End of the Year Banquet and a visit from Raw Inspiration

On May 22 one half of the second graders had an end of the year banquet in the garden. Mr. Jacobs' class also met Melissa and Brittany from Raw Inspiration, the operator of the Palisades Farmers' Market. The children also planted seeds!

Elisa Hunsiker, a former Marquez parent and a chef, organized the feast with assistance from the garden team.  The menu was based upon food we had grown or are growing in the garden. The appetizer was sugar snap peas, the main course consisted of a kale/banana/mango smoothie and a broccoli-tomato-basil salad, and dessert was a strawberry. Elisa had the children taste the individual components of the smoothie before they tasted the smoothie.  Most children loved the smoothie! As usual, most children wanted more broccoli for their broccoli salad! We served the salad with a choice of dressings-Ranch and a vinaigrette that Elisa had made. Recipes are in the next blogpost. Copies will be sent home with each child.

Melissa and Brittany from Raw Inspiration visited the garden and donated $2,000 to Friends of Marquez as part of their Gardens into Schools program.  Their mission is to bring organic gardens to schools in the communities served by their farmers markets and to help the children learn about growing and harvesting the fruits and vegetables. The Marquez garden team will use the funds to expand our program by planting more and teaching more of the students at the school. We look forward to our partnership with Raw Inspiration.

We had  two planting activities. The children planted seeds in paper pots that they made with the help of Jack Sanders, a Master Gardener volunteer.  Prior to planting we discussed why it was a good idea to use newspaper for the pots.  Children also planted sunflower seeds in the butterfly garden, which is a Legacy Garden, their gift to the incoming second graders in the fall.

Photos from the day can be seen on the Marquez Charter School Facebook page as well as below.

The children assembled their own salads.

A paper pot!

Children making paper pots.

The butterfly garden with the rock from Raw Inspiration. The rock states that this is a Jennifer McColm Certified School Garden!

Chef Elisa pours seconds of the kale-mango-banana smoothie!

Recipes: