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

Gardening class has been a bit disrupted this term as I've been away for several weeks following the loss of my beautiful mum.  So apologies for the lack of garden class updates.

This term I have covered snake awareness (as well as snake appreciation! They are such a beautiful and important part of our local ecosystems) with each class. We talked about being aware of our environment, making noise, wearing boots or enclosed footwear, avoiding investigating in and under things in the playground that could be good hiding spots for snakes.  If the students see a snake they should first freeze - crossing their arms over their chest and 'giving themselves a hug' to help to balance and stay still, then slowly step backwards away from the snake.  If there is more than one student then one child should go and find a teacher while the other student stays (a good distance away from the snake) to make sure other students don't accidentally come across it and to see which way it goes (but NEVER follow it).  At the start of the term the prep/1 class did a Snake Parade where we marched around the school with drums, buckets, tambourines and other instruments to let any snakes know that we were back from holidays and that they should move on now.

The prep/1s and 2/3 classes did grazing tours of the garden to check out what veggies we have growing at the moment and to harvest and eat carrots, beans and cucumbers, and I showed the kids how to take a nasturtium leaf and turn it into a cup, which we used for our drinking water.  The 2/3 class also managed to pick flowers in all of the colours of the rainbow which we arranged into a mandala.  We then left our flowers for the younger kids to use for imaginative play at lunch time.

We have been using flowers and leaves from the garden to press into small disks of clay, exploring their textures and patterns.  Oxart pottery have offered to fire these for us and we have put a hole in each one so that the students can hang theirs up once they are finished.  We are going to paint them with iron oxide and then rub it off, which will help the patterns from our plant specimens to stand out.

At the end of last year the 5/6 class chose to make 'Kindness rocks' as a small legacy gift for younger students.  They decorated river pebbles with paint pens, adding beautiful patterns and some nice messages.  The 2/3 class of last year also added to this collection.  This week in garden class the current 4/5 class buried all the kindness rocks in the big sandpit, so they can be dug up like buried treasure by the younger classes.  Fun!

In the garden at the moment we have ready to harvest: cucumbers, zucchini, carrots, kale, spring onions, herbs, beans, potatoes, eggplants, mizuna, silverbeet, basil, rhubarb and tromboncinos.  Plus we are working our way through our garlic crop.  Our tomato plants are laden but alas, still (mostly) green as I got them in so, so late this year - whoops.  If anyone has excess at home I'm sure Chris would love some for the cooking classes.

cooking with Chris

(note from Chris B - apologies if there is some jumbling of recipes and pics, I managed to confuse myself whilst preparing the newsletter!)

Grade 5 and 6 Cooking Week 6

In Cooking in Week 6,  Grade 5 and 6 cooked a feast of Italian pizzas.

We cooked Zucchini Pizza, Eggplant Calzone, Margherita Pizza and  made Basil and Parsley Pesto and made Purslane and Yoghurt Dip and created a Salad of the Imagination. Chloe and Ivy also made GF Pizza bases to be frozen for another class.

From the garden we used zucchini, parsley, basil , Cavolo Nero (Tuscan Kale) spring onions, tomatoes, mizuna, and a variety of different lettuce, leaves and herbs.  And Purslane harvested on the Weed Foraging session they did with Eve last garden lesson.

We used the baked eggplant from last summer that we froze. And we used the Basil and Parsley Pesto Garde 56 made last lesson and froze.

Chloe, Ivy, Lily and Emma made the pizza dough and prepared the toppings for the Zucchini Pizzas.  They  used  the Basil Pesto we made last session.

Heidi, Levi,  Alfie and Grace made the Tomato Passata for the Margherita Pizzas.  

Clem, Lexie, Liv and Frankie made the Eggplant sauce for the Eggplant Calzone and rolled out the pizza dough for the Calzones.  They filled and formed the Calzone and added the olive oil and secret ingredient of a sprinkle of parmesan on each calzone.  

The special feature  of the pizzas they cooked this week, were the cheese crusts on the zucchini pizzas and the margherita pizzas.  Chloe, Ivy and Alfie demonstrated how to add the grated mozzarella and parmesan cheese around the edge of the pizzas and roll the dough over the cheeses.  A taste sensation!  We’ll definitely be doing that again next time we make pizzas.  

