Making an Arugula Salad

Today Ms. Connor's class and Mr. Jacobs' class made arugula salad. We discussed the meaning of the words ingredients and salad dressing as well as the concepts of 1/4 and 1/2.  Some of the children harvested arugula from our garden. Each child had a part in preparing the salad. Some groups added arugula flowers and nasturtium flowers (which are edible) to their salads. Those children who didn't like cheese ate just arugula with the dressing.  Afterwards some children fed the arugula stems to the worms in the worm bin.

The recipe that follows is the one which the kids made today. It can be varied as follows:goat cheese can be substituted for parmesan cheese, and roasted beets and walnuts could also be added.

Arugula is very easy to grow. It self seeds in the Marquez Garden and in my own garden. Another benefit is that squirrels don't seem to like it! I hope some of you try the salad and let your child help you cook!

Arugula with Parmesan Cheese (from Ina Garten)

Ingredients
1/2 pound fresh arugula (3 large bunches) or less
Lemon Vinaigrette

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
1/2 cup good olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 -pound Parmesan

Directions
If the arugula has roots attached, cut them off. Fill the sink with cold water and toss the arugula
for a few minutes to clean. Spin-dry the leaves and place them in a large bowl.
In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Shave the parmesan with a vegetable peeler. Pour dressing on arugula, toss and serve. You can add the parmesan to the salad with the dressing or serve on the side.

This is a great way to teach your kids about fractions! Enjoy!

Checking out the red wriggler worms

Cutting the cheese with the vegetable peeler.

The salad with an orange nasturtium flower as garnish

Peeling the cheese

Preparing the dressing

Adding greens to the worm bin

Mrs. Fein's class and Ms. Yoshida's class plant in the garden

Today children from Ms. Yoshida's class discussed their favorite vegetables, their favorite cool season vegetables, wrote in their garden journals, looked at the red wriggler worms in the compost, looked at the strawberry guava tree which has fruit on it and planted. Their garden journal contained the following: "Today in the garden I  (which they finished) and My favorite vegetable is ..."  They planted onion seeds, sugar snap pea seeds and sugar snap pea seedlings.  Thanks to Dana, a parent, and Ms. Ashley for helping.

After recess, Mrs. Fein's class also visited the garden. They discussed cool season vegetables, planted onion seeds, looked at at the fruit tree and harvested basil. I videoed them saying what they did in the garden and will send that to Mrs. Fein.

We also discussed other vegetables such as celery, swiss chard, kale, red and yellow beets, purple broccoli and arugula. Part of the fun of growing your own food or purchasing food at the farmers' market is the increased variety. We'll have some different varieties in our school garden.

Vocabulary presented today: harvest, sow, red wriggler worms, composting, all the names of the vegetables and fruit above plus other vegetables such as brussels sprouts and radish. Concepts discussed included: cool season and warm season vegetables, the fact that you don't plant small seeds very deeply, companion planting (onions, carrots and broccoli are good companions-you can plant them together).

Approximately 20 children visited the garden during the two recess periods. At lunch recess the third graders amended the third bed which they are in charge of planting. At lunch recess, the second graders planted johnny jump ups and sweet pea seedlings in the butterfly garden and California poppy seeds alongside the fence.

Planting onion seeds.

Harvesting basil.

Second graders in the garden on March 13

The groups this week learned about more about edible flowers, planted some tomato plants and marigolds, planted radish and lettuce seeds, composted and weeded. 

Most kids didn't know what a marigold is but now they do! Some thought it was a sunflower, and actually it looks like a mini-sunflower... I did a hangman technique to help them guess the name...

_ _ _ _ gold. We discussed three reasons to plant them: 1) aphids (bugs that eat our plants) don't like them; 2) they smell good; 3) they are pretty. We planted the marigolds near our tomato plants and also near a milkweed plant that had aphids.

Thanks to the families that are sending in vegetable and fruit scraps for the composting bins. The worms thank you! The kids still enjoy looking at the worms. In one or two months, we'll have humus and worm castings to add to our garden at Marquez.