It’s a new experience for kids cooking with school garden ingredients, as they learn too cook, mix, measure, chop, and prepare fresh produce they have harvested themselves.
For example, the strong odor of onions in the cafeteria of McKinley Elementary School in Davenport Iowa brought tears to 7 year old Mia Duex’s eyes, but she didnt let that stop her. She and her classmates continued to peel the onions, huddled around a table.
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“I like trying new things,” Mia commented.
Other preparations included the cleaning of small Midnight Moon potatoes before they were ready for the food processor. Still other students peeled carrots, and removed the greenery from the tops.
The veggies, which came from McKinley’s own garden plot, were used to create potato pancakes, courtesy of Robert Lewis, longtime director of field services and training for Happy Joe’s Pizza & Ice Cream Parlors, and several students from the culinary program at Scott Community College.
“I think it’s important for them to know where food comes from,” Lewis said. “They can plant and harvest and fertilize and water it and see the whole process and actually take the raw materials and turn it into a cooked, finished, delicious project. It just sort of brings cooking to life.”
Wednesday’s cooking activity goes hand-in-hand with McKinley’s “Farm-to-School” program, which encourages hands-on activities to teach students about the connection between growing plants and eating healthy food.
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This if the fifth growing season for the small garden. McKinley parents Sarah Davis Priest and Scott Florence started the garden with funds from the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.
Priest said the school started with five beds and gave away produce one day after school. Over the years, the school has added various cooking and picking events.
Students who attended the cooking activity will write essays about what they helped prepare, Principal Corri Guy said. The school also has started a garden club, she said.
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