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
This week in gardening class we welcomed our new ducks, with each class starting with a discussion about what ducks need, why we are going to be keeping them (eggs, poo to fertilise the orchard and pest control) and how to keep them healthy and happy. We also talked about some amazing duck facts - so parents of prep,1s and 2s you can ask your kids to share some duck facts with you I’m sure!
The prep/1s spent their lesson making up some edible enrichment toys. We used cabbage leaves, watermelon, apple and celery leaves to create a big edible garland that we hung in their enclosure, plus some duck muesli with seeds and grain plus finely chopped veggies.
The grade 3s were away on camp this week so the grade 2s had a ‘choose your own adventure session’ with rainy day activities such as seed saving, decorating seed packets using watercolour paints and markers and filling seed packets with the seeds that we saved last term.
We were able to finish setting up our ‘Seed Suitcase’ which is now in the produce cart at the school gate. Seed packets are $2 each.
After classes were finished some of the students (thank you Vega and Marlin. Excellent helpers!) spent their lunchtime doing some seed saving and cleaning and then after lunch I was joined by the parents garden club to pot up some of our tomatoes for our annual sale. Chris and I went slightly crazy with seed purchasing this year (mainly Chris!) so we will have a HUGE range of tomato varieties and summer veg available at the end of October. If anyone fancies doing some potting I am more than happy to set you up with some to do in our lovely warm greenhouse - and I’ll even throw in some tomato plants once they are ready, to sweeten the deal.
This week in cooking with Chris
This week in Cooking, Grade 5 and 6 and Grade 5s from the 4 and 5 class made a Greek feast of Spanakopita Spiral Pies, Greek Salad, Pickled Radishes and Home Made Tomato Sauce.
From the garden we used Silverbeet, chives, greens, oregano, parsley, celery, radishes and garlic And from the freezer we used tomato passata and from the pantry, dried oregano and herbs we dried last term.
Elsie, Anais, Lenny and their team measured and weighed, grated and mixed the cheeses and whisked the eggs for the Spanakopita filling. Romy, Merry and Chloe washed and chopped the silverbeet and greens and herbs, including parsley and chives. They then cooked the greens for the filling.
Angel, Dante, Sophia, Lanie and their team chopped the ingredients for the Greek Salad and mixed their secret ingredients for the dressing.
Grace R, Liv, Ivy and Grace, measured out all the ingredients for the Spanakopita dough and mixed and kneaded the dough together. They kneaded the dough until it was soft and smooth, then divided it into equal portions, ready for the class to roll out after recess.
Lexi and Clem, made the Pickled Radishes using the radishes, 23s harvested last week in Gardening They measured the vinegar and spices for the pickling liquid and heated the vinegar and added the spices. They cooled it until the flavours developed then added the sliced radishes, then mixed the pickles and plated them up for us to enjoy with the Spanakopita Spiral Pies.
Patrick, Levi, James, and Andrew used the tomato passata from the freezer and their secret herbs and spices and worked well as a team to make the delicious Tomato Sauce of the Imagination we served with the Spanakopita Spiral Pies. It was so delicious there was none leftover!
As we completed each of the cooking tasks, Lee-Anne and Lenny, rinsed, washed and put away the dishes we used.
After recess we worked in groups to roll out the dough and make the Spanakopita Spiral Pies. Everyone worked well together to knead the dough, shape it into logs and roll it out into long, thin sheets of pastry.
We then spooned the filling onto the pastry, folded over the pastry and carefully formed the log into a spiral to form the Spanakopita Spiral Pies. While the Spanakopita was cooking, everyone worked well in their teams to plate up the salads and sauces and clean up and set the tables. Merry and their team picked some lovely seasonal flowers, herbs and wattle to decorate the tables.
Grade 5 and 6 all worked very well in their teams to make the delicious Spanakopita Spiral Pies, Greek Salad, Pickled Radishes and Tomato Sauce of the Imagination. There were no leftovers!
Here’s what the class shared about their cooking and the dishes they made.
Yummy! I loved mixing everything together! Anais
It was really fun. Lee-Anne, Lenny, and Anais were good team mates. Elsie
The process was fun. Grace F
Chopping the greens was fun. I really like making the Spanakopita. It went well with the sauce. Merry
The food we cooked was good. Lanie
I loved the food. Sophia
Making the sauce took a lot of effort but was worth it. Levi
Making the Tomato Sauce was fun. Patrick
The sauce was a bit spicy but delicious. Chloe
Well done everyone, and thanks Scott, Lee-Anne and Arkey, it was a great cooking session.
recipes and photos below
