Hornsby Advocate

The HHPS Eco Food Garden made it into the Hornsby Advocate:

Jamie Oliver’s food revolution day comes to Hornsby Heights Public school

Ruby Roll, Jacob Neve and Scarlet Burge, all five years old, eat pesto pasta they made. Picture: ADAM WARD Source: News Limited

 

LESSONS were not only fun but full of flavour for the children at Hornsby Heights Public School on Friday.

Three classes participated in Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolultion Day, a global day of action to make cooking fun and encourage healthy food choices.
Using ingredients from the school’s eco-food garden and cooking in the new outdoor kitchen, the year 3 children made scones with lilly pilly jam and the kindergarten class created pesto pasta.
“One of the things he (Jamie Oliver) really encouraged was using an ingredient you haven’t tried before and a lot of the children may never have tried lilly pilly or pesto,” eco-food garden team co-ordinator Rhonda French said.

Ryan Browne 9, Jasmine Kelly 8, Franscesco Torrisi 9 and Jessica Whyburn 8, enjoy scones. Picture: ADAM WARD Source: News Limited

 

Cooking is an activity all the children get to try throughout the year.
“Certainly the parents tell me that kids have requested to make them (the recipes) at home,” Ms French said. “To me that makes it worth it. I love that they get to see the whole cycle — to plant it, water it, pick it and cook it.”

Jamie Oliver Food Revolution Day

Over two days Year 3 made Lilly Pilly jam and scones to enjoy on Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Day. Here is the whole journey in pictures:

 

Picking the fruit
 

washing the Lilly Pillies

 sorting the good ones from the bad

Taking the pips out of the fruit

finding the odd worm

Look they are edible!

boiling the fruit

straining the boiled fruit through a muslin cloth and getting bright pink red juice

adding sugar and boiling the juice down until it thickens

the finished hot jelly jam

trying the jam which was made with sugar and without

making lemonade scones

cutting out the scones

this is fun!

learning how to cut a scone - there is an art to it!

The final product: scone, Lilly Pilly jam, whipped cream topped with Finger Lime

Year 3 eating their scones

 

Planting day with the whole school

200 seedlings and a range of seeds went into 10 garden beds today:

Newsletter Term 1 Week 10

Working bee:
A big thank you to all of the keen and hardworking parents and children who came to the working bee on the 22nd March. The gardens are now ready for replanting and growing. We also have the sink for the outdoor classroom installed with plumbing to come.

Cooking:
5/6S had two very impromptu cooking sessions last week inspired by the observed growth of our 56cm zucchini. Zucchini chips on the barbie and zucchini soup all cooked in the outdoor classroom.

Planting:
Replanting of the garden will take place this Friday and will involve all classes from Kindi to Yr 6. If you are available to help from 11:30 on Friday 4th please contact Rhonda French.

Bunnings BBQ
Our next Bunnings BBQ is on the 17th May. This is a great way for the Eco garden to raise finds for planting and building in the gardens. It's also a great way to spend an hour! If you are available and would be interested in helping out on this date please contact
Colleen Dancer.

Next Meeting:
The next meeting will be the first day back of term 29th April at 7pm in Miss Scanlon's room. Please come along and join the fun!

Newsletter Term 1 Week 8

Bunnings BBQ
 A huge thank you to all those who helped out at the Bunnings BBQ. Although the foot traffic was down this time we still made $685 profit for the day. Great effort.

Cooking
Our first cooking for the year was with 4S, who had a fantastic time cooking some chocolate zucchini muffins. Have you seen the giant zucchini in the garden?

Lambs
After returning Lamington to the farm of her birth at the end of last year, we witnessed a beautiful reunion between her and her mother. It was lovely to watch. The farmer has said that he is happy to give us some more lambs when they are born soon… watch this space in the next few months. Meanwhile it is great so see some grass recovering ready for our next lambs.

Working Bee for the Eco Food Garden
Come along with the whole family THIS Saturday, 22 March from 1 – 4pm. Afternoon tea provided. We will be getting the garden beds ready for planting, pruning, and weeding. Bring along your gloves, hats, pruning shears, rake, spades, and buckets for a great afternoon around the garden, with other great families.

Feel like getting involved, come along to our next Eco Food Garden meeting on Tuesday 25 March at 7pm, in Miss Scanlon's room. For further enquiries contact Rhonda.

For our new families, Mr Green the Gecko is the mascot for the school garden, hence the gecko shaped garden. He gives little gardening tips throughout the year.

Zucchini Choc Muffins with 4S

Our first cooking class for 2014. The zucchinis year 4 planted last year were getting really big and needed harvesting. They made great muffins enjoyed by everybody.

Where is the zucchini?

 

zucchini-licious!

Mini Zucchini Choc Muffins Recipe

½ cup flour ½ cup wholemeal flour 2 teaspoons baking powder ¾ cup sugar ¼ cup cocoa powder ¼ teaspoon salt	Mix all the dry ingredients together
120g butter melted 1 egg 3 tablespoons greek yoghurt	Mix all the wet ingredients together
	Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix only until just combined – don’t overmix.
23g mini choc chips 1 cup grated zucchini	Mix in the chocolate and the zucchini
	Fill mini muffin forms ¾ full. Bake at 190°C for 15 to 17 minutes
Icing sugar	Dust the muffins with icing sugar.

Newsletter Term 1 Week 6

Another busy year of gardening has begun. Eco garden committee had our first meeting on the 18th February which was our AGM. A decision was passed to move our meeting to the 4th Tuesday of the month this year due to meeting clashes. The next meeting will be Tuesday 25th March in Miss Scanlon's classroom.

Bunnings BBQ
 Each year we have two Bunnings BBQ ‘s as a fundraiser for the gardens and animals. Our first Bunnings date is Sunday 9th of March. If you have a spare hour or two and would like to cook a sausage please contact Colleeen. Otherwise drop by Thornleigh Bunnings on Sunday. Getting Involved It's never too late to be a part of the Eco Garden team. If you are interested in helping with planting, cooking, or helping around the school gardens please contact Rhonda.