We went over our C.A.R.E.S. contract and had short skits demonstrating how to follow all the rules.
- C: Cooperation
- A: Attitude
- R: Respect
- E: Empathy
- S: Safety
This week our groups are peppers. Each group is a more “mature” pepper as the groups get older. So we start with green peppers, then yellow, orange, and red peppers.
In the morning, we do chores. Each day a different group feeds different animals we have at the farm. Today the yellow peppers learned how to milk a goat. When they were done milking they took the milk and filtered it into a pasteurization machine. Pasteurization is a process where the milk is heated to 172 degrees F and then rapidly cooled to kill bacteria.
We went on a hayride and talked about how we were really on a “straw ride”. Hay is made from dried grass and straw is made from the stalks of grain plants. Once the grains and chaff have been removed then the stalk then they are baled up in round bales or square bales.
Before we started cooking, we talked about how to properly wash our hands and learned some basic knife skills. We made vegetable cream cheese wraps with carrots, tomatoes, and cream cheese. We used some spices and talked about how spices are made. We used paprika, garlic powder, and a little bit of onion powder.
During our garden time we picked the veggies we used in our salsa. We picked tomatoes, onions, peppers, and basil. We saw how each of the vegetables grew and how the bees were pollinating them. We picked red tomatoes and yellow tomatoes and then tasted both of them in the kitchen.
The groups went on a scavenger hunt in the children’s garden. They found things like lemon balm, lamb’s ear, and other plants and statues in the garden. Lemon balm is part of the mint family, that is why when you rub the leaves they have a faint mint smell along with the strong scent of lemon.
During the afternoon, we made salsa using the vegetables we picked in the garden. It was a chunky salsa to go along with our homemade tortilla chips. We just used tortillas that we put a little cooking spray and salt then put them in the oven until they were crispy. The chips and salsa were so yummy and tasted so fresh!
Garden Kitchen Recipes
Corn Tortillas
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3/4 cup cornmeal
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1-1/4 cups flour
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1 teaspoon salt
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2 tablespoons vegetable shortening or oil
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1 cup boiling water
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Waxed paper
In a bowl, combine the cornmeal, flour and salt. Stir it up while the water is coming to a boil. Use a metal measuring cup to measure the water, if possible. Plastic melts, and glass sometimes shatters, so a metal measuring cup is the safest type when you measure boiling water. To continue, place the shortening in the bowl with the cornmeal and flour. Pour the boiling water over everything and stir it up with a fork. Stir and stir because it will lump up quite a bit before it turns into dough. Allow the mixture to cool. Divide the dough into 10 lumps about the size of golf balls. Roll each ball out very thinly between sheets of waxed paper. Loosen and remove the top sheet of paper, and lay the tortilla down on a hot dry skillet, with the bottom sheet of waxed paper still attached, and now on top. After the tortilla cooks for a few seconds, the remaining sheet of waxed paper will easily loosen for removal. When the underside of the tortilla is dry with a few brown spots, turn it and cook the other side.
Veggie Wraps
- tomato
- carrot
- wraps
- cream cheese
- paprika
- onion powder
- garlic powder
- tortillas
Slice vegetables. Add a few sprinkles of onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika to cream cheese. Stir well. Spread cream cheese on tortilla, add vegetables, and wrap.
Salsa
- tomato
- onion
- pepper
- garlic
- basil/cilantro
- 1 tsp to 1/8 cup vinegar
- salt and pepper to taste
Cut up vegetables in large chunks and rip up herbs. Mix in vinegar. Mix everything well and then add salt and pepper to taste.