Pizza

Our fabulous Bob has been in stoking up the wood fired pizza oven for both Year 4 and 5's to cook pizzas. He arrives very early in the morning and stays the whole school day to make sure every class has a chance to cook their pizzas in the outdoor oven. On one of the days when we have 3 Year 4 classes in a day he arrived at 6.30am. So early that no one was at school and the alarms hadnt even been turned off! 

 Delicious produce was harvested for a Autumn harvest pizza and Rosemary and thyme pizza bread.

We talked about the science involved in making the pizza dough. One year group has a question about yeast in their Science Quizathon questions so they will certainly get that question right! Thanks to GTT!

Goodbye Summer, Welcome Autumn

We have harvested the last of our tomatoes and peaches and are now enjoying new seasons feijoas, nashi pears and apples. Coriander, parsley and fennel seeds have been harvested.

We have been so lucky to have lots of volunteers this term. Mums, Dads, Grandparents have come along and we have loved sharing the GTT experience with them. Mr Toomer our Principal joined Room 21 and really enjoyed hearing the wonderful conversations around food. 

We had so much fun using a food processor to grate our beetroot for a salad with carrots, mint, raisins and pumpkin seeds. "Beets" using a grater!

 Broadbean hummus with homemade tortilla chips. We used our stored broadbeans that were harvested at the end of last year. Now there is room in the freezer for the next harvest!

Our beautiful free stone peaches 

Apples from our tree were used to make apple and cinnamon pinwheel scones. Delicious!

 Using our knife skills to produce a Seedy slaw with cabbage, kale, sorrel and herbs from our garden

                                         Super yummy corn fritters with a no cook tomato coulis

Nashi pear and sage tart using puff pastry sheets

                            Jeruslaem artichoke flowers and sage, mint and thyme in our garden

GTT at Meadowbank Primary 2019 begins!

Every class has just participated in their first GTT session for 2019 and there was plenty of enthusiam from all! Great to see the new fresh faces of the Year 4's and the experienced Year 5's. Welcome to the new volunteers and welcome back to those who have helped before.

It is great to be back in the gardens with lots of fruit ripening and herbs and vegetables ready for picking. Quite a few plants have gone to seed over the hot summer break but those are being put to good use for food and learning. We are saving seeds and studying different ways that seeds are dispersed. Some are being stored for use as spices ( fennel, coriander and coriander) as well as for growing new crops( sprouting broccoli, Cavelo Nero etc)

Jacqui Knight of the Moths and Butterflies Trust NZ is excited to hear that classes have collected swan plant seed heads and these will be sent to other schools to grow food plants for monarch caterpillars. One swan plant has been wrapped in shade cloth in an experiment to see if we can save the Monarch eggs and caterpillars from the hungry wasps. Next step will be to make some wasp traps and collect net curtains to try to cover the plants in the Butterfly Meadow. 

We have also discussed the difference between pest and beneficial visitors to our gardens. From insects who eat our plants to people who harvest our nectarines; we are exploring ways to protect from the bad and encourage the good! 

Watering is a top priority and the worm tea from our worm bins will be appreciated by the thirsty and hungry plants throughout the gardens. Mrs Masters is looking into setting up some drip irrigation systems to try to cope with the drier and drier summers. Any experts out there?? In the meantime the fantastic new retractable hose reel from Gardena and lots of happy waterers with some new watering cans are helping until our rain dances get a result!!

Corn, silverbeet and feta muffins. We used the corn husks as the muffin cases.

 Making homemade tortilla chips and a fresh tomato and corn salsa

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Fresh nectarine and basil cordial with mint iceblocks

The end of another year

All classes have had their last GTT session for the year and they were AWESOME! The weather has kept us on our toes with rain, thunder, hail and sun all in one day in most cases. Bob had the pizza oven stoked up by 8.30am every morning, regardless of the weather, and grandson Campbell was a great assistant.

Homemade pizzas using vegetables and herbs harvested from the garden and Mini rhubarb and fruit mince pies for the Year 5's and Strawberry santas for the Year 4's were on the menu.

Gardeners tidied up the gardens in preparation for the Christmas break. Rhubarb and broadbeans were harvested then weighed, bagged and stored in the freezer for next year. Parsley, rosemary and marjoram were harvested to make herb salts and plenty of weeding was done by all. 

Lots of thankyous to all our volunteers this year and special awards to those children who have really embraced GTT in every way this year. Well done to all!

Afternoon tea ideas

We made homemade cheese (herb labne), crackers (rosemary and seed lavash) and kale chips. A great idea for afternoon tea or if you have visitors over. You will be sure to impress! Recipes found on the blog