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Sunday 23 November 2014

Fettuccine and Food Forests!

On Thursday we had a very busy and productive morning out in our Food Forest and in the kitchen. We planted some berry bushes, a lemon tree and some pumpkins in the area. We broadcast a mix of beneficial and bee seed mix for the food forest floor and added some wood chip to the pathway, in front of the chicken enclosure. So many people are visiting our chooks that the grass has completely worn away, so we decided to make the area look a bit tidier by laying some wood chip on the path.

We also did some fruit tree maintenance. To encourage a better crop in the coming years, we removed the few fruit that had started to grow on the trees. We also noticed that some of the trees are suffering from leaf curl, so we removed the affected leaves and gave the trees some food, in the hope that they'll outgrow and overcome the disease. It was a busy time but we all enjoyed it, and as we did our jobs we heard one of our chooks laying an egg. The students loved being able to collect the egg and use it in the morning's cooking.

Once we'd had a tidy and a wash up we headed over to the kitchen to make fettuccine and spinach pesto. Many of our students had never made pasta before and they all enjoyed having a go with the pasta making machine. (One mum told me her son had enjoyed making the pasta so much, he wants one for home now. That's what it's all about!) The pesto making team and I not only made the pesto, but we also got to be the front of house team, and we enjoyed laying the tables and making floral decoration with flowers from the garden to go on the tables. It was really lovely to sit down and share the food together. This is something we don't usually manage to do, as there is often about 55-60 students in one session, so we usually go with finger food and eating in the garden to make it more manageable (and less messy)

Here's the recipes for the day and a few photos.

Pasta

Ingredients:

200g plain flour
2 eggs
1 ½ teaspoon of salt

METHOD

Thoroughly clean and dry the work space.
Weigh flour and combine it with the salt.  Tip onto work bench and make a well in the centre. Crack in eggs and begin to incorporate using flat fingers. Continue to knead the dough until smooth.  Cover the dough and rest (ideally for one hour) whilst you clean up the mess!!

On a clean and dry work surface attach pasta machine.  Press the dough into an 8cm rectangle and with the pasta machine on its widest setting pass the dough through.  The dough will look uneven and sticky.  Fold it into three length ways, turn 90 degrees and roll again. Change to next thickest setting on the pasta machine and repeat. Do this 3 or 4 times until the dough looks smooth and even. Once that has been achieved you can start rolling it slowly though the settings until you reach the desired thickness. If the dough starts to get too long cut it into two and work two pieces.

Pass the dough through the required cutter to achieve shape.  Flour strips and lay on bench to dry whilst you fill a large pan with salted water and bring it to the boil.  Drop the pasta into boiling water and cook for 4-5 minutes (taste to check when al dente).  Place a colander in the sink.  Spoon 2-3 tables spoons of the cooking liquid into the prepared pesto then tip the pasta and cooking liquid into the colander to drain.  Return the pasta to the empty hot saucepan and mix in the pesto.  Transfer to serving dish and garnish with toasted sunflower seeds.

Pesto

Ingredients:

60g Parmesan cheese
¼ cup sunflower seeds
1 bunch of parsley/spinach
2 cloves of garlic
1/3  cup olive oil (approx)
salt

METHOD:

Place 2 tablespoons of the sunflower seeds in a frying pan and toast over a medium heat for two to three minutes careful not to burn them and set aside to garnish finished dish.  Place remaining sunflower seeds into the food processor.
Weigh Parmesan and grate finely. Divide into two adding half to the food processor and the other into a separate bowl.
Wash and dry the parsley/spinach and peel and crush the garlic.  Add both to the food processor.
Process the ingredients until you have a rough paste.  Scrape down the sides and begin adding the olive oil and continuing to process until a creamy consistency is reached.
Scrape pesto into a bowl and add remaining Parmesan and salt to taste.

On the way back for another load of wood chip

Charlotte, Amber and Tanika planting berry bushes

The boys enjoying a feed
That's what I like to see James - A nice clean plate and a big smile!






