4th/5th Grade Edible Social Studies: Week 10

We had a wonderful time welcoming our fourth and fifth grade chefs back to the kitchen classroom after a long break to celebrate Harvey Milk Day on May 22! Students shared what they knew about Harvey Milk, our school’s namesake, then recreated the 2017 Philadelphia pride flag with sesame seeds, candied ginger, strawberries, tangerines, pineapple, kiwi, blueberries, blackberries, and borage flowers.

They made whipped cream from scratch to top their colorful and symbolic rainbow pride parfaits: red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, indigo for serenity, violet for spirit, and black and brown stripes to lift up the Black and brown LGBTQ+ activists who led and continue to lead the movement for justice and to highlight the specific challenges faced by BIPOC members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Congratulations to all our graduating fifth graders. It has been an honor to do this work with you and you will always be welcome in the kitchen classroom!

Kindergarten Edible Social Studies: Week 9

In the classroom this week we read Lunch From Home, a story inspired by the experiences of four professional chefs and the foods they brought to school when they were kids. We discussed the concept “don’t yuck my yum” and the importance of celebrating both what makes us different as well as our similarities.

It was fun to teach the kindergarteners how to make one of my favorite foods from my childhood, green onion pancakes, in the kitchen! Every chef rolled out dough, brushed on oil, seasoned with salt and green onions, twisted and coiled the dough, rolled it out again, and had the opportunity to pan fry a pancake. We enjoyed the pancakes with a final sprinkling of salt and a traditional Taiwanese cucumber salad.

Kindergarten Edible Social Studies: Week 8

We will spend the next few weeks talking about global foodways and how important and fun it is to explore how and what people eat around the world. In the classroom, we read My Food, Your Food, Our Food, which is also a song.

In the kitchen, we worked with some ingredients native to the African continent: fonio, an indigenous West African grain; black-eyed peas; and yams. The kindergarten chefs made a fonio grain bowl with fava greens grown locally at Dearborn Community Garden. They prepped fresh ginger, bell peppers, tomatoes, and roasted yam, and seasoned the fonio with curry and sweet harissa. It was the first time eating fonio for most of us and a nice opportunity to try something new and different!

Kindergarten Edible Social Studies: Week 7

Our theme this week was mindfulness! In the classroom, we read No Ordinary Apple by Sara Marlowe and Phil Pascuzzo, a book about what happens when we slow down and practice eating mindfully.

In the kitchen, we started off with an apple tasting of four varieties: Honeycrisp, Granny Smith, Pink Lady, and Fuji. The kindergarten chefs used all their senses to take notice of the scents, textures, colors, flavors, and even sounds of each apple slice. Not only did the apples look different, they had different levels of sweetness and juiciness.

We then made carrot and spinach latkes and ate them with homemade applesauce made from the same four varieties of apples we tasted raw. In our closing circle, we each shared one thing we noticed about our meal by bringing mindfulness to the table with us.

Kindergarten Edible Social Studies: Week 6

In the classroom this week we read Ellie Peterson’s book The Reason for the Seasons, which explains that the Earth’s tilt is why we experience differences in temperature, daylight, and the length of our shadows throughout the year.

In the kitchen we celebrated the current season, spring, by making a salad showcasing several local products that are bountiful in the Bay Area at this time of year. The kindergarten chefs first blanched shelling peas and asparagus, then cut up strawberries and made a simple dressing featuring thyme growing in our school garden. In the spring we have access to baby spinach and spring onions, crops that are harvested early in the growing season and have a lighter, less pronounced flavor than if the plants are left to mature into the summer.

Our unit explores not just what makes our bodies healthy (e.g. eating with the seasons helps us stay connected to our local food systems; local produce is fresher, riper, and more nutritious) but also what makes our communities healthy (marking the seasons with traditions and celebrations, in every culture, helps us stay connected and bonded to our communities). Spring has sprung!

1st Grade Edible Social Studies: Week 10

For our final lesson, we read Meenal Patel’s book Priya Dreams of Marigolds and Masala. In the kitchen, we made rice kheer, a dish with origins in ancient India. Rice pudding requires a lot of passive time with some occasional stirring, so while the kheer was cooking, the first grade chefs worked with rice as their medium and made a work of art they could wear as jewelry or use as decoration.

Our palettes contained brown rice, white rice, saffron rice, jade rice (which is green from bamboo juice!), black rice ramen, forbidden rice, pho noodles, and brown rice spaghetti. Some students made their names; others made abstract designs or renderings of their favorite cartoon characters.

