ESY Berkeley Journal
Winter Production
Students in the garden recently have been commenting on how much the place has changed since the beginning of the school year. "It looks shorter," one student commented, and her friend added, "And greener." The tall, colorful crops of summer have been cleared away and composted, and now the garden is getting geared up for full winter production. Students worked hard over the course of the fall to extend the garden beds, conquer the crabgrass, sow loads of seed in the greenhouse, and transplant hundreds of baby plants. Now we have rainbow chard, kale, cabbages, broccoli, and celery that are thriving and growing bigger each day. In the early morning the dew beads up on the waxy leaves of the young brassicas and looks like glowing droplets of mercury. The oranges, pinks, and yellows of summer have given way to the winter shades of green and turquoise. Many of these beautiful winter crops will be cooked and eaten in our pre-Thanksgiving Make-and-Take with King parents, or given away to students and their families at the upcoming Harvest-to-Home Giveaway. We're looking forward to transplanting out more baby plants from the greenhouse for a second wave of crops that will arrive in the early spring.
Cooking at the Crossroads
“Welcome to the market place in our city. It is the crossroads of many cultures...You are tired, hungry and thirsty. Soon you will be able to trade a story of your native land in exchange for food and drink.” (Excerpt from the ELL Drama classroom assignment)
As the English Language Learners' Drama class filed into the kitchen last week, they transformed themselves from everyday King Middle School students into travelers meeting at the cultural crossroads of the marketplace. Coming into the classroom with nothing to trade but their stories, the travelers eagerly awaited the opportunity to eat together and tell their tales from far-off lands.
The first day in the kitchen, we prepared a Mezze platter with olives, almond-stuffed dates, fresh vegetables from the garden, and home-made hummus. A few days later, the travelers returned to concoct a pumpkin curry made with fresh greens and squash from the garden. As we all sliced, chopped, minced, and blended, we got to know one another and shared our experiences both inside and outside of the kitchen.
While we dipped carrots and spooned stew, the student-travelers traded personal stories about food, kitchens, and cooking. We heard about a grandfather's traditional preparation of yak meat in Tibet, a folktale about the radish people of Nepal, the experiences of a chicken farmer in Mexico, and how one might serve beef tongue in Germany. As we came together at the table, each traveler’s tale was woven into a common, and memorable, experience. After two rejuvenating meals, the travelers left with their heads held high and ready for new adventures.
The chalkboard in the kitchen
Pitting the olives
Assembling the platter
The curry spice mix
The curry cookingDucks in a Row
We are pleased to introduce the latest members of the Edible Schoolyard community: Our three new ducks! Originally rescued from Oakland’s Lake Merritt, these ducks were raised with love and care by a friend, Timbo, at his East Oakland backyard and were generously donated to the program. The two tall, slender ducks are Indian Runners; native to Indonesia, these ducks are great egg layers and like their name implies, fast runners. The larger white duck is some kind of Campbell cross. Campbells are also great egg layers, and are terrific foragers.
Why ducks, you might ask? They are prolific slug and snail eaters, their poop makes excellent fertilizer, and they lay delicious eggs that are higher in protein than chicken eggs. The addition of ducks to our program has further increased the diversity of our garden and has created more opportunities for students to learn different aspects of animal husbandry on campus. While the ducks have been settling in nicely to their new home in the chicken coop, they do have slightly different needs than the chickens--mainly concerning water. Despite what you might think, ducks don’t need to have a pond to swim in--in fact, we have a pond in the garden, and the ducks haven’t taken interest in it. However, ducks do need lots of fresh water both for drinking and for cleaning out their bills, which get dirty as they forage around the garden. We have been providing fresh water in big basins for them to do so.
The ducks have been a huge hit amongst students, who have been coming regularly before and after school to check up on them. Here are some photos of our new friends:
Ducks literally in a row
Our ducks resting in their coop
The ducks getting used to their new homeIt Must be Fall
With two weeks of scorching sun right after the Autumnal Equinox, the changing of seasons appeared to be still in the distance. Butterflies fluttering flower to flower, peppers transforming from green to orange or red, and endless raspberries continued to carry on in the garden. However, tucked behind our compost row, where visits are rare, lies a hidden trio of perfect sustenance that can only indicate one thing: Fall!
When grown together, the Three Sisters--corn, beans, and squash--are able to thrive beautifully in a jungle of corn stalks, bean vines, and a floor of green squash leaves. These three complimentary crops were some of the first to be domesticated by ancient Mesoamerican societies, making this intercropped system one of the oldest. As each member of the fabulous trio fills in the nutritional gaps underground, each one providing necessary nutrients that the others lack, the three also provide a perfectly balanced meal on the plate. Having planted our Three Sisters in May, we have been patiently waiting for what is quite possibly our most exciting Fall Harvest.
