Yum! Zucchini bread, mint tea and tomato pie! In the middle of January, delicious, local food is welcome.
MINT TEA
While the sustainable garden at The Montessori School rests for the winter, the food that we preserved in the fall is available. This week, we drank mint tea. The children helped dry the mint leaves in the fall, and tea was served during our Sustainable Science lesson this week.
Recipe for drying leaves:
Rinse mint tea leaves, lay out on dehydrator, dry. Crush when dried.
Recipe for making tea (as requested by a student):
1 Tablespoon dried leaves per 8 ounces of water. Steep tea in boiling water for 4 minutes. Strain, add choice of sweetener, and serve.
 |
| Drying food for preservation |
PRESERVING FOOD BY DRYING
The dehydrator was used in the fall to preserve oregano, sage, chives, parsley, and dill from The Montessori School Sustainable Garden and mint from the Baumgarten family garden. During the lesson this week, apples were available for dehydrating.
Recipe for dehydrating apples:
Wash, peel and thinly slice apples. Lay out on dehydrator so that the slices do not overlap. Dry for 8 hours or until the apples feel like raisins (brittle is too dried). Store in an air tight container.
WINTER ROOTS
Wintertime fresh seasonal food is the food that stores well over time. Apples are good local fruit that store well. Roots are good local vegetables that store well. Today we viewed, handled, and talked about red beets, carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, onions and rutabagas.
Roasted Winter Vegetable Recipe:
Substitute 1 tsp dried herbs for the fresh ones, as is seasonal. Once you roast vegetables, play around with the herbs, and suit your taste and your pantry.
ZUCCHINI BREAD
 |
|
Last fall the children picked zucchini from the TMS garden and shredded zucchini during a food preservation lesson. This week we made and ate zucchini bread using 2 cups of frozen TMS zucchini.
The recipe can be found at this link: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/moms-zucchini-bread/. Besides linking food to our own garden, cooking is a fantastic sequencing, measuring and skill-developing activity for children of all ages!
HERBS FROM TMS GARDEN
The children made tomato sauce using one quart of home canned tomato sauce (from the Baumgarten garden) and 1 Tbs of TMS dried sage, oregano, red basil, chives, and parsley. These were cooked in a crock pot for 3 hours. The children also made pizza dough using active dry yeast.
TOOLS OF FOOD PRESERVATION
Home canning supplies were displayed, handled and briefly demonstrated. The magnetic lid lifter was a hit!
All in all, TMS Lower Elementary children participated in cooking winter food from fall preserved vegetables and herbs. I now can't wait to plant the 2012 Sustainable Garden!
Comments
Post a Comment