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)

Gardening with Eve

This week in garden classes the Prep/1s sowed our Curcubits ready for Spring planting.  We played pass-the-parcel with mystery packets of seeds until each student had one, then opened them together - the big reveal! Each student had either Pumpkin, Cucumber, Cucamelon, Zucchini or Watermelon.  We are growing some unusual heirloom varieties this year so there was a lot of interest in 'Pink Banana Jumbo' Pumpkins, Tromboncino zucchinis and Sugar Baby Watermelons, to name a few.

The kids then chose a pot, wrote their name and decorated it with paint markers and planted their seeds.  Phoebe filled up the watering can and gave all of our seeds a water and then they were off to the heat mat in the MP classroom.  The seedlings should be well and truly up by the start  of next term.  I've sown some extras for students that were away with illness this week.  I'm keen for the students to plant and follow the progress of their plants right through to harvesting.  I will teach the class how to hand pollinate them and we can watch them as they develop.  

After this we moved out to the wicking beds near the prep/one classroom where we sowed carrot seed.  It's the perfect time now to start a crop of Carrots.  To spread the tiny seed evenly I mixed it with sand and each student had their own cup of the sandy mix to sprinkle into our Carrot rows.  Afterwards the seed was watered and covered with wet cardboard and bricks to keep the seed moist, dark and protected from wind.  I'll remove the cover after about 7 days and by then the seed will have started germinating.  We also sowed patches of Carrots into our Garlic bed up in the main veggie patch as they are great companions and, along with the Garlic, can be harvested in time to be replaced by zucchinis later.

The 2/3s started work on the large bed next to our four square courts.  Everyone worked really well to weed and clean up this area, cutting out an old fruit tree that had died back to the rootstock and harvesting some leftover jerusalem artichokes that had been growing here.  It felt a bit like an archaeological dig at times - we found bricks, hair ties, old tools, even a toy hotwheels car!  The students helped me wheelbarrow the weeds to the duck enclosure - I don't think I've ever seen the ducks so excited! I was really impressed by the hard work and cooperation of the whole class during this activity.  I can see many garden blitzes in our future with this group!

Next term we'll be building and weaving a hut in this bed to grow Climbing Beans over, and the students are going to be learning about the Three Sisters planting technique to grow Pumpkins(squash), Beans and Corn in this patch.  More on that later!

As a reward for all of the hard work we finished up with some home-made bubble mix and wire bubble wands.

The 4/5s did an end of term clean up in their tea garden area - it's looking so great! Especially with the fantastic paint job on our old storage cupboards.  Afterwards the students continued working on their bicycle wheel spinners.  I'm hoping to get at least a few of the spinners mounted around the garden during the holidays so look out for them at the start of term 4.

Cooking with Chris

This week in Cooking, a very small class of Grade 5 and 6 students, made a delicious Japanese feast of Vegetable Gyoza with Dipping Sauce, Okonomyaki with Homemade Bulldog Sauce and Pear and Apple Upside-Down Cake.

From the garden we used Silverbeet, Tuscan Kale, chives, spring onions, parsley, celery and garlic and duck eggs.  And from the freezer we used pears.

We only had nine in the class due to sickness so everyone had lots of tasks to do to create the Japanese  menu we had planned and there was great teamwork to make sure everything got done.

Elsie, Anais and Liv measured  the batter ingredients for the Pear and Apple Upside-Down Cake and cut the apples and pears. They used the mix-master to mix the flour and the eggs  and create a smooth batter. They did a great job of creating the layers of the cake and Anais carefully laid out the apples then the pears to make an interesting pattern, that would be the top of the cake.  

Dante, Andrew and Javi worked well together, to cut up the cabbage, greens and onions very finely for the Gyoza filling. Javi came up with a good way to use the tea towels to squeeze out all of the moisture from the filling.  James mixed the cornflour and tamari sauce and sesame oil and discovered that he had made a “non-Newtonian” liquid. If he mixed it slowly, it was thin and the cornflour became hard, but when he mixed it really fast it came together and became a viscous liquid he could mix into the Gyoza filling.  He had fun experimenting with it! See the photos!

Sophia, Tahj and James worked with Scott to chop all the ingredients for the Okonomyaki  and make the home-made Okonomyaki (Bulldog) Sauce.  We used the duck eggs for the batter and Andrew whisked them up really well.  The duck eggs gave the Okonomyaki a lovely yellow colour.

As we completed each of the cooking tasks, we made sure we rinsed and stacked the dishes and Scout kindly stacked the dishwasher and dried the dishes, ready to be put away.  Thanks Scout!

After recess we worked together to make the Gyoza. We  used bought Gyoza wrappers and everyone carefully filled and pleated the Gyoza in the traditional Japanese way.  It’s a bit fiddly but everyone patiently followed the steps to make the Gyoza. 

Javi, Tahj and Dante cooked the Gyoza – firstly by frying Gyoza and then adding water and the lid to steam them.  Anais and Andrew did a great job cooking all the Okonomyaki and putting them in the oven to keep warm.

While the Gyoza and Okonomyaki were cooking Elsie and her team picked some lovely seasonal flowers and herbs to decorate the tables and set out the sauces and dishes and cutlery.  Scott and Andrew made the Gyoza Sauce and plated it up.

Everyone tried all the dishes and enjoyed what they had made. 

There were only a few leftovers that we shared with the staff and enough cake left for afternoon tea!

Here’s what some of our small class thought of  their cooking and the dishes they made.

I really liked making the cake. It was really good to have some sweet food with our savoury food. Anais

Amazing, just amazing! I rate our food 11/10!. James

I couldn’t cook because I was unwell but the Gyozas were my favourite to eat. Lanie

Well done everyone, and thanks Scott and Scout. It was a great cooking session.