Kitchen Garden

From Simone & Jill

LA7C

LA7C are a grade 3-4 class who were in Kitchen Garden in week 7 of term 3.  

Thursday 27 August

This week we welcomed LA7C to the garden. Following Acknowledgements of Country, everyone headed out to explore the garden to see what was growing and assess what was ready to use. As there are no cooking classes this week, we didn’t harvest anything but put our energy into removing pests and using donated eggshells to deter the snails and slugs. We’re noticing the change in season; temperatures are rising and suddenly the broad beans are starting to produce fruit. To ensure our crops have the energy to grow we used Seasol and worm wee from the farms to fertilise all edibles.

After lunch, we discussed the Wurundjeri seasons – looking at two different sources which are helping bring together knowledge that had been lost. Afterwards we broke into four groups outside and rotated through four different activities – Jill’s group explored the worm farm, Simone’s weeded the grasses as their seed heads were developing, Michelle’s continued our contribution to Caring for Country by collecting rubbish from around the school, separating out the 10c containers for Envirobank to collect. Lucas’s group had the most fun – remediating the soil in the old corn and broad bean bed by mixing into it compost, worm castings and pea straw mulch.

Friday 28 August

Today we had two very special Acknowledgements of Country in Mandarin – one by a quartet of students and another by a quartet of teachers!

Much fun was had collecting snails and slugs, & throwing them into ‘snail jail’, before we planted more purple carrots, pumpkin, cucumber and zucchini. After that we ground up all the eggshells donated by Sarrah following her epic lemon curd making session and built protective walls for the new seedlings. Some self-seeded violas and borage were transplanted to these beds as pest decoys, and sunflower, calendula and nasturtium seeds planted; these have been protected from the birds with chicken wire. After lunch the last of our seeds were sorted and recipe folders created.

LA7C will be back in a couple of weeks to do their cooking classes. 

LA14V

LA14V are a grade 3-6 class who were in Kitchen Garden in 8 of term 3. 

Thursday 3 September

LA14V returned to Kitchen Garden this week to have their cooking week. They are the Vietnamese-language class & had asked me last term if they could make some Vietnamese food when they were in Kitchen Garden. Absolutely! With their teacher Tam, they brainstormed some ideas & gave me a few suggestions. I chose bánh xèo (Vietnamese pancakes). Jill planted some coriander, spring onions & Vietnamese mint with classes last term so they were ready to pick now, and we also used carrots and mustard greens that were growing in the garden. 

First, they made a dipping sauce, nước mấm chay, then went outside to pick all the fresh ingredients. After washing, the carrots and some cucumbers were sliced and arranged on a serving dish, along with large lettuce and mustard greens leaves. Herbs such as the Vietnamese mint & coriander were also placed on the serving dish. Then the pancake batter was made, including using the spring onion from the garden. The pancakes were cooked with bean shoots, then cut into thick slices which were wrapped in the leaves, with vegetables and herbs placed inside, then dipped into the nuoc mam chay. Yum! 

Friday 4 September

LA14V were back for their second cooking day, and today they split up into their year levels and made food that other classes in their year levels had made. The one table of grade 3-4 students made a rhubarb and apple crumble, using fresh rhubarb and frozen rhubarb from the garden that was picked before it started to die away over winter. They all worked really well together, measuring, chopping and creaming butter into flour. 

The two tables of grade 5-6 students made two loaves of focaccia bread, and each made a dip to be shared: a lemony warrigal-greens dip & a carrot and cumin dip. The carrots were extra from yesterday’s picking in the garden, and the warrigal greens were picked fresh and blanched to make them edible. Each table taste tested their dip & made adjustments before serving it up. There were some great ideas for tweaking the dips, so they have now been incorporated into the recipes. 

Each table shared their food with the whole class. First everyone had the focaccia & dips, then after lunch they were able to have dessert of crumble. The grade 3-4 table had doubled their recipe so there was lots to share!

Well done LA14V, I loved all the ideas you had for Kitchen Garden cooking this year!