Cooking with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Guelph!

On Sunday March 2nd, Garden2Table held an outreach program for some Big Brothers Big Sisters of Guelph. Eight pairs of 'littles' and 'bigs' came into PJ's in the Atrium (our student-run restaurant on campus) to spend to day cooking and preparing a healthy feast! Most of the cooking was done by the littles (who ranged in age from 8-16) and they cooked up some delicious focaccia bread, minestrone soup, both a chickpea and bean salad and a green salad, and an apple crisp for dessert!

During the preparation and cooking of the G2T team (and our incredible volunteers) helped facilitate and chat with the littles about their eating habits and what food was nutritious. While the food was in the oven, we sat down together and planted some green beans and talked about what plants need to grow. Hopefully some of the little's beans have started to sprout of their window sill.

Overall it was an amazing day and hopefully an event we can replicate again in the future!

The recipes we used are posted below with some photos from the event!

Classic Minestrone

(modified from http://www.marthastewart.com/339891/classic-minestrone)

Ingredients

·   2 tablespoons olive oil

·   1 medium red onion, chopped

·   2 medium carrots, peeled and diced

·   1 large celery stalk, diced

·   1/4 teaspoon red-pepper flakes

·   1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary, or 1/4 teaspoon dried

·   Coarse salt and ground pepper

·   1 can (14.5 ounces) whole peeled tomatoes, drained and finely chopped

·   1 large potato, peeled and diced

·   1/4 head Savoy or green cabbage (1/2 pound), cored and thinly sliced

·   1 can (15 ounces) white kidney beans, rinsed and drained

·   1/2 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces

·      1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh basil

Directions

1. In a large pot, heat oil over medium. Add onion, carrots, celery, red-pepper flakes, rosemary, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion begins to turn golden, 5 to 8 minutes.
2. Add tomatoes; cook until some of the liquid evaporates, 1 minute. Add potato, cabbage, cannellini beans, and 7 cups water; bring to a boil. Stir in green beans.
3. Reduce to a simmer, and cook until all the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper; stir in basil. Serve sprinkled with Parmesan and, if using, torn basil. Drizzle with more oil, if desired.
   
   

Chickpea and Black Bean Salad

(Canadian Living Magazine: July 2004)

Salad Ingredients

·   2 cups (500 mL) chopped green beans

·   1 can (19 oz/540 ml) chickpeas

·   1 can (19 oz/540 ml) black beans

·   1 sweet red pepper, diced

·   1 cup (250 mL) corn kernels

·   2 green onions, sliced

·   1/4 cup (60 mL) chopped fresh coriander

Chili Lime Dressing:

·   1/4 cup (60 mL) vegetable oil

·   1 tsp (5 mL) grated lime rind

·   3 tbsp (45 mL) lime juice

·   1-1/2 tsp (7 mL) chili powder

·   1 tsp (5 mL) granulated sugar

·   1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt

Directions

1.     In saucepan of boiling salted water, cook green beans until tender-crisp, about 5 minutes. Drain and chill in cold water; drain and set aside.

2.     Drain and rinse chickpeas and black beans; drain well and place in large bowl. Add red pepper, corn and onions; set aside.

Chili Lime Dressing: Whisk together oil, lime rind and juice, chili powder, sugar and salt ; pour over beans and toss to coat. Add green beans and coriander; toss.

Focaccia

Dillon preparing the dough

(modified from Pj’s restaurant- Simon Day)

Ingredients

·   25mL honey

·      2 tbsp dry yeast

·      525mL warm water

·      6 cups all purpose flour

·      10g salt

·      cornmeal

·      salt

·      rosemary

·      olive oil

Directions

1.     Mix water, honey and yeast. Stir once and let sit until foam forms (about 5 minutes).

2.     With an electric mixer and the dough hook attachment, mix flour, salt and yeast mixture for 3 to 4 minutes on low (until smooth).

3.     Place in a well oiled bowl and cover with a cloth. Let it rise for 30 minutes in a warm place (a good way to do this is turn your oven on for 5 minutes, then off so it is warm but not actually on and let it rise in the oven.

4.     Roll our dough, place on cornmeal covered baking sheet, dimple the bread, cover with a cloth again and then let rise for 20 minutes in a warm place.

5.     Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with rosemary and salt.

6.     Bake 20 minutes at 350F.

Shannon helping Matthew cut apples

Apple Crisp (http://www.ricardocuisine.com/recipes/3655-apple-crisp-)

Ingredients

Topping

·    310 ml (1 1/4 cups) quick cooking 
rolled oats

·    60 ml (1/4 cup) unbleached all-purpose flour

·    60 ml (1/4 cup) brown sugar 


·    75 ml (1/3 cup) unsalted butter, softened

Filling

·    125 ml (1/2 cup) brown sugar 


·    2.5 ml (1/2 teaspoon) ground cinnamon 


·   Bag of apples, peeled and sliced

·    15 ml (1 tablespoon) lemon juice



Directions

1.     With the rack in the lowest position, preheat the oven to 180 °C (350 °F). 


2. In a bowl, combine the oats, flour, and brown sugar. Add the butter and stir to combine. Set aside. 


3. In another bowl, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon. Add the apples and lemon juice and stir to combine.

4.     Spoon into baking dish. Cover with the topping. Bake for about 50 minutes. Let cool.

Mustard Vinaigrette

Ingredients

·   1/8 cup red-wine vinegar

·   1 ½ tsp Dijon mustard

·   pinch of salt

·   2 pinches pepper

·   small pinch of sugar

·      3/8 cup extra virgin olive oil

Directions

1. Mix all together and whisk well!

Balsamic Vinaigrette

Ingredients

·   1/8 cup balsamic vinegar

·   2 pinches pepper

·   pinch of salt

·      3/8 cup extra virgin olive oil

Directions

1. Mix all together and whisk well!

Thanks for checking out another Garden2Table successful community outreach initiative!