Broad beans harvesting and cooking

Room 8 and Room 16 worked super hard harvesting, shelling and making some tasty dishes with our Broad beans. It was a great to see all those little and bigger hands popping the pods and collecting all the beans. We made three dishes last week, all of which used veggies from our gardens. We enjoyed sharing a Broad Bean, mint and feta salad, a Broad bean hummus, a radish dip and we even made crackers and harvested our own carrots, which we washed and chopped up for carrot sticks. It was great to have so many students on hand to get through the vast amount of Broad beans we had grown!




Here's a few of the recipes for the dishes we made. They were a bit hit with the students and adults.

Broad Bean Hummus

Ingredients

400g shelled broad beans
½-1 garlic clove, crushed with a little salt
Approx 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Generous squeeze of lemon juice
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

METHOD

Put the broad beans in a pan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes (depending on age and size) until tender, then drain. Set aside to cool, then slip the beans out of their skins.

Put the skinned broad beans in a food processor or blender with the garlic, 3 tablespoons of oil, a good squeeze of lemon juice and some salt and pepper. Process to a thick, slightly coarse purée, adding more oil if it seems too thick and dry.

When you're happy with the texture, transfer the purée to a bowl. Taste and adjust the  seasoning with more salt, pepper and lemon juice as needed.
By Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall from River Cottage Every Day

Broad bean, feta and mint salad

Ingredients

450g fresh broad beans, shelled weight
125g Feta cheese, cubed
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper

METHOD

Put the beans in boiling water for 3-4 minutes until tender.
Drain well and put into a bowl.
Mix together the oil, vinegar and mint and stir into the hot beans.
When the beans have cooled to room temperature, mix in the cubed Feta and serve.

Crackers

Ingredients:

250g flour
1tsp baking powder
salt
125mls water 
2 tbsp oil


METHOD

Mix it all together
Roll it between baking paper, 
Sprinkle with topping of choice (salt, seeds, spices, Parmesan) 
Cut using a pair of kitchen scissors and bake for approx 10 mins

Sunday 26 October 2014

Landscaping the Food Forest

A few of the Year 4's and I were busy last week in the Food Forest getting the landscaping of the paths done. The teams worked really hard filling in the gaps with soil and laying weed mat and wood chip. I was really impressed with the students work ethic and perseverance. Way to go Year 4's - great team work!
Micheal, Ollie and Edward from the Christchurch Horticultural Society came in late last week to lay the rest of the leaf mulch on the beds. Once that was done we were able to plant some spinach and silver beet for our chickens, They'll be able to see it from their enclosure but they can't get at it! Once it's got a bit bigger the Year 4's can start supplementing their diet with it.
It was great timing as everything was done in time for our visitors over our 50th Jubilee weekend.


Happy Hens

Our hens arrived last week and they're so happy they all laid us an egg on their very first day! I'm guessing it down to their super luxurious accommodation and spacious enclosure. They seem very happy and the students are really enjoying having them. They are creating a lot of interest and the space behind Room 12 and 13 is now a busy space. Here's a few shots of The Girlz Shed.

The Girlz Shed looking colourful

Yarek collected our first eggs 

Happy Hens

Monday 6 October 2014

The Hill Dream Team

I often ask for volunteers to lend a hand in the garden, and I always get a great response from eager helpers. I'd like to say to massive THANK YOU to my 'Hill Dream Team' who worked together in small teams to lay the wood chip on the pathway on the hill behind Room 19. I was super impressed in the way the boys organised themselves, worked collaboratively and persisted to get the job done. Well done Boys! Nice job. Here's a couple of photos of the boys after all their hard work. They look pretty proud of themselves.

