and kitchen classes.

No garden or kitchen skills required, enthusiasm to support the students as they learn is all you need.

If you would like to know more, come into the office and see Chris (Principal)

This week in the garden with Eve

In this week's garden class the 2/3s installed the in-ground worm farms that they made a few weeks ago by drilling holes into 20 litre food-grade buckets..  We've now installed two worm farms, one in each of the round beds near the classrooms and they can be used for fruit scraps, small weeds and paper and cardboard from the classrooms.  The students took it in turns to dig the holes to bury the worm farms, while other students cut up greens, fruit scraps and tore up some wet cardboard to mix together into a 'worm muesli' to help our worms get settled in.  Then we all headed up to our big commercial worm farms to get some compost worms to relocate.  We added them to the worm farms along with some more worm muesli and a sprinkling of sand (the kids learnt recently about worms and how they need grit to help them digest their food) and now they will happily be able to travel in and out of the buckets and the garden, fertilising and helping to create good soil structure for our plants.  Our Rhubarb bed, in particular will LOVE this.

*If you are installing a worm farm like this at home you should only put a compost worm set-up into a bed that regularly gets watered - like veggie beds.  Compost worms need more food and moisture than naturally occurring earthworms.

The 5/6 class continued potting their Everlasting Daisies, Billy Buttons and native grasses this week.  They will be selling these plants at their end of term art exhibition to raise money for endangered native animals (Their idea, so awesome!) 

I showed the 4/5s how to weave together a fence using fruit tree and willow prunings - I was super impressed at how quickly they managed to create a beautiful fence around their tea garden!  In only one hour! Previously the students had said that they would like this garden to feel a bit more 'cosy' so this fence will help to define the space while our plants grow.

We have been propagating various tea plants and are adding some medicinal herbs to this area as well.  While some students pruned, wove the fence and tidied up others planted Agastache, Elephant Garlic, Yarrow, Orange-peel thyme, Dyers Chamomile, Angelica and Red Veined Sorrel.

The 4/5's had asked if we can try to grow Blue Butterfly Pea to make beautiful blue tea.  The seeds arrived last week so Merry sowed the seeds which we have now put onto a heat mat.  Merry also sowed some German Chamomile - an essential addition to our tea garden!

In the kitchen with Chris

This week in Cooking, Grade Prep and 1 made Orange Veg One Tray Soup and Yoghurt Flatbreads.

From the garden we used pumpkin, parsley and chives and we bought carrots, swede, sweet potato and oranges.

First we made the Yoghurt Flatbread dough and shaped the flatbreads. In groups, students measured out the yoghurt and added it to the bowl. They then measured out 1 cup of flour and stirred it into the yoghurt and then added flour bit by bit until the dough was soft but not too wet.  Elio and Nicholas finely chopped the parsley and chives and we mixed them into the dough.  Matilda and her group used Gluten Free flour to make their Yoghurt Flatbread dough. (see recipe).  We divided the dough into 6 even pieces and everyone then shaped and rolled their dough into a ball and flattened it with their palm, to make it easier to start rolling out the circle for their flatbread.  Every one worked well to get a circle shape and then learnt how to make the circle bigger and thinner by rolling the dough from the centre out and turning the dough and rolling again until the dough was the size of a small plate. Students then carefully transferred their flatbread to trays ready to cook after recess.

The Orange Veg One Tray Soup is a great recipe if you’re short on time but want a delicious soup that’s full of flavour.  I baked the orange vegetables (pumpkin, carrots, swede and sweet potato  with onions and garlic before class so  the vegetables would be ready and  cool for P1s to make the soup.  

After recess, Cooper, April, Nicholas, Luca, Atlas, Allie and their groups mashed the cooled, baked vegetables for the soup.  They added it to the vegetable stock we made and took turns stirring the soup as it cooked. Luca, Atlas and their group learn how to use the Citrus squeezer to squeeze the juice out of 2 oranges for the soup.

Elio, Nicholas and  Matilda’s group cooked the Yoghurt Flatbreads in the frypans, and did a great job cooking them until they were brown on the outside and soft inside.

While the Yoghurt Flatbreads were cooking, everyone else worked in groups to clear and clean the tables and set the tables with plates and soup spoons. They worked out how many places were needed and set out the plates and cutlery. Poppie,  Xavier and their group collected wattle and herbs and flowers to decorate the table.

Everyone loved the Orange Veg One Tray Soup  and  they ate all the Yoghurt Flatbread we made.

Great cooking Grade Prep and 1  and thanks Darron and Scout.

This is what Grade Prep and 1 said about their cooking this week…

I can’t choose if I liked the soup or the bread more.  I loved it so much. Allie

I liked the soup so much I want to eat it forever! Luca

It’s delicious.  I made the flatbread by mixing the flour and the yoghurt. Poppie

I had seconds, the soup and the bread were infinity good!  Elio

I’m too busy eating to comment!  I licked my plate clean! Matilda

I picked flowers from the garden and set the table . Xavier

It’s so good I would eat this soup for the rest of my life! .Edie

It’s Infinity x 5 good! I made the bread and mashed the veggies for the soup. Cooper