In the 1700s, the Spanish arrived to spread Catholicism and brought with them an entirely new food system, one that required the clearing of Ohlone land for the raising of livestock and the planting of crops. In the classroom, we read the picture book California’s Missions: From A to Z by local third grade teacher Matt Weber. The second and third graders made connections with the architecture of Mission High School a few blocks away; the palm trees in Dolores Park (which we learned came from the Spanish, who planted palms in order to harvest palm fronds for Palm Sunday); the current name of our city, San Francisco; the names of California baseball teams such as the Padres and the Angels; and agricultural products California is now famous for such as olives and citrus—plants the Spanish brought with them that thrived in our similar Mediterranean climate. We discussed one of the recently canonized Spanish padres, Junípero Serra, and the toppling of his statue in Golden Gate Park in 2020, making the case that events from 250 years ago are still relevant today.
In the kitchen, we made a wheatberry salad featuring the grain the Spanish introduced that continues to dominate our diets in the 21st century. To the wheatberries, students added Valencia and Cara Cara orange segments, olives, grapes, parsley, green onions, and manchego. They made a simple dressing with sherry vinegar, fresh lemon juice, olive oil, and mustard, a plant we learned took over the landscape after Spanish padres scattered mustard seeds while walking between the missions. The paths ultimately became lined with the bright yellow flowers, which you can continue to see as you travel through California now. We had some very fine looking salad dressing emulsions this week, which shows that the chefs are building on their skills from grade to grade. They’re such pros!