On Thursday we gathered for a field trip and celebration of our Everybody Cooks Rice unit. We took the train out to Ocean View Village shopping center and visited H Mart, where the first grade chefs went on a scavenger hunt to find rice in a snack, in something sweet, in a prepared food offering, and in the frozen section. After the market we ate lunch at Sisterhood Gardens, a beautiful community garden just across the street. What a great year - thank you to all who helped make it possible!

Kindergarten Edible Social Studies: Week 5

In celebration of Earth Day, this week we learned that our food system and the health of the planet are intricately linked. In the classroom we read To Change A Planet by Christina Soontornvat and illustrated by Rahele Jomepour Bell and Maybe You Might by Imogen Fox and illustrated by Anna Cunha. Both books remind us that each of us has the power to change the world.

In the kitchen we worked with fava beans, a plant that grows easily in the San Francisco Bay Area at all times of year and fixes nitrogen into the soil as it grows. Instead of leaching all the soil’s nutrients, beans actually enrich and prepare the soil for future generations. Notorious for being fussy to prepare, fava beans are a wonderful legume to shell in a big group. We got through two pounds per table in no time, blanched them, and then popped the bright green beans out of their coats a second time.

We ate our hummus with local bread from Josey Baker Bread and carrot and cucumber coins. To make things a little fancy, we added some edible flower petals grown at Dearborn Community Garden just down 18th Street from Harvey Milk: borage, California poppy, calendula, and nasturtium. If you don’t have a food processor, you can mash the beans up with a fork and blend the hummus together in a bowl with a spatula. Plant protein for the win!

1st Grade Edible Social Studies: Week 9

In the classroom this week we read Daniel Yaccariono’s account of his family’s immigration to the United States, All the Way to America: The Story of a Big Italian Family and a Little Shovel. The book opened up a discussion about the many ways immigrants arrive in America and pass down their traditions over the generations.

In the kitchen, we made a dish that orginated in Venice, Italy that truly showcases spring produce called risi e bisi (“rice and peas”). The first grade chefs shelled pounds and pounds of fresh peas, then worked with a special rice grown only in Italy called Vialone Nano. The finished dish was bright green, savory, and truly outstanding with a grating of Parmigiano-Reggiano on top.

Kindergarten Edible Social Studies: Week 4

Our theme for this lesson was cook together and eat together! In the classroom we read Marcia Brown’s retelling of the old European folktale Stone Soup. Students thought the story was about sharing, and making something bigger from lots of small parts.

In the kitchen we made our own version of stone soup, using a potato as our stone, and filled the pot with lots of fruits and vegetables and barley, which was one of the ingredients the villagers added in the book we read. The kindergarten chefs are getting super comfortable using all the tools and equipment in the outdoor classroom and it’s great to see their confidence grow.

1st Grade Edible Social Studies: Week 8

In the classroom this week we read Oge Mora’s book Thank You, Omu! about a grandmother who generously shares her thick red stew with all the people in her community. We learned that in West African cuisine, a base of tomatoes, onions, and peppers is frequently paired with spices and herbs like ginger and thyme.

In the kitchen we made a vegan, Nigerian-style version of Jollof rice by making a thick red stew of our own. We did not use the traditional Scotch bonnet pepper, but the dish is still piquant with the help of African curry powder. To complement the savory heat of the Jollof rice, the first grade chefs made a simple slaw that is commonly served as a side dish in Nigeria with shredded cabbage, grated carrots, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and a dollop of mayonnaise. Some of us at the rice and the salad separately, while others mixed the rice and the salad all together!

2nd Grade Edible Social Studies: Week 10

For our final lesson of the unit, the second graders watched a short video from Foodwise Kids called What’s Cool About Farmers Markets? We talked about the many markets there are around the city of San Francisco and how what’s available changes with the seasons.

In the kitchen, we made our own California version of trifle, a traditional English dessert. Everyone got busy zesting Cara Cara oranges, blood oranges, and Tango tangerines. We mixed the freshly grated zest with California orange blossom honey and yogurt from Bellwether Farms in Petaluma. The chefs juiced some of the citrus and made a citrus salad with the rest. They also made whipped cream by hand. Each student got to assemble their own trifle, starting with a base of homemade olive oil cake, then fresh citrus juice and California extra-virgin olive oil, then the yogurt, then fruit, then more layers and a final topping of whipped cream and an edible flower garnish.