The Girlz Shed aka our chook house

As well as our Food Forest getting under way the men for the Halswell Menz Shed were beavering away on our super, duper chicken house and enclosure. 'The Girlz Shed' as I like to call it, is now in situ and we are awaiting the arrival of our girls. We are adopting Mrs Birdling's three birds, and once they get settled in we'll add another three ladies to the mix, and we'll have six super laying ladies. Yarek (from Room 1) and I gave the chook house it's first coat of paint last week. All we need to do now is add the top coat and the curtains and our new luxury pad will be finished. Does anyone fancy making us a set of curtains to add the finishing touches to the place?
The students are SUPER excited about the arrival of our chickens and I'm sure the Year 4's will do a fabulous job of feeding and caring for them. They'll be the best loved chickens in the world.
Des and Graham happy at work

The Girlz Shed looking pretty swish

A mad busy finish to Term 3! Food Forest

Well it was a whirlwind finish to Term 3, but with a lot of juggling everything happened, and we're all ready to Go! Go! GO! in Term 4. In the last week of term Sasha and Micheal, from the Canterbury Horticultural Society, came into school and we begun planting our Food Forest. Our Year 4 students had a great time laying pathways, spreading leaf mulch, planting native and fruit trees. It's a work in progress and they'll be more to add, but we've made a great start. Here's a couple of photos of the team hard at it.

Friday 5 September 2014

Room 16 Bee-ing Awesome




Andrew's Mears from Mitre 10 MEGA Hornby and many others recently visited Room 16, to talk to our newest students, about bees. One of the students in the class got stung by a bee, and this sparked off lots of discussions about bees.
At the start of their learning many of the students were either scared, or disliked bee's because they sting. By the end of the unit, after learning a lot about the importance of bees, the students understand why bee's are important in our gardens, and they have developed a new appreciation of bees. They made honey sandwiches, planted bee friendly flowers in our gardens and learnt A LOT about bees.
Geoff Wallis, one of the teachers in Room 16, created a great video about the students' learning and he has entered it into a competition that is being run by the National Bee Keepers Association of New Zealand. There's great prizes to be won, so good luck Room 16! I think you did an awesome job.

Wednesday 20 August 2014

There's lots going on in our School Gardens

I'm pretty busy so this will be a summary of the current project happening in the gardens at the moment.

  • We have created a partnership with Canterbury Horticultural Society, who will be coming into school to plan and plant a fruit tree orchard, in the area out the back of Room 12 and 13. This will be a Year 4 project. They will be planning and planting the orchard and it will be their job to maintain and care for the orchard in coming years.
  • I'm working with the Menz Shed, who will be coming into school to install a pathway around the back of, and over the top of, our 'hill' in the edible gardens. This area will be planted out with herbs, potatoes and  flowers when the weather gets a bit warmer. We were busy digging in the green crop last week. The Room 16 students had a blast 'chopping and dropping' the lupins, which we planted to improve the quality of the soil
 
  • The Menz Shed are also going to build a chook house and an enclosure for some chickens, so we'll have fresh eggs to cook with  later in the year. The chooks will be housed in the area around where the fruit tree orchard is going to be planted, in the area behind Room 12 and 13. The chooks will be able to roam in among the fruit trees, they will fertilise the soil around the trees and eat the pest that live on the trees. We will be using the food scraps left over from 'fruit break' to supplement the chooks food. 
  • Trees for Canterbury will be once again providing us with some native shrubs to be planted around the school. Having these natives will provide nesting places for plants and insects and create important biodiversity areas around the school
  • Mitre 10 MEGA Hornby are continuing to support our school and as well as the pallet of soil mix they sent us last week, today they gave us a selection of seed, plant labels, liquid fertilisers, balls of twine, peat pots, planting trays and plant tags. Thanks so much to Tui and Egmont for donating these items for us. 
  • Our fruit trees are in! We have three different types of apple tree, one double plum tree, one double pear tree and a lemon tree, so as well as the orchard that behind Room 12 and 13, will have fruit growing in the edible garden behind the junior classroom. We have also planted some blackcurrants courtesy of Mrs McInnes, and we have some raspberries that we will be planting soon, courtesy of Mr Rush. We'll have loads of fruit to make all sorts of yummy things, and they'll be fruit for us all to share. Thanks very much to Scott Wilson for installing the wiring system, that we are going to use to espelair our fruit trees on to.
  • Our composting system is up and running, and we have junior class compost monitors who are bringing their classes food scraps out to the be composted. 
  • We've been busy planting some seed ready for the warmer weather, and we have leeks spring onions, basil, mint, spearmint and peas already under way. It's all going well in the nice warm greenhouse.    
  • And this is all running alongside our garden sessions with Room 16 and Room 8, when we recently made appleslaw and apple pies! They were delicious. 
So it's all go here - and we haven't even got into spring yet!






