One Potato, Two Potatoes, Potatoes Galore!

 One Potato, Two Potatoes, Potatoes More Please!

We learnt about all the different foods, healthy and unhealthy, that potatoes are used in and how they are harvested and brought to our shops. Then we harvested our own potatoes (in the rain) and made boiled and roast potatoes with different herbs to taste and share. 

We learnt that we eat the part of the potato that grows underground, called a tuber, and that potatoes have to be cooked to be eaten! Healthy potatoes can taste yummy and Room 27 published their tasty recipes on their portfolios so parents could try to cook these at home.

Harvesting our potatoes

 Skins on - very healthy!

Yummy! 

Which part of the potato plant do we eat?

Cooking galore

Well, this term is certainly marching on. Harvesting and cooking has been on everyone's mind-- teachers and students. It has brought into focus how hands on learning is the best kind, with students engaged and motivated throughout the process. The added benefit is that the students are carrying their enthusiasm home to their families. Parents are being 'encouraged' by their children to plant kale, amongst other vegetables. How cool is that!!

We are gearing up for a full scale shared lunch in a couple of week's time. Here are some photos of the harvesting and cooking so far.

         

Water!

The new challenge facing us is watering our garden over the summer. The nearest tap is quite a walk away for little children with heavy buckets of water so we are looking at getting a barrel connected to the rooftop and collecting rainwater for our garden.

Unexpected results!

We did not anticipate people asking if they could buy our produce! We sold some broccoli, parsley, spinach and spring onions to the Zumba ladies and a big bunch of kale to an RTLB visitor to the school - gold coin donations! We think we will put the money to the new summer planting! It is great to be able to share our produce and know that it is organic and healthy! I feel we have made a difference not only with our children but also the people who see our garden and think perhaps they might be able to grow something as well?

Snippets of student conversation

Some valuable snippets that were overheard today.

Samantha: What are you eating Mrs D?

Me: This is kale. Here, try some.

Lousianna: May I have some too?

Later on-

Samantha and Louisianna: We went and got some more kale to eat. We even gave some of the kale to Madison.

Madison: Yes. I put it in my wrap. It was delicious.

In addition to this, we had around 70 students devouring the spinach dip made by one class. When the bread and crackers ran out, they used whatever they had in their lunch boxes to polish up all the remaining dip. And, we have already had spinach smoothies. 

Vegetables are definitely the 'in' thing!!

Here are the children from one of the classes enjoying the dip. I'm sure more photos will follow.

First day of term 4

Term 4 has begun with a bang! The children were really excited and amazed to see how much the vegetables had grown and wanted to know if we could go and harvest straight away. Catherine experimented with having a give away table for excess grapefruit from home and they were all gone. So that was a success. We even have an enquiry if we would like to sell our parsley by the ladies that use our school hall twice a week for their zumba class. So, it looks like we will be organising parsley bundles soon.

Garden journey!

At first, I was a little apprehensive about doing gardening this past term! Having not much experience at all! However over the past term I have learnt soooo much along with my class about how to take care of the garden. We have loved so much watching it grow and tending to the needs of certain plants. I cannot get over how amazing it all looks and am so excited to get cracking on the cooking this term! First, spinach dip! Have looked up lots of recipes and should be amazing.

My own personal goal is to get the families as involved as I can and try and increase enthusiasm for gardening at home! I also can't wait to share the vegetables with the rest of the community as we look at next year.