Harvest time for students
Autumn is harvest-time in our school’s edible gardens: a time to marvel at what we grew and to enjoy some tasty garden treats!
Grovetown School had a group cooking session using fruit from their orchard to make blackberry and apple tarts for the whole school. Laden trees of plums, apples and pears ensured they shared their mahi and kai with the wider school community.
A bumper crop of late potatoes was the harvest highlight at Picton School. Using the tuakana-teina buddy system, older students introduced new children to the garden while digging potatoes. It was a great way to teach how to safely use the garden tools, but it soon became less about the tools and more about how many potatoes had grown, and the size of the potatoes they were unearthing! Blueberries, strawberries and tomatoes were a hit too.
Grapes, blackberries and apples were in great supply at Witherlea School and were gleefully picked to snack on at the end of each lesson. Those apples that the codling moths had also enjoyed were sliced thinly, sprinkled with cinnamon and dehydrated into apple chips!
A treasure hunt at Rapaura School revealed massive pumpkins growing in their compost heap. Thanks to the garlic they also harvested, they are looking forward to winter lunches of pumpkin soup with garlic bread.
Annie harvested pumpkins from her compost heap too! She grew these from seed tape made at Renwick School. She has since been busy making pumpkin soup and pumpkin muffins.
Annie’s pumpkin harvest!