Wentworth Show with the Kitchen Garden program

Thank you to all the helpers over the Saturday and Sunday mornings at the Wentworth Show. They were Travis, Mitch, Holly, Jacqueline, Jameika, Chloe, Murphy, Nellie, Josh, Matthew and Amber. There were even some extra Hancock helpers! Thanks also to the parents who got them there; we really appreciate your support. We served the public Cheesy Herb and Silverbeet scones. Thanks to 4/5H and especially 2/3G who did the lion’s share of the cooking. Over the 2 days, the children received a total of $141.15 in loose change donations which is wonderful!

Very big thanks to all the helpers that are coming along to our kitchen and garden sessions. It means so much to have your help and the children love having you there.

This year the Kitchen Garden Program’s green eggs were entered in the Produce and Preserve section and a selection of 10 Vegetables was entered in the Vegetables section. It was very exciting to see a prize of First for the eggs and A Special Prize for Best Exhibitor in the Vegetables Junior section! Well done to our lovely white chook and to Vince and the children who work so hard in the garden.

Pizza, Salad, Vegetable Lasagne and Rosemary and Vine Fruit Bread

The Grade 6 class are undertaking the Pizza Party Unit from the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden "Tools for Teachers" resource. This term we have made our own Pizzas with different flavourings in the Kitchen sessions - Potato and Rosemary, Pumpkin, Chilli and Fetta. The picture above shows a simple Pizza Napoletana made with tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. The children have been working hard in their follow up sessions in the afternoon, to determine whether it is best to make their own pizzas or buy them in. They have decided based on their findings that they will make their own and we are closer to working out what the toppings will be. They have created surveys, collected data and then graphed this data. We have worked on fractions to determine how many slices each Pizza should be cut into.

The above picture also shows a beautiful green salad with crisp baby radishes, a vegetable lasagne with pumpkin and silverbeet and Rosemary and vine fruit bread.  Delicious!!

Garden design using nature

The term that was....

The students have all been working hard in their time spent in the kitchen and the garden in Term 2. Art activities have included weaving, dough animation in the garden, dream catchers using the vines prunings, creating crazy critters using Autumn Leaves, observation of colour difference in Autumn leaves and creating a a framed, hand drawn colour representation.

The winter produce that we have used include, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, rocket, beans,turnips, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, lemons, oranges, lettuces including curly endive, cos and iceberg. Herbs such as basil, parsley both curly and flat leaf, mint, rosemary, sage, coriander.

The kids have really enjoyed the variety of soups that we have cooked. These were Pumpkin, Broccoli, Potato and Lettuce, Sweet Potato and Jerusalem Artichoke, Broccoli and Cauliflower. Soup is a lovely meal particularly in Winter.
It was wonderful to see the amazement on their faces when they tasted the Potato and Lettuce soup, it was like they couldn't believe that cooked lettuce would taste good!

Risotto is always a hit and most of the children enjoyed the Pumpkin and Pepita seed Risotto. Pepitas are pumpkin seeds and when we added them, we toasted them. They have a beautiful flavour when they are toasted.

We had a visit last week from the members of the Milewa Garden Club and they were very impressed with the garden and the kitchen. Some of them went home with some Jerusalem Artichokes to plant in their own gardens.

Mildura Living Magazine Article

This article was published in the Mildura Living Magazine earlier this year. We were all thrilled with how happy the leaders of our school looked in the photos and how beautiful the garden looked.


Click here to see the article

Soup is a favourite with the kids

In recent weeks we have been experimenting with different flavoured soups. The children have made, Pumpkin, Lettuce and Potato Soup and Jerusalem Artichoke, Turnip and Sweet Potato Soup.

It was wonderful to hear that nearly all the children who tasted the Lettuce and Potato soup loved it! I think they were amazed that something with cooked lettuce could taste so good. The lettuces from the garden including, Iceberg, Cos and Curly Endive have all been beautiful. So green and crisp. As we discussed, the lettuces in the supermarket don't look nearly as green, particularly the Iceberg lettuces.

Did you know that lettuces are easy to grow in pots?

The white sweet potatoes have been smaller this year and Vince is suggesting that this was because they were competing with the Cedar Tree that is in the church yard. The sweet potatoes were planted in what's now known as "God's Garden" in the church yard.

The pumpkins that have also been growing there are another couple of weeks away from harvesting. I've tried using one this week in the vegetable parcels but it was still immature with not much flavour. You can tell a pumpkin is ready to harvest when the vine has died off and the stem attached to the pumpkin has dried out.

3/4 M prepared Vegetable parcels, Vegetable broth with hand made noodles and a leafy salad with the last 2 cucumbers. Talking about the cucumbers, they have been so crunchy and sweet. It is sad to see them finally all gone.

Food Revolution Day activity for Grade 6

The Grade 6 class will be participating in an activity at home where they get to prepare and share a 3 course meal for their families/carers at home. We have been researching Jamie Olivers' Food Revolution Day which will be held on the 17th May. The Grade 6 students will be undertaking their cooking experience over the next two weeks. The students are very excited to show off their abilities and have been using recipes that they are familiar with from the Kitchen Garden Program.
As part of documenting their experience they will be taking photos and then presenting these to the class. We look forward to hearing positive feedback from families and carers and hope that everyone enjoys the experience.

Infants have a go in the Kitchen Garden program this week

The infant classes have been involved in Garden and Kitchen classes this week. It has been wonderful to see some helpers in our classes. Many thanks goes to Tammy and Nathan, Mrs Vines, Fay, Berryl and Mrs Baird who have helped in the two classes held thus far.
We welcome the Kinders tomorrow and look forward to seeing their excited faces!

On the menu this week was:

Roasted tomato and basil Pizza
Green onion eggelicious
Cabbage and carrot salad
Peach and cinnamon slice