This was a super fun project to do on a beautiful, sunny day, and it really showcased the best of what California farmers and food producers have to offer. The grand finale of our time together this year was a field trip to the Thursday Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. We can’t wait to see this group again in third grade!

Kindergarten Edible Social Studies: Week 3

This week we talked about the importance of making art and being creative, both for our own health and for the health of our community. In the classroom we read a book by Isabel Campoy and Theresa Howell called Maybe Something Beautiful: How Art Transformed a Neighborhood.

In the kitchen, the kindergarten chefs made their own edible art. Their prompt was to make the likeness of a person using salad ingredients, but they were also free to create something different and inspiring. Students spent the first part of class prepping their medium, including sugar snap peas, Castelvetrano olives, Pink Lady apples, purple cabbage, lunchbox peppers, golden beets, carrots, cherry tomatoes, watermelon radish, cheddar cheese, and chives.

Everyone got to make their own salad art on a cutting board. We especially loved students’ use of edible flower petals, chickpea pasta, and raisins to add detail. At the end of class, we seasoned our art with salt, pepper, and extra-virgin olive oil, then enjoyed not only how the art we made looked, but also how it tasted!

1st Grade Edible Social Studies: Week 7

In the classroom this week we read Jacqueline Jules’ and Kathryn Mitter’s Duck for Turkey Day about how different families celebrate a “traditional” American holiday.

In the kitchen the first grade chefs made fresh spring rolls inspired by Vietnamese gỏi cuốn. First we cut all our ingredients into long, thin strips: cucumber, tofu, carrot, lettuce, purple cabbage, cilantro, Thai basil, and mint. We learned how to fill and roll with a base of rice vermicelli. Some of us decorated the tops of our edible rice paper with edible flower petals so that when rolled, their bright colors were showcased on top. Some students opted for a sprinkling of minced jalepeño and then we all enjoyed a vegan dipping sauce featuring load of freshly squeezed lime juice with our rolls. It was fun to explore how rice can be made into paper and noodles that people can eat!

2nd Grade Edible Social Studies: Week 9

It’s an interesting time to be studying the farmworkers movement with increased support for unions around the country after decades of declining membership, including at the United Farm Workers. This week we looked at other ways farms are trying to raise awareness of and support their farmworkers and focused on community supported agriculture (or CSA), a system that allows farms to connect directly with customer-members via weekly deliveries of produce to their neighborhoods and homes.

In the classroom we watched a short profile of Eatwell Farm in Dixon, California, a farm I happen to have been a member of since 2007. We learned about the farm from Lorraine Walker, who took over Eatwell after her husband died of cancer. Eatwell has about 1000 members throughout the Bay Area who get CSA boxes every week. Members can donate to a share care fund that translates to boxes Eatwell then delivers for free to people who are battling cancer. Members receive a weekly newsletter with updates about the farm crew and what the farm’s challenges are (for example, how the extremely wet winter weather this year has prevented the crew from getting plant starts into the ground, which will delay production and harvest of many crops like strawberries later in the spring). We’ve spent time in earlier weeks discussing the government supports and benefits that are out of reach for many of California’s farmworkers; at Eatwell, members have the opportunity to donate to a special fund that goes directly to the crew to thank them for their hard work in feeding the community.

In the classroom, the second graders made a stir-fry from everything in the Eatwell CSA box for the week, which included mizuna, cabbage, kale, turnips, chives, arugula, and mandarin oranges. This is a recipe that can easily accommodate whatever produce you have on hand, and is a satisfying meal served over a bed of warm rice. The best part of being a part of a CSA is that direct connection to our food producers! We sent Lorraine a text and photo of our class enjoying the stir-fry and it was fun for students to see her respond with words of encouragement.

Kindergarten Edible Social Studies: Week 2

This week we started a conversation about Indigenous traditions and wisdom, a theme we will continue to explore in subsequent Edible Social Studies lessons in every grade at Harvey Milk. In the classroom, we read The Popcorn Book by Tomie dePaola and learned that Native peoples of the Americas have been eating and decorating with popcorn for thousands of years. Students shared different ways they have made popcorn in the microwave or with special machines at home.

In the classroom, we used a simple stove-top method to pop rainbow popcorn. We used a mortar and pestle, an ancient tool humans designed for food preparation, to make a spice blend featuring the flavors of Peru (a country with more than 50 varieties of corn!). We enjoyed our snack with glasses of iced chicha morada, a Peruvian drink made from purple corn that’s cooked with spices and garnished with fresh fruit.

