Skip to main content

Cooking with our Garden Veggies



We had two cooking projects on the go today-kale chips and coleslaw. Before we sat at the cooking table, we had a discussion about Monday's harvest. I was curious to see if the children remembered what we had pulled from the garden. Almost all of them remembered at least one vegetable and many of the children were able to recall all of them-kale, cabbage, beets and lemon balm. Since many of our children were already familiar with kale chips and professed to like them, we decided to make them first. Next, the cabbage-many of them had never tried it before so we went with a simple coleslaw recipe- generally I prefer a short list of ingredients so we can really taste each ingredient for its beauty; in this case, especially the cabbage.

We started with the kale chips. Cutting the leaves, tossing with some olive oil, sea salt and pinch of black pepper. Oh yes, and a few shakes of garlic powder.




Then onto the coleslaw

We cut

and cut

and cut some more

Then we added vinegar

 salt, pepper, and a wee bit of sugar



And ended up with a gorgeous coleslaw!

Coleslaw comments:

Jack: That's yummy!
Kolton: I like it.
Addie: I like it too. I tried it before at home.
Grace: I like it too.
Rhys: I do like it. Yum!
Makena: I don't like it-blah!
Connor: I LOVE it!
Kensie: I don't like it.
Emma: I really like it.
Joban: (covering his mouth) I don't like it.
Matias: I don't like it.
Kahlen: I like the kale chips and the coleslaw.

While chopping the vegetables I heard the following conversation:

Addie: My mom doesn't have a big knife like that. Where did you buy it?
Me: A kitchen store.
Addie: A kitchen store? I only have a small chef's knife.
Sebastian: I have a kid's kitchen at home.
Addie: I used to have one of those.
Connor: My mom can make butter chicken.
Addie: I like shopping.

I love how their conversations are both directly and indirectly related to the topic of conversation. This age group seems to have an ability to weave their ideas in and out of a conversation. I find it so wonderful that they mostly accept each others comments at face value- no judgement if it seems "off topic". They really just allow each person to contribute their thought at the moment. When do we lose this ability to be so generous in our conversations with others? Can we or should we strive to maintain some of this quality to our dialogues? I am going to continue to pay close attention to this way of communicating.

Emily




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

4 Year Old M/W/F Class – I Hear…I See…I Wonder…

We began one of our circle discussions with a question for the children, “What would you like to learn, wonder or hear about?” Here is what they said:    “Skateboarding, Soccer, Perches” (Connor) “Bikes” (Taylor) “Going outside to see if I left my toy” (Jun)  “The Sun” (Jack) “Rollerskating and Swimming” (Daniella)"Skating” (Noel) “Ball” (Sofie) “Scooter and Tricycle” (Masaki) “Shoes” (Ashlan) “When you put something under a pillow you can find it” (Tia) “Soccer” (Kyle) From my list I noticed quite a few of the children were interested in wheels, so at our next circle discussion we looked closely at a scooter and a pair of roller skates – as well as the wheels on a long board. The conversation brought up more questions and answers, which the children confidently discussed amongst themselves. One of the questions was “What makes this a scooter?” The conversation followed with “The scooter has a handle and a brake” and “I know how to ride a long board.” ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Volunteering at Richmond Food Bank

Today was our last day volunteering at the Richmond Food Bank. I am so grateful we had this opportunity– it has been an extraordinary experience for all of us. I, myself, have been very lucky to work in a community where I have seen dedicated volunteers working countless hours for people and projects they believe in. In my own community centre, the staff devote extra hours for many events, all to help strengthen our community. From these experiences grew a desire within me to try to share this with our children. How can we make them generous with their time and energy for the good of others? How can we teach them to be giving people– people that think of others? Are they too young for these concepts? In my need to answer these questions, I sought to find a volunteer opportunity for them. I thought about many different ideas but the food bank always came out ahead. I was lucky enough to come across an open-minded and risk-taking individual– let's face it, preschoolers gett...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Love for Cabbage

Another day of working with cabbage-our prized cabbage that I babied throughout the summer. The cabbage that I saved from the demise of cabbage worms, watered, and surrounded with copper to scare away slugs. So, yes, babied. After all that care and love I was hoping the children would enjoy working with this gorgeous vegetable and like the taste of it. The coleslaw was a hit last week but would cooked cabbage get the same positive response? We assembled our ingredients for cabbage rolls and showed all the children. They smelled all the spices that were in the recipe and many of them loved the smell of the fresh garlic! They took great pride in recognizing onion, salt, pepper, tomato sauce and ground beef. I wanted to introduce them to another herb so we passed around marjoram, which many agreed smelled sweet. We pre-cooked the meat just so the children could work with the food without any cause for concern. The smell of the onions and meat simmering sparked the interest of many ...
Post a Comment
Read more