Greetings!
We're glad you're here.
If you are interested in more information on food education or school gardens, we welcome you to visit our website:
or contact us:
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ESY STATS
2013-14 SCHOOL YEAR
Students Reached:
1,163
Student Hours in the Garden: 142
Student Hours in the Classroom: 169
ESY QUOTE
OF THE MONTH
"Farmer Jim, could you do me a favor and deliver some of this applesauce to my house?"
-ECS Student
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WHAT WE'RE READING Anansi the Spider
by Gerald McDermott
"A picture-book version of an Ashanti tale that tells how the moon came to be in the sky. When Anansi the spider goes on a journey, he soon finds himself in grave danger. Luckily, all six of his sons are able to help him and he is soon rescued. Now Anansi wants to reward the son who saved his life, but which one of his six children deserves the honor he has in mind?"
At ESY Pittsburgh, we're reading Anansi stories as a part of our Winter Cooking Program. Our Groundnut Stew lessons focus on West Africa's storytelling and food traditions!
Book Suggestions Wanted!
What gardening or food-centric books are you reading with your child or student? We welcome your input and suggestions! Just reply to this email and we will try to feature suggested books in upcoming newsletters!
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Let Kids Serve Themselves!
A new NPR article reports that kids - even very young ones- might benefit from serving themselves at mealtime.
"...there's now research showing that when kids are allowed to serve themselves, they're less likely to overeat. They also tend to be more open to trying different kinds of foods." - quoted from article
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Join, Support and Learn with Grow Pittsburgh!
Check out some of our upcoming events, opportunities and resources: |
This month's Let Us Eat dinner in support of Grow Pittsburgh will be held at Square Cafe on February 13th. Let us eat!
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VOLUNTEER WITH GP
Would you like to volunteer with Grow Pittsburgh this year? Serve your community and learn a few new gardening skills along the way!
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The Urban Harvester:
Container and Raised Bed Garden Planning
Each week, Grow Pittsburgh's Director of Agricultural Production, Susanna Meyer, shares her knowledge of urban growing, harvest and eating!
Click here to check out the latest Urban Harvester on container garden planning!
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Grow Pittsburgh is proud to present...
Don't know the first thing about vegetable gardening, but want to learn? Do you have some experience but want to improve your growing? Join us for our 3-part educational series offered in February, March or April.
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Food For Thought
The past few months at Edible Schoolyard Pittsburgh have been spent teaching lessons from our Winter Cooking Program. Together with students, we're learning that food is one of the most basic - and the most important - elements of life around the world. After all, everyone must eat. There are healthy food traditions from so many countries from which we can learn. During our cooking classes, we're trying to ask a wide variety of questions in an effort to take the mystery out of our food and make connections to food cultures from across the globe.
Here are some of the questions we're asking about our food:
-What is it/ what ingredients are in it?
-What are the main plant ingredients?
-Where was it grown or produced?
-Can we grow or produce it here in Pittsburgh? Why or why not?
-What culture first popularized this food?
-What process did this food go through from plant to its current form?
-What roles did people play in the production of this food?
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Teaching kids to ask questions about their food takes us one step closer to creating a conscious, informed and empowered consumer culture. We believe that this intelligent questioning will lead to healthier classrooms, families and communities in Pittsburgh - and around the world.
Make it into a game! We challenge you and your child or student can take turns asking one another questions about the food on your plate!
Read on for updates from our Flagship Schools, recipes to try at home and opportunities to connect with Grow Pittsburgh!
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Pittsburgh Dilworth
Located in Highland Park
At Dilworth, our K-2 students are participating in a unique curriculum that continues to build upon their experiences. In the springtime, our first graders prepared our Three Sisters garden beds in the traditional Native American style. After they tilled and prepared the soil, they carefully buried their corn seeds, and watered them gingerly. Once the corn had sprouted, they planted beans around their corn plants, and finally, planted squash in the remaining open spaces. When they returned as 2nd graders after their summer break, they saw their magnificent towering corn plants, the way the beans wrapped around the corn, and the shade that the squash provided to the soil below. This gardening lesson was further synthesized in the classroom this winter, as we focused not only on the way these three crops work together as companions, but also how they are healthy for us when we eat them together.
| Compost wheels! |
To celebrate these three wonderful vegetables, we cooked up a Three Sisters Soup, made entirely from ingredients that could be grown in our garden (except a little olive oil). Be sure to ask your student to share this recipe, and make it at home!
Meanwhile, our Gardening TEA group has been learning all about recycling. We made compost wheels to remember the compost "ingredients", and how we can use many of our waste products to make great soil for our garden. Soon the TEA students will be recycling their waste for an art project -- stay tuned for updates on our homemade paper!entirely from ingredients that could be grown in our garden (except a little olive oil). Be sure to ask your student to share this recipe, and make it at home!
Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh Charter School
Located in East Liberty
| Groundnut Stew, ready to serve. |
This winter, our 1st and 5th grade classes are piloting the newest recipe in our Winter Cooking Program: Three Sisters Soup! The Urban League scholars have become experts in the Three Sisters vegetables. We learned about how Native Americans grew corn, beans, and squash, and watched them work together as companion plants in our own garden. Now we are learning how these three special vegetables compliment one another nutritionally, and how delicious they taste together in a soup! If you would like to see these three vegetables in action, ask your student to share our Three Sisters Play, or make this delicious soup at home!
Coming up at ULGPCS, we will be making a Tabbouleh salad and learning all about whole grains. This year's Earth Day event is also in the works -- more details to come!