 

Wednesday 13 August 2014

Mitre 10 MEGA Hornby are on board - Yahoo!

Mitre 10 MEGA Hornby have very kindly become a partner of our school gardens and last term Andrew Mears, the Garden Center Manager, and Shane Allen the Marketing Manager, came out to school to talk about ways they could support us, and our Garden to Table programme. Since then they have been donating all sorts of goodies to us, and last term we received a load of free gardening magazines and some microgreen seeds.
Last week Andrew visited Room 16 and during his visit he talked to the students about the vital role Bee's play in the garden. He also organised for a pallet load of container and seed raising mix to be delivered to school and he dropped in some seeds, seedlings and some peat pots to school. Way to go Andrew! We are very fortunate to have the support of Mitre 10 MEGA Hornby and we really appreciate all the help they are giving us.





Wednesday 25 June 2014

Insect hotels

Thanks to Lily Wilson's Dad, Scott, we now have two very impressive insect hotels in our edible gardens. Scott very kindly built these out of pallets and he even went the extra mile by adding a roof and some signage for the hotels. We had a great morning filling the hotels with a variety of natural materials, including cardboard, pine cones, twigs, bricks and leaves. We have already seen insects moving into their flash new accommodation and our Room 16 students have been enjoying looking at the insect hotel through the classroom window. Here's some photos for you to enjoy.






Monday 23 June 2014

Friday afternoon help


Weather permitting I am usually out in the garden on Friday's, and in the afternoon Shannyn Oakes often comes and gives me a hand. She works really hard in the garden, and although she might not be our tallest student, she certainly pulls her weight and is not afraid to get stuck in. I am always grateful of the help Shannyn gives me and she is becoming a very knowledgeable gardener. Recently Shannyn and I were interviewed by two of her classmates, Josh and Ryan. Here is the short video the boys made about or time in the garden.
Here's Shannyn taking a mighty barrow load of weeds to the bin

And relaxing in the wheelbarrow after a hard afternoon's work. Way to go Shannyn! 

Tuesday 3 June 2014

The shortest day is fast approaching.....

Winter has sprung, and things have slowed down in the garden. We had a mixed bag of weather in May, having more than one, 'in a hundred year' rain event, soaking our gardens. Things seems to have calmed down a bit now, with cold sunny days and plenty of decent frosts.

The plants might have slowed down but we sure haven't! Ron and his whanau have finished off the pallet planters and put the planks in place on the front of the compost bins, so our super deluxe composting system is all ready to go. Room 16 and I have set up a new worm farm, and Reuben Hill has put the plastic in the greenhouse. Room 8 and Room 16 have filled the pallet planters with pea straw and good growing soil, all ready for the spring. Last week they made carrot, orange and ginger soup and herb scones, which they enjoyed making and sharing. Whilst the scones were baking the Room 8 senior students helped our newest students, from Room 16, do some writing about our time in the garden. Great team work!

The Seniors helping the New Entrant students fill the pallet planters with pea straw and soil 

Chopping the herbs from the garden for the scones

The herb scones were delicious. 

Reuben putting the finishing touches to the greenhouse 

We're in the process of setting up the wiring systems for our espalier fruit trees, and thanks to Mrs McInnes, we now have blackcurrants planted in our edible garden. Yum! The fruit trees should be arriving next month, so now's a good time to get the wiring in place. We'll have two types of plums, two pears and three different varieties of apple out in the garden. Plenty of options for those that have forgotten their fruit break. 

The shortest day is fast approaching, so we'll be out in the garden again next week planting garlic. We'll also be building an insect hotel and making bird feeders. Fingers crossed for a dry day. In a couple of weeks we're putting on an afternoon tea as a thanks for our volunteers. The boys class have offered to help out with the baking and organising the event - Thanks boys! Oh and did I mention that the New Entrant students will be setting up a stall selling worm tea and some produce from the garden? 

