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

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