-Farmer Molly
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Pittsburgh Colfax
Located in Squirrel Hill
| Yasmin is ready to sample! |
Believe it or not, winter is a very busy and rewarding time in the Edible Schoolyard. As our plant and animal friends take their long winter slumbers, we do our best to bring the colors, flavors, excitement and good health of the garden indoors with us. This winter, I've been busy with Colfax's second grade classrooms, cooking and enjoying good food together. One of our favorite recipes has been Groundnut Stew. In case you are confused, a groundnut is a peanut, but don't worry! We use the more allergy-friend alternative, sunflower seed butter or sunbutter, instead. This rich, tomato and collards based stew from West Africa is a classroom favorite, and filled with healthy vegetables. I always like to add one secret ingredient-sweet potatoes grown from our very own school garden.
I must give a quick shout-out to Julie King's 2nd grade class for always having 100% of the students willing to try something new, and a thank you to my volunteers-Bernadette and Katie-for making these cooking classes possible.
The Environmental Charter School
Located in Park Place
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Spencer grinding seeds into sunflower butter.
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As you know, cooking is about more than just good food, and as part of ourWinter Cooking Program, we also take some time to ex
plore the culture of food and the rich
cultural atmosphere that surrounds the food we eat. As we prepared Groundnut Stew, a recipe from West Africa, we also discussed the rich history of storytelling. I shared some stories of Anansi, a spider man and common character in the folklore of the region, and students shared stories from their own history and the histories of their friends and families. I must say that food never tastes quite as good as when it's shared with good words and rich stories from the people you love. Thanks to my students, the ECS 4th grade, Jerome Szpila, my volunteers-Stacie and Amber, and the ECS food education team for sharing these good foods and great memories with me.
If you're interested in hearing more about Anansi, there are many picture books to be found at your local library, or I'd also recommend this wonderful cartoon that tells how Anansi brought stories to the world : A Story, A Story.
-Farmer Jim
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Pittsburgh Faison
Located in Homewood
Mrs. Lucot's science classes were busy this January wrapping up our Winter
| Ms. Laura, a dedicated ESY volunteer, works with Ni'Eirah to chop tomatoes. |
Cooking Program with a popular Middle Eastern salad, Tabbouleh. The combination of lemon juice, mint, parsley, tomatoes, and bulgur wheat makes for a refreshing treat in the middle of a very cold winter. Students did a wonderful job participating in cooking and eating this healthy snack!
What was your student's favorite recipe from the Winter Cooking Program? Three Sisters Soup? Groundnut Stew? Tabbouleh Salad? Ask to see their Food Journals for a peek into our lesson from this winter!
Coming up: garden planning! We'll be spending a lot of time in class this February learning all about what plants need to grow!
Pittsburgh Montessori Located in Friendship We've had a fun month in the Edible Schoolyard classroom kitchen this month. In Ms. Winter, Ms. Schafers, and Ms. Hayes's classes we made Tabbouleh and learned all about the different ingredients in this healthy Middle Eastern salad. Then, we got to prepare and eat it in class! Students loved the combination of mint, parsley, tomatoes, bulgur wheat, and lemon juice! | A Food Journal entry completed by a student-chef in Ms. Winter's class. |
In Ms. Costello and Ms. Liberati's 3-6 classrooms, we spent this month doing a unit on bugs and insects. We started out learning all about honeybees, then focused in on the "garden jobs" of three different bugs. We finished our unit with a fun visit from some real live worms!
Starting up next month: Garden planning! Who's ready to plant some seeds?
-Farmer Courtney
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Winter Cooking Program Recipes:
Kid Tested, ESY Approved
Interested in cooking up the healthy, internationally-inspired and kid-friendly recipes from our Winter Cooking Program at home? They are all available on our ESY Pittsburgh website recipe page! Look for the following recipes with your family:
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Grow Pittsburgh Garden Workshop Series
Free and open to all gardeners! We are very excited to host the 2014 Grow Pittsburgh garden workshop series this spring, summer and fall on a wide variety of urban and school gardening topics. Follow this link for descriptions of the available workshops for this growing season. Registration is required for participation as some workshops have limited space. Come learn with us!
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ESY Pittsburgh in Food Day Blog
Check out this blog post which highlights or winter programming on the Food Day.org blog!
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ESY PGH Recipe of the Month
Tabbouleh Salad
A recipe from our Winter Cooking Program
Ingredients:
- 1 cup dry bulgur wheat
- 1 large bunch parsley
- �-1 bunch fresh mint leaves
- 4 green onions
- 3 medium tomatoes
- 3 lemons, juiced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Method:
1. Prepare bulgur
Soak: Cover 1 cup uncooked bulgur with 2 cups boiling water and soak for 7 minutes. Drain and rinse.
Cook: Put 3 cups water in a pot, bring to a boil. Add bulgur and cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, cover, let stand for 4 minutes. Drain excess water.
2. Seed and roughly chop tomatoes.
3. Chop parsley, mint, and green onions
4. In a large bowl, combine bulgur, parsley, mint, tomatoes, and onion.
5. In a small bowl whisk lemon juice and olive oil together.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste.
7. Gradually add the dressing to the bulgur mixture. Enjoy!
Chef's Note: To make gluten-free, use quinoa in place of bulgur wheat.
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Since winter is surely keeping us all inside a bit more than usual this year, maybe we can use some of our time to ask questions about our food and our communities. Here's wishing you lots of great food inquiry ahead!
-The Edible Schoolyard Pittsburgh team
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