Thinking about having an event in your school garden and not sure what kind of food or drink to share?! Eating and sharing food with ingredients grown in your school garden not only tastes good but also allows students to share what they have been learning with their families and community!
Here are some open house food ideas for you and your students to help you get started!
Tea Party!
- Make cold or hot teas from some of the fresh herbs you have grown such as mint, lemon balm, chamomile, thyme…incorporate honey from your bee hives or maple syrup from tapping your trees!
- Include some healthy sweet treats! Think zucchini bread, carrot cookies, apple muffins!
- Check out Harvest Day Garden Teas recipes from Edna Drinkwater School!
Salsa!
- Get out the blenders or food processors and make salsa with fresh ingredients from your garden! Make platters of raw veggies from the garden and bring out the chips!
Salad!
- After your students harvest salad greens from the gardens, consider making a dressing using olive oil, fresh garlic, salt, pepper and apple cider vinegar (some school gardens have made vinegar from their apples!).
- The Outdoor Classroom at Central School in South Berwick has celebrated the end of the growing season with a fall Harvest Festival. Students used hoop house garden tomatoes, kale, carrots, and potatoes to create sauces, salads, and roasted vegetables.
Smoothies!
- Get out the blenders and make smoothies!
- Check out the RSU 71 Elementary Gardens Students Favorite Smoothie Lab Recipes!
Pizza Party!
- At Kingfield Elementary, the Annual Family Harvest Meal is held in the fall at the end of the school garden season for the school community where one year families could create and enjoy pizza in the garden space. Students collected tomatoes and made pizza sauce, prepared several garden vegetable choices for toppings the day of the event, and then worked with their families to create their own pizzas.
Taste Test!
- Consider setting up a Taste Test event so families and community members can experience what it’s like to try a new food from the school garden?!
- Here are a few tips and suggestions for a Taste Test event: Taste Test Basics from FoodCorps and Host a Taste Test from Actions for Healthy Kids.
Want to know more?!
- Check out the Cooking in Your School Garden Resource page
- Kids Cooking for Life Recipes developed by Nutritionists, approved by Kids!
