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

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

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.