For our final class exploring the question “Where does our food come from?” we discussed terms like “local” and “organic” and what labels on eggs can tell us about how the chickens are raised. We watched two videos from The Lexicon of Sustainability: Local vs. Organic and The Story of an Egg.
The local, organic asparagus we used in our salad came from Coastal View Produce in the Salinas Valley. The eggs came from our own school chickens (which we decided to label “garden raised”) and from St. John Family Farm in Corning, California. Students blanched the asparagus and then cut it into bite-sized pieces. They hard boiled the eggs (a great life skill!), then chopped them up and made a simple salad dressing. After adding a few fresh herbs, our salad was ready to eat.
The most rewarding thing about our work is probably when students start out by saying they really don’t like an ingredient (in this case, asparagus), decide to try it after making food together with their peers, and then tell us they love it and ask for seconds!
Thursday was Ms. Katie’s last class teaching with The Breakfast Project and Ms. Webb’s class surrounded her for a spontaneous group hug before leaving the kitchen. Thank you, Ms. Katie, for bringing so much positive energy and dedication to the students of Harvey Milk this year. We will miss you dearly.