This week, the much-anticipated day was finally upon us; we gazed at our edible forest, ripe with historical significance, and decided the time had come! Although the cold summer did not lend itself to high yields for corn or beans, the plethora of heirloom squash varieties compensated. The students pushed through the swaying corn stalks to make their way down to the ground, lifting huge leaves that draped over squash of all shapes and colors. Suddenly the only phrase heard was “ I found one!” as every student discovered hidden treasures. Our wheelbarrows were quickly filled to the brim with Blue Hubbards, Sugar Pies, Turban’s Cap, Long Island Cheese, Rouge Vif de’Estampes, and my personal favorite, the wartiest of all, Galeux D’Esynes. The beauty of these heirloom varieties--including blue corn, dry beans, and at least 9 varieties of winter squash in a rainbow of colors--became overwhelmingly apparent as the students shouted, “Thank you, Three Sisters!”
The Galeux D’Esynes
One of the corn varieties in the Three Sisters bed
Our many varieties of squashCelebrating the Changing of Seasons
There are all kinds of wonderful fruits and vegetables coming into season for the holidays. But when I think of fall, one fruit always seems to top the list... apples! Yes, apple season is upon us, and with it comes a number of tasty varieties to delight one's senses. Nothing seems cozier than enjoying warm baked apples on a fall morning when the chilly breeze is blowing and the fog is slowly melting away.
As the 8th graders' time in the kitchen is coming to a close and with the holidays fast approaching, we decided to celebrate the advent of fall by paying homage to the queen of all fall treats: the apple galette!
At each work table students were divided into two groups. Some students peeled and diced Pink Pearls, Jonagolds, Fujis, and Granny Smiths. They then seasoned the apples with cinnamon and brown sugar, and tossed them with fresh raspberries that I harvested from the garden. It was a delight to see all of them relish in sampling the different varieties of this versatile and delicious fruit. Other students learned the art of rolling pastry dough, and handed out the individual rounds to be filled, and folded neatly into a traditional galette.
Right out of the oven, the texture of the crisp pie dough gave way to an ooze of sweet apple juice that was met by delicate morsels of flavor within. For our closing question, each student had to answer, "What is a skill you have learned in the kitchen that you can use for the rest of your life?” We got all sorts of answers—some creative, some funny, and some, well, honest.
“I learned to make all these meals that are yummy and healthy. I will use these skills at home.” –Kyra
“I learned how to mince, dice, use an industrial dishwasher, make edible jewelry, pour water the champagne way, and cut different kinds of food.” -Annika
“I learned how to explode the soap dispenser.” –Robel
“The things I’ve learned in the kitchen that I will use forever are… cutting, peeling, cooking, measuring, and learning new ways to cook new, delicious, and healthy foods.”–Roal
The welcome board
Getting the apples ready for the galette
The prepped apples
Rolling out the dough
Stirring the apples with their seasonings
Putting together the individual apple galettes
Step 2 of creating the galette
Ready to be baked
Everyone wrote their name next to the one they made
Yum!A Different Kind of Rice Lesson
When we sat down with the 8th grade humanities teachers to discuss their six-week trajectory of kitchen classes this fall, we received a list of main ingredients the students requested. One of the staples they wanted to work with was rice, which they had previously transformed in the 6th and 7th grades into fried rice and Japanese onigiri, or served under a delicious bed of stir-fried greens.
This season, we wanted to introduce rice in a different way, using rice wrappers to make fresh rolls filled with the harvest from the garden. The 8th graders loved the look and feel of the round, dry wrappers, which have a slightly opaque look and a plasticky feel. Many of them were shocked to discover that all it took to ready the wrappers for eating was to place them in a bowl of water for approximately 30 seconds until they softened.
The lesson was a great way to practice knife skills, as the students julienned cucumbers and red daikon, turned fresh mint leaves into a chiffonade, minced peanuts, and thinly sliced red and Napa cabbage as well as green shallots. Our meal also included fresh cilantro leaves, ribbons of carrots from the garden, a colorful array of edible flowers (nasturtiums, pineapple sage, society garlic, and borage) and mung bean noodles, which were rehydrated in hot water, strained, and then seasoned with a vegetarian hoisin sauce.
We rolled our wraps and passed around a dipping sauce containing a special treat for me personally, as it included the first harvest of some Chinese chives my father brought to the garden in the spring to be planted. When asked what ingredient they would add to the dish if they were making it at home, it was lovely to hear many of the 8th graders comment that they wouldn't change a thing!