Exciting News for Garden 2 Table Guelph!

Garden 2 Table is thrilled to announce that we have received funding  from the Harshman Foundation to our program!!!

The Harshman Foundation shares in our passion of teaching children about sustainable food choices and the importance of eating well. Our partnership with the Guelph Centre for Urban Organic Farming is what makes our program so successful, through a generous supply of fresh organic vegetables we are able to show how delicious farm-to-table eating can be! This funding will help us grow in the years to come, by supporting the GCUOF and the Garden 2 Table program, and giving us the opportunity to reach more children and other members in our community with access to better resources.

On behalf of the Garden 2 Table Team this year I would like to extend our warm gratitude to the Harshman Foundation for their generous donation to the G2T program. Our team is excited for the opportunities that the support of the Harshman Foundation will allow our future G2T team members to become even greater leaders in our community.

As for this year, our team is looking forward to our upcoming College Royal event as well as our last few Outreach events. We are also excited to start giving a helping hand to the GCUOF with some seeding as the weather slowly starts to warm up! Stay tuned for more information!


Yours in Food,

G2T Team 2013/2014

Rickson Ridge Grade 2 Classroom Visit

On January 20^th Garden2Table did the first outreach program in the community this year.  The team spent the morning with 21 grade 2 students at Rickson Ridge Public School.  The class was fortunate and had visited the garden in the fall semester. We started by having the class break into smaller groups and visually depict what they remembered from the garden.  The students drew a vegetable and were asked to draw what the vegetable needs to grow.  Carrots were definitely the most popular vegetable amongst the class!  The students did an excellent job and drew sun, rain, soil and some garden critters like worms and bees.

After chatting about plants and what they need to grow we moved onto the next activity: planting!  The kids were each given a plastic cup labeled with their name.  We went around and filled the cups with soil and gave the kids green bean seeds.  The students pushed the seeds into the soil against the plastic so they could observe the seed sprout and grow.  We discussed taking care of the plant and what to expect, roots, a stem and hopefully some green beans over the next few weeks.

For our last activity we made a salad dressing together and the students made their own salad with many different vegetables.  A highlight of making the salad dressing was shaking up the dressing to emulsify it (check out video below). This was a lot of fun and the kids were able to try some vegetables that they had never seen before! Some highlights were radishes and avocados.

Here's the salad dressing recipe we used:

-       ¼ cup red wine vinegar

-       ¾ cup olive oil

-       1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

-       Pinch of sugar

-       Pinch of salt

-       Pinch of pepper 

We hope we can bring some more programming to other classrooms over the next semester!

New Year's Resolution: Getting Kids into the Kitchen

Happy New Year from the Garden2Table team!

We hope that this year will bring lots of sunshine and great harvests in the gardens. We hope that the new year will also bring more opportunity for us to involve more children in our program and for them to bring home what they have learned and share it with their families.

It's never to early to get children involved in the kitchen and here are a few tested recipes that we have used that are easy, fun and delicious (as rated by the kids)!

Yummy Kale Salad (from Chef Jennifer)
1. Wash kale and pat completely dry with paper towel.
2. Remove kale leaves from stems; tear into large bite-sized pieces.
3. In a bowl, drizzle with olive oil and a dash of salt then mix well.
4. Refrigerate the kale over night. This will remove some of the bitterness.
5. Add your favourite toppings such as; raisins, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, blueberries, strawberries, oranges, quinoa or couscous... whatever you fancy!
6. Add any dressing, mix well and enjoy!

Tip for any homemade salad dressing- Remember the rule! 3 parts oil: 1 part vinegar

Banana Cereal Pops (great for snacks!)

All you need is:
- 2 bananas
- 1/4 cup of honey
- 1/2 cup of cereals
- 4 popsicle sticks

Peel the bananas and cut them in half. Insert the popsicle sticks in the bananas and dip the bananas in honey. Roll the bananas on your kid’s favourite cereal until they are fully coated (if the cereal is in big piece then we suggest crushing it up a little to help it stick better!).

Hopefully 2014 will be a year full of fond memories in the kitchen and the gardens!

St. Ignatius Grade 7's visit to the Honey Bee Research Centre on Campus!

On October 10th we brought 33 Grade 7's to the Bee Farm where we were lead in an engaging bee tour by Apiary Manager, Paul Kelly. Paul began with teaching us all about the anatomy, types, and behaviour of bees. We then followed him out to the hives where the brave kids were able to sample fresh honey right from the honeycomb!

After purchasing some delicious raw honey from Paul we headed back to the MINS Food Lab where we were joined by Chef Jennifer Rekunyk who led the kids in some fantastic culinary activities. Using some vegetables from the organic garden that the school had harvested the day before, we showed the kids how to incorporate honey into some healthy and easy recipes which included, butternut squash fries, kale chips, garlic aoli, and yummy kale salad.

Our second day at the bee farm was October 17th, with another amazing group of Grade 7 students from St. Ignatius. This time we were joined by Chef Shea Robinson again to help with our honey recipes. We helped the students make granola, banana pops, and honey roasted root vegetables. A huge thank you to both Chef Rekunyk and Chef Robinson for making both days fantastic for the students. We are sad that this concludes our fall programming this year as the fall harvest is coming to a close. But we are excited about the up and coming G2T programs in the winter semester. Stay Tuned!!