Thursday 17 April 2014

Rain has stopped play!

Well the weather has taken a nose dive and we seem to have gone from summer to winter in a matter of weeks. Autumn just never happened. We've had rain for the last ten days and that means we've been able to do very little in the garden. Of course the weeds are happy, as the days are still warm enough for them to grow and the constant rain is giving them all the water they need to really get a grip.
Last Thursday we did manage to get out in the garden and we had some volunteers, Biff and Marina come in to give us a hand. Some students from Room 11 came out in to the garden to plant some green manure crops and to thin out and transplant some of the radishes we planted a few weeks ago. The students made a short video diary of what we did, which you can view here. The forecast is not looking too flash for the coming days. It looks like we'll have plenty of weeding to do after the school holidays,


Today

17 Apr
Showers
14°C
9°C
Rain, more persistent afternoon. S'lies tending easterly.

Tomorrow

18 Apr
Rain
16°C
13°C
Rain, possibly heavy. Fresh easterlies.

Saturday

19 Apr
Showers
21°C
12°C
Rain or drizzle clearing. Fresh NE turn gusty NW.

Sunday

20 Apr
Cloudy
19°C
9°C
High cloud. Northerlies, dying out later.

Monday

21 Apr
Rain
16°C
7°C
Rain with light winds.

Tuesday

22 Apr
Showers
13°C
5°C
Showers. Not much wind.








Friday 11 April 2014

What an amazing first term!

logo-garden-to-table.pnglogo-text-garden-to-table.png
Wow! It’s been such a busy first term with Garden To Table, but we’ve achieved SO much insuch a short space of time. We’ve dug, chopped, planted, built, carried, sieved, rolled, blended, drilled, hammered, watered, eaten, laughed, sweated, grated and worked together to learn lots of new skills. We even made it into the paper last week! All these things don’t just ‘happen’ and without the help of others we’d never of managed to achieve all that we have. So I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the fabulous students, parents, grandparents and members of our community who have supported us, volunteered their time or donated items to the garden. We couldn’t have done it without you!
I’d like to thank the parents and grandparents of the Room 5 students, who helped us in the garden and kitchen. I like to thank Yvonne and Reuben Hill and Hamish McDonald for giving up their time putting the greenhouse together. Thanks also goes to Scott Wilson for creating our composting system. 
Andy Moore, who owns Paving Innovations on McTeigue Road, very kindly donated the pavers for the path and for the inside the greenhouse. Thanks Andy! (If you need pavers yourself go and see Andy, tell him you saw this article and he’ll give you a discount! Tel 3493682 or 0252071130). The PTA were kind enough to give us money to buy some kitchen equipment, so thanks very much for that! But the BIGGEST thanks of all goes to the fabulous men from the Halswell Menz Shed - Ron, Alan, Jim and Colin, who have given up so much of their spare time cutting down the raised beds and building the pallet planters. You’re the BEST!


If you’re interested in getting involved in projects like this and/or joining the MenzShed contact Roger Spicer: roger.s@xtra.co.nz, 027 229 1928

Thursday 3 April 2014

We're in the news!


Here's a copy of the article about our school garden that has been published in today's Christchurch Mail. If you want to see the online version click here and go to page 3.

Turning youngsters on to gardening

OAKLANDS teacher Suzanne Wood is giving her young students plenty of food for thought, while happily letting them get their hands dirty doing it.


