News from the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden…

Stop Press! The S.A.K.G “Kids in the Kitchen” recipes are now online!

Yes that’s right you can now access the recipes that the children have made in class on the schools website!  Just click on the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden logo in the right hand corner and a list of recipes will pop up. I will update these at regular intervals.

The children & I are very excited as this means that the children can access the recipes for home cooking with their families.

What a “Kitchen Garden Week” we had!!

The 'Fowl Mahal' has arrived!

The first week of Term 4 saw Rushworth P-12 College celebrate “Kitchen Garden Week” an initiative of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation that saw activities held all over the State of Victoria!!

At Rushworth we had a very busy time!

We had a special vist from chef, Annie Smithers from Annie Smithers Bistrot in Kyneton. Annie was partnered to our college through the fundraising dinner auction (which you will read about later in this blog). Annie participated in a garden class and two of our cooking classes. She showed the Year 5/6 students some chopping skills to aspire to!! A visit to the Year 2/3/4 capped off an enjoyable day and she is keen to come back and visit next year!

Wednesday we held a very special session in the Kitchen Garden with our local kinder children visiting for a story in the garden! An enthralled group of littlies listened to ‘Jack & the Beanstalk’. Then we assembled in the garden for a teasure hunt! How exciting!!! Squeals of delight filled the garden – what a delightful sound. As they prepared to leave all were given a small gift and a pack of ‘Jack’s Magic Beans’ to grow at home. We hope they come and visit soon.

Karen & Marg find a treasure too!

This session in the Garden was followed by morning tea on our new outdoor deck area for staff and visitors. Mrs Wikman and the Year 9 Food Enterprise class helped us prepare a wonderful spread – enjoyed by all who attended.

Our new Outdoor Deck area

Thursday morning saw a repeat of our Kinder session with our Prep/ One students. Again the story of ‘Jack & the Beanstalk’ was well received, as was the Treasure Hunt! Jake, Caidyn & Isabelle did a great job portraying Jack, jack’s Mum and the Peddler. As a group, these students are really looking forward to ‘their turn’ to have garden classes!

Our Prep/ One students hunting for treasure in the Garden!

Friday saw the Year 2/3/4 class cater a special afternoon tea for members of the community. There were lemon tarts, blueberry pikelets, beautifully decorated cupcakes and yummy egg sandwich rolls! A most civilsed end to a busy week I can assure you!

But wait it doesn’t end there!

Sunday saw a small contigency head to Annie Smithers Bistrot in Kyneton to act as’ mine hosts’ to the winners of the Dinner Auction. A group of 10 people had won a delightful Sunday lunch which Dillan & Emily were proud to ‘host’. The group were delighted to be served by such talented staff and enjoyed a wonderful array of dishes cooked by Annie.

Jane, Dillan & Emily address the table

Monday 13th of October saw Kitchen Garden Week come to a close with a conference held at the Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne. Andrew & Kristie had the pleasure of attending to take part in Kitchen & Garden classes throughout the day. The staff who attended learnt a lot and spent a lot of time talking to interested schools about the project. There were schools from all around Australia (and even New Zealand!) represented as the Kitchen Garden Program prepares to go National to 190 schools over the next 4 years. We had a visit through Kitchen Garden Week from a school in Morphetvale, SA who were truly impressed with what we have achieved.

Andrew & Kristie discuss the next session with Ange (CEO) and Stephanie Alexander at the Kitchen Garden Conference

Now, sadly the week is over but don’t let that stop you coming by the College to have a look. We will be taking part in St. Mary’s, Open Garden Day on Sunday 26th October from 10am until 4pm. We hope to see you here!

Some Photos from our Kitchen Garden…

Looking up the hill towards the compost…

Rendering the garden beds…

Maddie holds a lizard…

Some more of the wildlife in our garden… We mean the lizard.

Welcome to the Kitchen Garden

Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program

In 2007 we were very excited at the prospect of launching this program at our College for the Years 2-6 children. The program involves these students participating in a 50 minute garden class each week, and a 100 minute kitchen class.

We held a very successful, well attended Community launch on the 23^rd of March, where we were packed to the rafters with families, staff, students and community supporters. It was lovely to welcome celebrity chef Stephanie Alexander to our college to do the handing over of the official ‘red watering can’, the symbol of the Kitchen Garden Foundation.

After the launch it was time to get to work! Our initial working bees saw us install a temporary garden space using fruit boxes donated by a local cool store. This area was where we could start growing vegetables, herbs etc whilst we worked on the garden site infrastructure.

Boy, when we mean infrastructure we mean it! Not starting with a level site threw some initial quandaries, but Louise our garden designer had them sorted in no time! “You’re what? Building a retaining wall out of tyres!”, “Are you sure that can be done?” Well, yes we are sure and two tyre retaining walls are now one of the many features of our garden. Other features include the stone retaining wall, our sandbag rendered beds, the Ironbark trellis, our reclaimed timber bridges, and amazing steps, the frames of which TAFE students built and were paved with recycled bricks. All of this work could not have been achieved without a very passionate support base of volunteers, who have helped with working bees, sewing aprons, gathering supplies, scouring yards for second hand gear, spreading the message to the wider community, assisting with Kitchen and Garden classes. We couldn’t have got to where we are today without their help and assistance!