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The Farm to School Committee is a volunteer opportunity at CTES. We seek to connect our children to their food by visiting and purchasing food from Vermont farms, welcoming farmers into our school, and learning about nutrition by growing, preparing and trying new foods, new flavors, and old favorites.
We also produce food in our school garden. Help us out by working with us in our school garden. We apply organic gardening priniciples and welcome donations of vegetable seeds and starts, fruit bushes/plants, native perennials, composted manure, or gardening tools. We especially welcome enthusiastic gardeners. No experience necessary!
Fresh from the Garden News |
Local Guest Chef cooks at CTES to serve up a Farm to Table potato leek soup!!!
On Monday, January 11th, our school will welcome a local farmer and chef, Rick Thompson, to our cafeteria. Rick will be preparing potato leek soup with potatoes from our own school garden and leeks from his farm. This treat will be available to try to all Cavendish students and we encourage parents to encourage your kids to try it out.
Rick is co-owner of Cavendish Game Birds. He and his brother Bill began raising backyard poultry when they were kids and have been in the food business their entire adult lives. Rick has been a chef at several restaurants including the Paddock in Springfield and has supplied game birds to restaurants all over New England and the Mid-Atlantic. He is also the father of a Cavendish Elementary School 6th grader!
Potatoes are a food native to the Americas - South America in particular. They have been cultivated for food for over 2,000 years. Peru´s Inca Indians had domesticated potatoes by 3000 B.C. They had many uses for potatoes in addition to food. They used them to help to heal broken bones and to prevent rheumatism and indigestion. They also used potatoes to measure time by correlating units of time with how long it took potatoes to grow. The Spanish conquistadores took potatoes back to Europe with them in 1537, but Europeans originally thought potatoes were poisonous or evil!
Leeks are a member of the onion and garlic family. They are mild in taste, especially when boiled in soup. Leeks are another ancient food, probably from Mesopotamia, or current day Iraq and Syria. Dried specimens have been found in archaeological sites in ancient Egypt. Wild leeks, called ramps, are native to North America and can be found in Vermont woods in the spring.
We are really excited that Rick is able to come to Cavendish Elementary School and help us prepare this delicious new soup, using local ingredients.
A great way to show your support for the positive changes we are making to our school food system is to take hot lunch or salad bar on days when we are serving up fresh, local cuisine! Show Melissa and Lori that you notice the new items and give your kids a chance to try something new, along with the old favorites! If you would like to be involved in our Farm to School committee, please contact Sara at 226-7439 or sarastowell@tds.net
Check out the pictures of Chef Rick Thompson and students enjoying the potato and leek soup he prepared by clicking on the link for Farm to School photos. |
5th Grade Makes Pumpkin & Zucchini Bread for the School and Community Dinner
Our school garden's zucchini and pumpkin were used generously in Grade 5's contribution to our farm-to-school initiative for 2009. Mixing up eight double batches of mom's zucchini and pumpkin bread, 16 of our CTES children used equivalent fractions to manage a recipe for over 150 people. On December 17th, five of the wrapped and personalized loaves were sent over to the Proctorsville Community Dinner with members of our Resect Club. Fifth graders Lily Burgess and Ariana Webster remarked how proud they were to serve something homemade from our school kitchen. The following Tuesday, staff and students finished off the rest. Thanks to Melissa Moore for furnishing many of the ingredients and bread pans from our school kitchen, the farm-to-school grant monies for local whole wheat flour, and of course,
the 5th grade kids for their culinary efforts. |
Recipe: 3 cups flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking
soda 1 teaspoon baking powder 3 teaspoons ciinamon 3 eggs 1 cup veg. oil 2 1/4 cups white sugar 3 teaspoons vanilla 1 cuo zucchini 1 cup pumpkin
1. Grease and flour 2 8X4 inch loaf pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. 2. Sift flour, salt, baking soda, bakin g powder, and cinnamon together in a bowl. 3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture and beat well. Stir in zucchini and pumpkin until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans. 4. Bake fo 40 - 60 minutes. Remove bread from pan and completely cool. |
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Training that our Cafeteria Crew Attended |
Stories from the Field Hannah Marshall, Vermont FEED intern shares her experience at a District School Food Service Training
There is something so rewarding about sharing your passion, especially when it's something as tangible and, well, nutritious as healthy food. On September 30th, Vermont FEED, Upper Valley Farm to School and Southern Vermont Area Health and Education Center held a district school food service training. We packed up coolers full of grains and veggies and headed off to Springfield to share our knowledge and hopefully impart some excitement about cooking tips, tricks and techniques.
Sixteen food service professionals from around the state gathered at Springfield School to learn about a handful of ways to cook a virtually limitless number of things. Abbie Nelson, director of Vermont FEED, helped them whip up four different beans to make a delicious dip. Peter Allison, director of Upper Valley Farm to School, introduced several new (to some) kinds of grains - quinoa, rice, orzo and whole-wheat couscous - and showed how to make easy, tasty and colorful salads. Nancy Schaefer and Daylyn Finnegan explained the wonders of squashes, and stuffed an incredible amount of veggies into two fabulous lasagnas.
I was amazed at the grazing and appreciative 'yum!'s coming from the women as they munched on cold but perfectly cooked broccoli, green beans and carrots. I also roasted several root veggies - beets, turnips, parsnips, rutabaga and carrots - and gladly handed out spoons to the eager tasters. Finally, we all tucked in to our healthy, low-fat, nutrient-dense feast - and the smiles on everyone's faces proved that we had done our job well. |
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