Module 3: Using the Harvest

There are many fun ways to incorporate Using the Harvest into lessons plans, and cooking is always a popular and exiting activity for students. It can turn them on to new taste combinations, and since the students are doing all the harvesting, measuring, chopping, and cooking themselves, they are gaining ownership and experience. 

One girl, after we made a Plant Part Stir Fry, asked if I knew what she was having her mom make for dinner. When I asked her what it was, she said dramatically, while pointing to her plate “This!”

For my last session, we made a stir fry using every vegetable available in the garden, a simple teriyaki sauce, and mixed in quinoa to create bulk since the greens cooked down so much. When I asked what they thought about it, one boy said it was “revolutionary”, and another followed saying it was like “two revolutionary wars collided into each other creating a non-stop taste explosion that rocked my tongue and mouth to heaven” and then said “It was delicious. I don’t know who taught you how to cook, but they did a really good job.” It was an awesome way to end the year.

Cooking is an easy place to incorporate math, inquiry, and technology and science- figuring out conversions, doing taste tests and comparing ingredients, and looking up information on the internet for recipes, ingredients, locating farms that local produce could come from, and composting scraps and plants after harvest.

   

I always brought copies of the recipe to send home, or if it was something we were putting together as we went along, had the students write the recipe out. What I learned though experience is that there is always a time crunch when cooking, so rather than having each student writing their own recipe card during the cooking session, it is better to have one white board or clipboard where you, or the students, can write out measurements and ingredients as you go and the students can make their recipe card at a later time.

I was lucky to have access to the staff kitchen, so we did get to use an oven for some of our cooking activities. I also had a single burner that I would set up on a table for any other cooking so everyone could see and take turns adding ingredients and stirring. 

It is helpful to have a volunteer and at least two stations- we would often have a chopping station and measuring station.

I learned it is best to have an adult distribute toppings and condiments (salt, dressing, syrup, ketchup, seeds, etc) a little at a time, since it is easy to overdo it with those.

Here is what we did this year:

Plant Part Salad: When we were learning about plant parts, we finished our session with a Plant Part Salad, including roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds. You can use what you have in the garden and bring some extra produce to fill in. We harvested kale, chard, lettuce (leaves), and tomatoes (fruit) from the garden. I brought carrot (root), celery (stem), broccoli (flower), plain sunflower seeds and spicy pumpkin seeds. Before we started making the salad I explained we were making a Plant Part Salad, held up each ingredient, and had the students say what plant part it was. We also made a homemade ranch dressing that everyone took turns measuring into a jar and passed around to shake.

Another group made a Plant Part Stir Fry and made quinoa to use as the seed.

In the fall we made Apple Muffins, and while they were baking did a blind taste test of five different apple varieties, many of which were heirloom and donated by a local organic farm. This was a great way to emphasize the difference in taste between varieties of the same thing, so if the students try something they don’t like in the garden, to remember it might be the variety, not the vegetable. It was also another demonstration of difference in taste buds and preference, and reminder of why it’s so important to have good tasting etiquette.

Peeling the Apples

We used pumpkin to make Pumpkin Pancakes and roasted pumpkin seeds. A few students helped me scoop the seeds out of the pumpkin on their break. I baked the pumpkin, let it cool, and everyone scooped out flesh from their individual piece for the pancakes. We toasted the seeds while we were making the pancake batter. Making the batter was a fun time for mental math, using division so everyone could measure a portion of the ingredients.

This spring we made a veggie scramble, which was incredibly delicious, harvesting greens and garlic tips from the garden, and adding eggs, cheese and milk. I put as much milk as I thought we would need in a jar and had the students measure it out in teaspoons and tablespoons and use conversions to find the total amount (3 teaspoons in a tablespoon, 4 tablespoons in ¼ cup, etc) We took all usable leaves off the giant, overgrown chard plant and then pulled it out for the compost.

Team Effort Composting

 We also made oven roasted French Fries after a session of designing and building potato towers out of chicken wire. While they were baking we played “Hot Potato Trivia” using an actual hot potato I had microwaved until it was warm. I looked up potato facts and wrote the question on the outside of a folded paper with the answer in the middle. Whoever ended up with the potato went to the middle of the circle and asked the group the question, and then read the answer after everyone had guessed. (Note-the first potato I microwaved was too hot, so I cooled it under water. When it hit the ground we discovered it had actually cooked around the edges and small pieces came flying off. We promptly changed the game to cold potato!)

Constructing Potato Towers

Testing out Recipes

Garden Salad

We also made many salads or vegetable wraps right in the garden. We discussed recipes and proportions and students loved trying out different combinations to see what they liked best. 

Flower Power!