Thanks for showing us all that great tip! The zucchini pizzas with the basil pesto under the cheese and extra added on top were delicious  Try them at home with your abundance of zucchinis.  Everyone will love it!

It’s great to see that the Grade 5 and 6 students have such great skills that they can now experiment with their own creations by experimenting with the flavours and ingredient textures they know go well together.

Great cooking and teamwork Grade 5 and 6!  The recipes are attached. See the photos for their amazing pizzas and creative plating up!

This is what they said about their cooking this week.

We bring our weeds with us.  So European weeds like Purslane were brought by the new arrivals.  Its nutritious with Omega 3 and Vitamin C and Iron . Eve

I made the Margherita Pizzas. It’s the second best pizza I’ve tasted.  The best being the Margherita at Theatre Royale in Castlemaine.   Alfie

I loved how lightthe Zucchini Pizza was with the cheeses crust. Emma

I liked the eggplant in the Calzone. Ivy

The Purslane and Yoghurt Dip, Liv and I made was good. Lexie

I really expected to hate the pizzas but I loved them. Lily

P1 Cooking Week 7

In Cooking this week Grade Prep and 1 students made Summer Vegetable Stew and Zucchini and Cheese Pull Apart Bread.   The dishes were served with jugs of ice water with the leftover Flower Ice Blocks the students made in gardening early in the term

From the garden we used Cavolo Nero, Silverbeet, Potatoes, Carrots, Zucchini, Garlic, Celery and Parsley, Basil. 

The cooking groups were made up of 2 Grade Prep students working with a Grade 1 student.  They first grated zucchini and parmesan cheese for the filling for the Zucchini and Cheese Pull Apart Bread.

Students then learnt how to knead their ball of dough until the dough was very smooth and warm and then flattened out the dough into a circle.

Each student added the grated zucchini and grated parmesan to their flattened circle of bread dough then folded the dough over the filling and rolled the dough into a ball, that looked like a round dinner roll.  Xavier and the Grade 1 students helped the Preps fill and roll up their dough.

When all the rolls were ready, they added their roll to the baking tin.  Victor made his huge roll from 2 balls of dough and he put it into the centre of the tin!  Then we added lots of grated parmesan on top ofthe rolls.  We left the rolls to rise for 15 mins.  Students learnt how to  wipe down their area and put the veggie scraps in the chook buckets. The Zucchini and Cheese Pull Apart Bread cooked in a hot oven for 25 minutes during recess.

After recess we cut up the potatoes, carrots, cavolo nero, zucchini and parsley for the Summer Vegetable Stew. Students learnt how to make sure the vegetables were placed on the chopping board with the  flat side resting on the board.  They learnt how to make a claw with the hand that holds the vegetable they’re cutting to make sure they didn’t cut their fingers. Atlas and his group used scissors to cut up the Cavolo Nero and parsley. 

April and her team cooked the herbs and spices for the Summer Vegetable Stew.  They then stirred in the tomatoes and stirred in each plate of cut potatoes, carrots, zucchini and Cavolo nero as students finished cutting them.

While the Pull Apart Bread and Summer Vegetable Stew cooked,  students cleaned the tables and worked together with Marcus to learn how to set the table with bowls, forks and spoons.  Eden, Tassie, April and their team picked some colourful flowers to decorate the table.  Xavier and his team put out the cups and jugs of water.

Everyone tried the dishes and loved the very cheesy  Zucchini Pull Apart Bread. They were impressed with the fantastic bread they cooked and everyone tried the Summer Veggie Stew.  Some dipped the bread in the stew to enjoy the delicious sauce.

It was a great cooking session, well done Preps and Grade 1s and thanks Marcus. 

This is what they said about their cooking…

It was delicious, delicious! Leif

I stirred the sauce with the carrots. April

It was infinity, infinity, infinity delicious! Luca C 

It was yummy! Luca O

The recipes for Summer Vegetable Stew and Zucchini and Cheese Pull Apart Bread are attached.