1st Grade Edible Social Studies: Week 6

This week we explored flavors from the Middle East and South Asia. In the classroom we read Leila in Saffron by Rukhsanna Guidroz and illustrated by Dinara Mirtalipova about a Pakistani American family who share a multi-generational dinner every Friday. We learned that saffron is one of the most expensive spices in the world, that it is harvested from crocus flowers, and that the word also refers to a deep golden yellow color.

In the kitchen, the first graders made havij polo, a Persian carrot rice dish. We got to work with fresh turmeric, which is bright orange just like a carrot, candied citrus peel, raisins, rose petals, and, of course, saffron. The dish has both savory and sweet qualities and is quite stunning to look at as well as to taste.

Kindergarten Edible Social Studies: Week 1

The kindergarteners will spend the next 10 weeks exploring how to keep our bodies and our communities healthy and thriving. For our first class, we learned that eating the rainbow keeps our bodies strong! Red fruits and vegetables protect our heart, lungs, and gut from disease; orange and yellow fruits and vegetables are good for our immune system and our vision; green fruits and vegetables rebuild our energy; blue and purple fruits and vegetables boost our memory and support healthy skin; and brown and white fruits and vegetables build healthy bones.

In the classroom we read Cathryn Falwell’s book Rainbow Stew about a family that harvests in their grandfather’s garden and cooks a colorful feast together. We talked about how in addition to keeping our diet diverse and colorful, the more diverse and colorful our community is, the stronger it will be.

In the kitchen we made a rainbow fruit salad with red strawberries, orange Tango tangerines, yellow pineapple, green kiwi, blue blueberries, purple and black blackberries, and white bananas. We had a lot of hands-on fun and many students had multiple helpings of the beautiful salad they made as a community.

2nd Grade Edible Social Studies: Week 9

The second grade social studies standards ask students to explore people who made a difference, and I can think of no better example of a historical person to spend time learning more about than César Chávez. In the classroom, we watched an excerpt from a short film documenting a descendent of Chávez’s, Genesis Butler, herself an activist, interviewing important people who worked with him in the farmworkers movement and visiting important places from his life. We spent a long time discussing his 36-day-long fast in 1988, as the second graders had many questions about his motivations, intentions, and ability to survive.

In the kitchen, we made a vegan tortilla soup - vegan in honor of Chávez’s lifelong activism around animal welfare and a dish with Mexican origins like Chávez’s family. We learned that César Chávez was, in addition to being the face of the farm labor movement, a champion of gender equality and LGBTQ+ rights. And, his dog was named Boycott!

1st Grade Edible Social Studies: Week 5

We celebrated Latin foodways and Latin culture this week! In the classroom we read two books: Where Are You From? by Yamile Saied Méndez and illustrated by Jaime Kim about a child of Argentine heritage in conversation with her abuelo and Green is a Chile Pepper: A Book of Colors by Roseanne Greenfield Thong and illustrated by John Parra about how colorful Mexican culture is through food, dance, holidays, and crafts.

In the kitchen, we made arroz chaufa, a Peruvian fried rice dish that riffs on a Chinese classic. Our vegetarian version featured cumin and ají panca, a wonderfully fruity Peruvian pepper that isn’t hot, and loads of garlic and ginger. The first grade chefs practiced cracking eggs and cooking in a wok. We learned that using cold, pre-cooked rice for fried rice works the best because the grains stay firm and contain less moisture so they’re better able to stay separate during the cooking process while still absorbing flavor and sauce without getting mushy.

2nd Grade Edible Social Studies: Week 7

We celebrated Black history, Black farmers, and the second grade poetry unit this week. In the classroom, we learned that the number of Black farmers in America has fallen from nearly 1 million in 1920 to fewer than 50,000 today. In response, a few U.S. Senators have recently introduced the Justice for Black Farmers Act, which focuses on ending race-based discrimination at the USDA, protecting Black landowners from losing their land, and granting land to new Black farmers and Black farmers who have lost their land as part of the renewal of the Farm Bill in 2023. We then listened to two poems read by their authors, “Conflict” by Jordan Chaney and “A Love Letter to Future Generations” by Naima Penniman.

In the kitchen, we made a vegan version of hot tamales, a dish historians believe arose out of friendships between migrant Mexican farmworkers and African American sharecroppers in the American South during the early 20th century. Hot tamales are made with cornmeal instead of masa harina and are cooked in a spicy, tomato-based sauce. Traditionally made with pork, our recipe includes nutritional yeast and seasoned tofu for extra umami. This is a labor-intensive recipe that is well worth the effort and a perfect activity to do together with friends!