Our menu this week had a Middle Eastern and also an Italian influence:
Tabbouleh
Falafel
Polenta
Italian Vegetable Stew
Warm Cinnamon Apples with Yoghourt
We had a lot of parsley in our garden so the tabbouleh seemed an obvious choice; and this led to the thought of introducing our students to falafel. The tabbouleh required students to do a lot of chopping of cucumber, onions, tomatoes and parsley – great practice for knife handling skill development.
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| Regina and Nick chopping cucumber |
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| Shannon stirring the tabbouleh |
We were able to harvest rosemary for the polenta – a new food for many of our students and staff, but very popular.
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| spreading the polenta |
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| Jobe admiring the polenta |
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| Jobe eating the polenta |
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| Cameron removes the leaves from the rosemary |
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| Ellen stirring the cheese and butter into the polenta |
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| Jo and Tash enjoying the polenta |
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| Riley enjoyed his dairy free version of polenta |
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| Nick placed the polenta onto serving platters |
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| Riley grated the cheese for the polenta |
The Italian Vegetable Stew (whose true name is Ciambotta!) allowed us to use a very wide variety of vegetables including peas, beans, celery, parsley, onions, swede, turnip, asparagus, capsicum, zucchini, garlic and tomatoes.
Falafel was also a new taste for our students and was a big winner. We decided to use a packet mix for the falafel on this occasion, but might attempt to cook it from scratch next time.
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| Darcy placed the falafel into serving bowls |
We had been given a lot of apples so once again returned to an old favourite of ‘Warm Cinnamon Apples’ – using the apple machine was as popular as ever!
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| Jobe grated nutmeg for the apple dish |
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| Rochelle peeled, cored and sliced the apples |
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| Jobe enjoyed using the apple machine |
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| Ryan enjoyed using the apple machine |
In the garden we have been planting seedlings. We planted corn, squash and runner beans using an ancient Native American method called “The Three Sisters”. According to Iroquois legend, corn, beans and squash are three inseparable sisters who only grow and thrive together. This system has much to recommend it – the corn provides a natural pole for the beans to climb, bean roots add nitrogen to the soil and help to stabilize the corn plants and the squash vines become a living mulch, shading emerging weeds and preventing soil moisture from evaporating, and also their spiny stalks help to discourage predators from approaching the corn and beans. The three vegetables also complement each other nutritionally – corn providing carbohydrates, beans being rich in protein and squash providing vitamins.
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| Frank, Annette and Rochelle planted the beans, corn and squash |
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| The Three Sisters Bed |
In the garden activities such as watering, weather recording and composting were completed and also we gave one of our scarecrows a ‘makeover’!
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| Jackson harvested celery |
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| Josh checked the rain gauage |
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| Jo added vegetable waste to the compost bin |
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| Ellen gave the scarecrow a makeover |
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| Darcy and Sharni watered the potatoes |
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| Cameron transported some soil |
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| Jackson emptied the compost bin |
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| Ryan watered our giant pumpkins |
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| Josh completed the weather board |
Classes are now regularly using the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program Interactive Whiteboard Activity to find out about the week’s menu and recipes.
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| Bradley tried to find the foods to be cooked this week - they were hidden behind the boxes. |
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| Mitchell found out what was behind the question mark boxes - either one of the foods we would be cooking or something that we wouldn't want to cook like a frog, spider or fly! |
Next week we will be cooking:
Roasted Turnips filled with Spicy Rice
Potato and Rosemary Pizza
Leafy Green Salad
Coleslaw
Honey Fruit Salad
And just in case you are wondering what we look like:
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| Wendy |
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| Pauline |
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