Many students learned for the first time the acronym EVOO on the recipe. Later, one of them told me he was watching the game show “Cash Cab” on the Discovery Channel the night after class where the prize-winning question was “What is EVOO?” I was reminded of how broad a meaning “life skills” can have!

Once the well was made, we all marveled at how the white flour with the yellow eggs in the middle looked just like a giant fried egg. Using a fork (which reiterated how simple the recipe is to make with everyday kitchen tools), the students mixed together the eggs and the oil and then pulled tiny bits of flour into the wet ingredients as they swirled the fork around. The well method is a great way to ensure a smooth, pliant dough, and has been used for generations to make fresh pasta.

After kneading by hand, the finished dough was wrapped in plastic to let it rest for the next class. The students cut and cooked dough that was made by the class before them. We had some amazingly creative shapes, some of which had yet to be invented! The pasta cooked in salted boiling water for 60 seconds, and we served it with more olive oil, Meyer lemon wedges, chervil, Parmigiano-Reggiano, ground pepper, and shelling peas fresh off the vine. I hope we hear from the 7th graders many years down the road that they continue to make this delicious recipe for their family and friends.

The recipe

Making the pasta dough

Rollin out the dough

Cutting the pasta

Boiling up the pasta and getting ready to eat

Some highlights of the conference were: hearing the wise words of seasoned farmers, activists, and food system experts such as Wes Jackson, Francis Moore Lappe, and Anim Steele; discussing the ideals and challenges of maintaining an ecologically sustainable and socially just food system on a large scale; hearing from Percy Schmeiser, a courageous Canadian farmer who stood up to Monsanto for contaminating his fields with genetically engineered canola; and witnessing the surprise appearance and speech of Kathleen Merrigan, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture of the United States.

The conference reinforced how the work we are doing with youth at King is part of a larger movement towards a more socially just and ecologically sane food system.  It is heartening to hear about all the good work that is happening around California and around the country, and it is a privilege to meet some of the founders of this movement and some of the inspired individuals who keep it going.   We have come a long way in thirty years in making “organic” a part of the mainstream vocabulary—and we still have a long way to go in making healthy food accessible to everyone.

We began our mornings in the garden with regular garden classes: we turned five huge heaps of compost and cultivated a long bed in the back of the garden and planted it with beautiful broccoli plants from the greenhouse. After our garden classes, the ESY garden teachers joined the CEC students for their physical education classes. We participated in several student versus staff basketball games; while we looked to our sub-par garden footwear as an excuse for losing, there is really no other way to say it: we got schooled on the court.

The CEC immersion integrated well the work we do in the garden with the students and the work they are doing with their classroom teachers. Each student completed a research project on a relevant garden related theme such as compost, worms, ladybugs, mushrooms, plants as medicine, chicken care, and potato towers. Their mission was to create a poster that included facts, quotes, photographs, and written paragraphs about their topics, as well as an oral presentation on their theme. Students completed research in the classroom with the help of the garden staff and their dedicated teachers and aides. Aside from researching their themes through books and the internet, students were able to understand their topics through hands-on application. For example, a student who was researching plants as medicine got to familiarize himself firsthand with medicinal plants we have growing in the garden such as calendula, mint, and lavender. Another student who was studying worms was able to get up close and personal with worms as he was cultivating during garden class.

The week culminated with students presenting their research projects to their peers, teachers, and some family members out in the garden, followed by a pizza party that CEC students created. They harvested, washed, and prepared fresh toppings from the garden, mixed ingredients for the pizza dough, and built and cooked incredibly delicious pizzas in our wood-fired oven. We were all able to celebrate the CEC students’ hard work in the garden and on their research projects by enjoying pizza and salad together in the ESY kitchen classroom. Overall, the CEC immersion week was a great success and with a little bit of fine tuning, we plan to repeat this same program again year after year.

Turning compost

The bed we cultivated together         The finished bed of broccoli

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/dining/20edible.html

The rainwater we collect is used for irrigation purposes during the summer and fall. This process helps us lessen our dependence on municipal water sources and also decreases runoff into the San Fransisco Bay. Currently we are using the rainwater to irrigate our Oyster Mushrooms (the mushrooms have their own story that must be told, but that will have to wait until the next entry). They are fragile and prefer non-chlorinated water, so the rainwater couldn’t be a better match.

We are so grateful to the Alameda Countywide Clean Water Program for providing the grant that made this program possible! The rainy season is just beginning this year and we have already captured 1,000 gallons of water.

We had to dig a great big hole to make room for the water catchment system

It took a lot of hands to move the container

We had to push from many angles to get the right position

This is how it looks today, collecting water to feed the garden