Food processors were buzzing in the elementary school cafeteria as students whipped up pesto from freshly harvested basil.
This piece first appeared in The Vermont Standard.
Woodstock Elementary School’s students are getting involved in the Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) Challenge. Food processors were buzzing in the cafeteria two weeks ago as third graders made pesto from freshly harvested basil. Second graders played “Simon Says” while readying dill for pickle making. And one very industrious seven-year-old won a prize because of his healthy activities.
The HEAL Challenge was developed by the Ottauquechee Community Partnership (OCP) and other local organizations to showcase the many opportunities for nutritious eating and physical activity in the Woodstock area. Anyone, any age, can participate by completing five fun activities. An informational brochure is on-line at www.ocpvt.org. As extra incentive to get involved, there are weekly drawings at the Market on the Green for $10 gift certificates. On October 6th, one lucky participant will win the grand prize, a $400 Start House Ski and Bike gift certificate.
The thirty-one third graders in Jay Mumford and John Souter’s classes at Woodstock Elementary School (WES) got a leg up on completing their HEAL Challenge activities on a recent Friday afternoon. They made basil pesto in a whirl of activity that was so much fun they dubbed it “Pesto Palooza.” The children started in the school’s garden, which they’d planted the previous spring.
Most of the kids at first didn’t know what basil was, says Mumford, but when “they pulled it out of the ground and got that rich, earthy smell on their hands. They started to say, oh, yeah, I recognize that smell.”
One group peeled leaves from stems, another washed the leaves, a third combined them with sunflower seeds, parmesan cheese, and garlic. The final group chopped everything up with olive oil using food processors. Now their product is stored in the school’s freezer. The kids capped off the afternoon by writing invitations to their schoolmates for a pesto taste test in October.
Other students were busy in the garden as well. Second graders found that the newly sown soil they’d left behind in June now sported three foot dill plants with yellow-flowered seed heads and meandering vines laden with cucumbers. WES Farm to School Coordinator Lalita Karoli helped them make pickles. The kids debugged the seed heads in a rousing game of Simon Says, and gathered up cucumbers in a scavenger hunt. Small groups each in turn cut cucumbers, then put them in pre-sterilized mason jars with the seed heads and a boiled brine of salt, vinegar, and water. The jars that sealed properly from the heat of the brine now sit in their classroom; the kids will take them home in a couple of weeks to enjoy with their parents. Some students had never tasted cucumbers before, says Karoli, but when she encouraged them to have a try, “They couldn’t stop eating them. Luckily, we had hundreds of cucumbers.”
Student Tyler Watson was among the WES pickle-makers. Since he’d also been working on other healthy endeavors, his mother Kim helped him complete and submit the HEAL Challenge entry form that came home from school in his backpack. September 8th turned out to be Tyler’s lucky day because his HEAL Challenge entry was selected in the weekly drawing for a $10 gift certificate to the Market on the Green. Tyler participated in WES’s Walking School Bus, hiked up Mount Tom, swam at the Woodstock Recreation Center and in Barnard’s Silver Lake, and played outside almost everyday. He and younger sister Hannah also helped their mom with the front yard garden they’ve tended for the last few years. They grow corn, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, carrots, lettuce, green beans, peas, and pumpkins.
“When we need something, we don’t have to buy it,” says Tyler, “we just go down and grab it.”
He enjoyed finding worms when he and his mom first prepared the garden’s soil. Now that the corn plants have grown tall, Tyler and his sister love to run through the row of stalks, in fact, he says, “I’d like to ride a dirt bike in there.” Tyler’s not sure how he will spend his winnings, but he’s looking forward to visiting all the booths at the Market on the Green to decide.