Whew! What an eventful first Garden 2 Table event
we’ve had! We were grateful to have the Jean Little Public School’s grade 4/5
class of 25 students come out to the Macdonald Institute cooking lab and Guelph
Centre for Urban Organic Farm. Our day started out bright and early in the
cooking lab with safe knife handling skills demo and some hand washing tips.
The kids were broken off into groups of 3 and paired with one of our lovely
Garden 2 Table volunteers to get our hands on some garden fresh foods.
This week we made “Honey Roasted Roots,” “Homemade
Tzatziki Dip,” and “Fresh Herb Dressing.” The dressing was made in mason jars
to allow the children to see the separation of oils and vinegars and to
incorporate some of the herbs such as dill and thyme-which we would be picking
in the garden later in the afternoon. Everyone seemed to learn something new
including how to cut with a knife, what different fresh herbs looked like and
how to see some common measuring tools. One of the highlights of the day
was definitely all the tasting new flavours and vegetables! It was a sight to
see the children reaching for more roasted parsnips which many hadn’t heard of
until this day.
After we finished in the lab, it was straight to
garden to get our hands dirty! Martha Gay greeted us was ready to show us the
ropes about herbs. Upon arrival the children first ate their lunches around the
picnic tables while our volunteers picked some raspberries for the children to
try for dessert. Once lunch was over we moved to the greenhouse to learn about
harvesting and drying some common herbs from the garden including Greek
oregano, tulsi basil , catnip, sage and winter savory. Everyone helped
out including making the bundles, tying them, and attaching some labels on the
herbs to bring home to their families. It was a new sensory experience for many
of the children smelling the unique ingredients and seeing how they’re grown.
Many of them learnt that herbs aren’t only small plants, but they can also grow
in large bushels!
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