RIOT OF COLOUR: Suzanne Wood, teacher/co-ordinator of Oakland School’s ‘‘Garden to Table’’ scheme, on the job in a riot of colour.
Wood is co- ordinating the Halswell school’s new ‘‘ Garden to Table’’ programme, which allows students to grow and harvest their own fresh produce, then cook and prepare it to share with others.
It’s not just the school children who muck in working in the garden and the kitchen – much of the spadework for the Oaklands’ initiative has been provided by teachers, parents, older relatives and local organisations.
‘‘It’s a really good way of involving the local community in the school,’’ Wood says.
The Garden to Table concept took root in Australia more than 10 years ago, before sprouting a few years later in New Zealand.
This year, Oaklands became one of only four schools in the South Island where the ‘‘ handson’’ learning tool is starting to blossom and bear fruit.
‘ ‘ We’re using it as a whole school event,’’ Wood said.
Year 7 and 8 pupils are mentoring the new entrants – going into the garden and doing jobs like sowing and weeding.
‘‘It’s a way to develop a bond between the older and the younger children,’’ she said.
As well as helping with language and life skills, the programme lets students do practical outdoor work then gets them ‘‘into the kitchen, actually making something’’.
With the first months of the school year planting (and eating) summer vegetables like lettuce and carrots, Wood and her students are now planning for winter crops, such as cauliflower and brussels sprouts. They also hope to begin planting fruit trees later in the year.
Once the scheme is bedded in at Oaklands, Wood believes it will have the same positive impact as in other schools in New Zealand and Australia – raising youngsters’ desire to try new foods and giving better understanding and more confidence in cooking and gardening.
For Wood, this sort of teaching and learning also plants seeds in children’s minds that will allow them to lead happier and healthier lives. It’s a lesson she has taken to heart herself, recently studying organic horticulture at Lincoln University, and putting this into practice in her own kitchen garden.

‘‘Why pay for a bunch of spring onions or other veges when you can grow them yourself?’’

The Boys class lend a hand

Once again we were lucky enough to have some of the boys from Mr Brown's class helping in the garden last week. They have been working alongside the men from the MenzShed getting the pallet planters cut up and lined. One they're in place we'll fill them with soil and they'll be ready for planting out in the spring. Originally the whole of the back fence was going to be pallet planters but Scott Wilson, a helpful Dad, who gave us a hand with the construction of the composting system, suggested we plant some fruit trees along the fence. We thought it was a great idea, so we'll put some in over the winter months. Once they get established we'll espalier them, which will make great use of the space and that horrible fence will take on a new life. If there are any espalier experts out there we'd really appreciate some advice and a hand. 


 

The Greenhouse stands again

After taking a hammering from the weather the Greenhouse is now upright and looking rather lovely with the pavers laid. Thanks again Andy at Paving Innovations for donating the pavers to us. Reuben did a fantastic job of attaching it to the frame which is now staked to the ground. Hopefully it'll survive the coming winter. Our next job is to put the plastic in place and it should be all good to go.


Monday 24 March 2014

Taster # 2

This time it was Mr Forman's class to take their learning outside and take part in our second Garden to Table 'Taster' Session. It was a lovely sunny Autumn day and Room 5 were all eager to get busy in the garden. They'd come well prepared in sunhats, gumboots and wearing old tops.

We had one team working alongside the talented Scott Wilson, building our four bay composting system. They worked hard together and managed to get most of the composting system put together in a short space of time. Well done guys! Great team work.




We had another team led by Mischa's mum, Vanessa, who worked on landscaping the herb spiral. Thanks to this group and with the help of Mr. Ladbrooke's class it's nearly ready for the finishing touches. Once it's been shaped, tidied up and the last bit of weeding has been done it can put it in green crop for the winter, reading for digging in in the spring.


Our last team worked with Joel's mum, Kylie, planting out our first crops - lettuce, beetroot, radishes and carrots and some herbs - Oregano, Thyme, Rosemary and Sage. We'll look forward to enjoying those in the coming weeks. To give the garden a splash of colour they also planted some Petunias and Pansies. 



After all our efforts in the garden it was off to the kitchen to make some Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls. The students were busy chopping and grating, mixing and rolling. Here are a few photos of Room 5 in action. 



And enjoying the fruits of our labours.




Room 5 were eager to keep going, so we kept on rolling until every last bit of filling had been used and we'd ran out of rice paper rolls. At the end we had a Spring Roll mountain! We couldn't eat them all, so the surplus went off to the staff room and the staff had extra morning tea. I had lots of teachers commenting on how delicious the Spring Rolls were. You rocked it Room 5! - you did an awesome job and it was great to see how much you enjoyed your time in the garden.