Kitchen Garden Journalists for 2021

[Editor’s Note:  We have two teams of Kitchen Garden journalists for 2021 and this is the first post by Room 10 KG journalists: Saffi, Remy, Emillie and Reef. They worked really hard to write in a way that will engage and entertain their readers.  We hope you enjoy reading it.]

IN THE GARDEN

By Saffi

It wasn’t just any ordinary day in the garden for Room 10. Normally in Garden we would clean the ponds and feed the fish, but today it was all about the chickens and the worms.

I was on the chickens.  “First time ever!” I said, as I jumped up and down in the shed while Terri was telling us our jobs.

Everyone walked to their jobs, except me.  I ran…  But then, “That was close,” I said as I nearly hit Seb while he was pushing a wheelbarrow.  I just dodged him.  Lucky me!

By Emillie and Remy

“Ow! Peck. Peck. Peck.”  Remy ran away, screaming, straight after the chicken lightly pecked her on the hand.  She’s petrified of chickens.

The chicken rested against my shoulder as I held it lightly in my arms. As soon as I put the chicken in its pen, Remy sprinted up to me shouting, “That chicken is super deadly.  It nearly killed me!”

“Oh, Remy.  You’re just overreacting.  That’s its way of saying hello.”

“Still!” Remy says, acting all sassy.

I sigh, “Another day in the garden!”

By Reef

“Oops!  I’ve just squashed a yucky runny banana and the brown gooey stuff is oozing down to my elbow!  But luckily, I had on some handy dandy gloves that were a lifesaver!

These are some of the dangers while composting and sorting food for those hungry worms. It’s a messy job.

Step number one – get a handy bucket from the shed. Secondly – sort all of the food scraps into buckets to chop them up so that those little worm mouths can eat these vegie delights.

And finally, feed the chopped scraps to the worms and compost!

Feedback from Room 10 students:

Seb said: Getting the dirt out of the pot was very hard.

Cherri said: Eating food is the best part of the kitchen garden program.

Judah said: I don’t like how Garden’s only for 40 minutes.

Ruby said: I don’t like doing the dishes. It’s very annoying and my hands get very soapy.

Andy said: If I could make up a group name, it would be “Disgusting Onions” because I hate onions.

Daisy said: I love how in Garden you get to help out and work as a team.

Darcy said: I love how you can goof around with your friends and do Garden.

IN THE KITCHEN

By Saffi

“I don’t want to make this!” we all said with a frown on our faces.

“It’s really good,” said Jodi.  But no-one believed her…

We all went back to our stations and we asked each other who would be the head chef. Beau said, “Me. Me,” straight away.  We all agreed and asked him what our jobs were.  I was the chopper.  There were lots of things to chop…

I started to chop the onions, but then…

“Ouch!”

“Ouch!”

“Ouch!”

We all ran outside with the sting of onions in our eyes…

By Remy

When Jodi told us about the bread and the soup, everyone was so excited to make the bread – but not so much the fruit and vegetable soup…

“Okay, I’ll get the ingredients to make the soup,” I said to myself as I looked at the recipe.  “Banana and apple?”  I was so shocked.  You would have to be crazy to include that in a soup!

“Well that’s the recipe. Here, Saffi, I’ve got all the ingredients.”

We put the weird veggies and fruits into the pot.  “Eeww,” I said, “onions and fruit together? I didn’t realise that was the plan.  Anyway.”

While I was blending the fruits, I noticed chunks of apple rolling around in the puree.  “Was this going to work?  Will it be any good?”  I just kept on blending and 5 seconds later I could tell from the smell that this soup would be different, but amazing.

By Emillie 

“Mmmm!”  Everyone was so excited to make the bread…

“Okey Dokey!  Flour, bicarb of soda, garlic powder and Greek yoghurt are in the bowl now.” I walked to my station, amazed at how good it looked.  Mix. Mix. Mix.  As I mixed the dough, IT WAS STICKY!  What did I do wrong?  I kneaded it, putting just enough flour in – and voila!  It was no longer sticky. It had an amazing doughy feeling.

Splat! I put the flatbread into the pan, hoping it would cook properly.  Six minutes later we were all smiling as we looked at a golden brown, perfect flatbread on the plate.

By Reef

Flatbread doesn’t start flat!

I had the biggest ball of dough!  It was just a sticky pancake on my kitchen bench.  Squish. Squish.  I was trying to get the dough off before my group saw my problem.

I sprinkled flour all over and around it and thankfully, it came loose.  I started kneading it and after a while I carried it and tipped it into the frying pan. “Sizzle sizzle!” went the frying pan. Thank goodness.

I was so relieved that the dough was finally in the pan and the whole sticky episode was over!!  We ended up with a puffy golden flatbread that smelt delicious!

Feedback from Room 10 students:

Darcey said the most challenging part was chopping the onions.

Zoe really enjoyed kneading the dough.

Ruby said the most interesting ingredients today were the banana and apple!

Jake and Andy said that today they learned to make bread.

And everybody said it tasted GREAT!  They said it was sooooo good and we can’t believe we ever doubted it!!!

Written and photos by Room 10 Kitchen Garden Journalists; Posted by D. Veary