Vegetables for the spring rolls from the garden
Slicing cabbage
Soaking the spring roll wrapper in water 
Getting ready to roll
Carefully placing ingredients in the spring roll
The spring roll ready to be eatenThe Return of the Milkweed
Last spring, three small milkweed plants sprouted up in the middle of one of our garden beds. We dug the milkweed up when we cultivated the bed, but not before carefully saving seeds from these fuzzy, silvery plants and nursing them to germination in our greenhouse. Our intention was to plant the new milkweed starts in the garden's perennial flower borders, and leave the more central garden beds for vegetable production.
For gardeners, things don't always go as planned.
To our chagrin, the milkweed came up in full force all over the garden, in the cultivated garden beds as well as in the perennial borders. It spread rapidly, and new shoots sprouted up in several adjacent garden beds as if to retort, "I dare you to try to dig me out again!" Though the milkweed forest wasn't what we had planned, we are happy with the result-- we've noticed a flux of monarch butterflies in the garden this year, which depend on milkweed as their primary food source. Sixth grade students studying entomology can often be found observing the symmetrical orange and black butterflies flitting about the milkweed flowers. Monarch butterflies move relatively slowly, but predators know not to eat them; while feasting on milkweed, monarchs ingest the plant's toxic compounds, making them poisonous.
Intentionally planted milkweed
Milkweed forest
Monarch on Tithonia
It looks like it is here to stay (notice the seed pod forming)
Milkweed flowersIt’s Worth the Wait
This week, 6th graders were welcomed to their first hands-on garden class of the year. Together, students have been working to build and turn compost, care for young plants in the greenhouse, cultivate beds that will soon be planted with broccoli and cabbage, and harvest many of late summer’s offerings. While digging potatoes, cutting lettuce, and picking newly ripe apples have all been exciting tasks, perhaps the most thrilling harvest of the week has been onions.
Planted from seed in the late spring, we have been patiently awaiting the readiness of our specialty onion varieties: a longer, torpedo-shaped onion called Red Long of Tropea and Cipollini, a type of gold coin onion noted for its especially sweet flavor. Cipollini are considered a “long day” onion and are sensitive to light as they begin to bulb only after the solstice. Over the past days, students harvested over 50 pounds of pungent and sweet onions that have been growing for over six months. The onions will be braided and hung proudly inside the Edible Schoolyard kitchen, where they will be used to add depth and sweetness to many dishes over the fall semester.
Check out some photos of our beautiful onions:
The onions just after being picked
Braiding the onions
The braided onions hangingA Historic Waste-Not-Want-Not Tradition from Tuscany
The sound of 30 voices yelling "panzanella!" was the rallying call heard in the kitchen today. Our esteemed 8th graders, most with two years of kitchen experience under their belts, were back and getting right to work combining our fall harvest of tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash, basil, and shallots with vinaigrette and day-old bread to make the quintessential end-of-summer treasure: panzanella. As thrifty as it is delicious, panzanella, or bread salad, is a classic Italian recipe designed to take advantage of the full flavors of late summer while putting that leftover baguette (or any unsliced bread) to good use.
At each work table in the kitchen classroom, students quickly divvied up the jobs. Some commenced making red wine vinaigrette using fresh basil, oregano, and shallots from the garden; others washed and chopped a colorful variety of tomatoes, lemons, cucumbers, and an assortment of squashes. Thank goodness our friend Wendy Johnson brought by some beautiful sweet peppers, as ours are feeling the effects of a foggy summer and are still ripening.
Eager hands tackled tearing the bread into bite-size pieces (tradition demands tearing, not cutting, the bread) and someone discovered the serendipitous snack of a bit of chewy crust dipped in vinaigrette.
At last the vegetables, bread, and dressing were combined and the seasoning was checked. The fragrance of basil hung in the air. A jar of dahlias, amaranth, and cosmos graced the center of the table. As we served the panzanella and looked around at the faces convening once again around the table, the thought that came to mind was this: beautiful children, beautiful food, beautiful life! Ciao.
- The bread and vegetables waiting to be cut
The beginning of the delicious dish
Making dressing
All of the fixings before they are dressed
The panzanella
Sharing and eatingSummer Rewards
Months of cool, coastal fog receded into scorching, late-summer heat just as the Edible Schoolyard staff came back to the garden and kitchen to prepare for the upcoming school year. In the garden, we were met with a delightful surprise: a massive, beautiful, undisturbed pumpkin hidden amongst the thriving foliage in the back of the garden! We've been referring to it as the "Cinderella pumpkin," as it brings to mind a pumpkin that a fairy might transform into a magical coach-- it's glowing orange, slightly bumpy, and big enough to sit on. It weighed in at a whopping 27 pounds. We gave the Cinderella pumpkin the place of honor on the altar in the kitchen, where it will greet this year's students.
The beautiful pumpkin
