In the kitchen we have been learning how to wash and prepare all the wonderfully fresh vegetables and herbs harvested from the garden. Our knife skills have been put to the test as we have been busy preparing a green herb pilaf, braised vegetables (bok choy, rainbow beet, choko, kale) served in lettuce leaves, persimmon bliss balls and a winter salad with toasted pumpkin seeds and a honey and lemon dressing. Roasted pumpkin and silverbeet calzone, spiced baked apples, silverbeet pizza and margherita pizza with feta and kawakawa herb pesto were cooked in the outdoor pizza oven.
Bananas from our tree were used to make icecream that was served with apple and feijoa crumble. The sorrel pesto and pea pasta was a hit and we enjoyed slicing choko to make a choko and cheesy parsley bake. Lots of fun was had preparing these wonderful dishes as well as sitting down together to eat them. Delicious!
Also thank you to people who help by sharing extra produce, collecting coffee grounds, etc and now donating a marvellous food dehydrator. We are busy peeling, slicing and drying persimmons from the Masters' garden ,which usually end up as bird food. They will then be used in recipes over the year.
This month has been focussed on setting the gardens up for winter and feeding and mulching any bare soil. We have made some fantastic compost since the beginning of term and also found that all last year's autumn leaves bagged up and left under the trees had turned into beautiful leaf mold. Classes have been busy sifting the compost pile and spreading this onto garden beds and sneaking worms to the hens who are back for their weekly visits. Before the holidays arrive there will be a compost heap rebuilding session with lots of comfrey leaves, coffee grounds, grass clippings and general garden waste layered with cardboard, shredded paper and tree mulchings in the hope of cooking up some more free sustainable fertiliser for our gardens.
It has been exciting to watch how quickly self sown plants have germinated after the compost has been spread and an opportunity to learn how to recognise edible vegetable seedlings we want to save.
The sorrel pasta recipe earlier in the term caused one family to have a long shopping trip in the hunt of fresh sorrel. For all those who would like to try this recipe at home we will be potting up sorrel plants to sell on the school plant stall. A very easy plant to grow and an interesting sour lemony flavour. We will have to remember to pot up unusual vegetables for everyone to try out!
Great to finally have chokos to harvest after years of trying to get them growing at school. We have used the stem shoots ( Dragon's whiskers in Thailand) in stir fries along with the fruit. Eating those tips might be a good way to keep the vines under control! Amazing to see how the chokos grow from almost pinhead size to large shiny fruit in just a few weeks.
The broad beans are up out of the soil and we have also sown or planted beetroot, carrots, kale, radishes, leeks, garlic, lettuce, peas, shallots, bok choy, edible chrysanthemums, collard greens/ Dalmatian cabbage ,daffodils and Sparaxis (for spring flowers). We are experimenting with various types of sprouting broccoli and cauliflower which can keep growing lots of little heads for a year or two.
There are also citrus (lemons and mandarins) beginning to ripen and we have some around the school but are always very grateful for any extras. So it has been a month of soil building, sign building (so everyone knows what our plants are) painting pickets to finish our fence, garden tending, harvesting , planning and team building. It is great to hear children shriek with excitement about giant worms they have dug up, as this shows that all the composting and mulching is really making a difference to the fertility and structure of our soil. It is also marvellous to hear children sharing their gardening experiences and to see the way groups work together as a team to complete a task.
