Pasta, Pasta, Pasta!

 In the garden the children have loved foraging for wood ear fungus and digging up jerusalem artichokes.

Year 5 have been making fresh pasta in the kitchen using the pasta machines. Groups made ravioli, tortellini and cannelloni. The tortellini were filled with pumpkin harvested from the garden and the cannelloni were stuffed with a delicious broadbean and silverbeet mixture. Broadbeans were harvested earlier in the year and we have plenty in our freezer. Silverbeet fresh from the garden along with sage, parsley, mint and sorrel.

Broadbean and silverbeet cannelloni

 Year 4 made a Versatile vegetable soup with parmesan twists which was enjoyed by all!

A Celebration of Food Diversity

We were very excited to receive our box of recipes, ingredients and seeds put together for the Garden To Table schools. Thanks to the Louis Bonduelle Foundation (www.fondation-louisbonduelle.org) who helped fund the project. The recipes are from seven different countries and celebrate "'open-mindedness for tastes and interests in food"
We are looking forward to sampling the recipes in the upcoming months.

Jiuan Kok, Kitchen Specialist from East Tamaki Primary tested and refined the recipes and was on site when we opened our box.

We have been busy!!

The gardens have been cleared of all summer crops and we are now preparing for winter and planning new structures for the Potager gardens by the hall. We are sowing root vegetables (carrots, turnips, radishes, beetroot), peas, broadbeans and garlic. We have transplanted cauliflower and broccoli seedlings and sowed green manure crops of lupins and mustard which will be dug into the garden beds in a month or so to feed the soil.



We have cut LOADS of comfrey leaves to make liquid fertiliser. We mulched the rhubarb in the gingko garden with comfrey and fed the rest of the garden with our comfrey and worm tea. The hens have been on duty snapping up snails and encouraging lunchtime helpers to keep turning the compost and looking for worm treats!

Other jobs have included wrapping the greenhouse with new shade cloth, protecting new seedlings from new seedlings and birds with netting and collecting autumn leaves for decorations and leaf mulch. We have harvested some giant kumara, lots of jerusalem artichokes a variety of herbs and our ever ready silverbeet.

 In the kitchen we have been using pumpkin, beetroot, silverbeet, kumara, potatoes, jerusalem artichokes and a variety of different herbs all harvested from the garden. Our knife skills have been put to the test! Presentation has been a focus and we have produced some amazing dishes that not only tasted great but looked fantastic and reflected the colours of autumn. Honey given to us by a Beekeeper friend of Mrs Elmore was delicious on pikelets and the Autumn Harvest Brown Rice Salad was a hit. Check out the recipes on the link Recipes.

At the end of term 1 and beginning of term 2 we used our outdoor pizza oven and produced yummy pizzas. Favourites were the Potato and Rosemary Pizza and the Feijoa and Apple Crumble Pizza. Delicious!!!