At-home activities and recipes
Two recipes and a veggie-based craft project for you to try, with whatever ingredients you have!
Painting with vegetable scraps.
We wanted to suggest a few creative things you and your whānau can make or do at home. These activities don’t require a lot of specific ingredients or tools and you can use whatever veggies you have on hand. Please do tag us in photos on Facebook and Instagram if you try them out!
Recipe: Salad of the imagination
For our Garden to Table tamariki who might be missing the school garden and kitchen, this is a chance for them to try the growing, harvesting, preparing and sharing skills they’re learning, at home.
The only limit to the variety of this salad is your imagination! (And what’s in the garden.) You can use whatever you have to hand to create a delicious fresh salad — edible flowers add great colour if you have them. The contents of this salad will naturally change with the seasons, depending on what is available to eat in the garden.
Season: Year round
From the garden: Green leaves, vegetables, herbs, fruit, seeds, flowers – anything edible!
Type: Salad
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 12+ servings (makes at least 6 cups of salad)
Source: Adapted from Shared Plate, Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation.
Equipment
Clean tea towels
Chopping boards x 3
Kitchen knife x 3
Scissors
Large mixing bowls
Measuring cups and spoons
Whisk
Citrus juicer
Tongs
Ingredients
4 cups mixed salad leaves
2 cups of small leaves and herbs
Edible flowers
Vegetables to chop, e.g., tomatoes, celery, snowpeas, mushrooms
Vegetables to grate, e.g., beetroot, carrot, radish, zucchini
1 Tablespoon ‘acid’ e.g., lemon juice or vinegar
4 Tablespoons ‘oil’ e.g., olive oil or sesame oil
Mustard, honey, spices to flavour dressing
Salt and pepper to taste
How to make it
Assemble the ingredients thinking about what is in season and which flavours go together. Think about how the ingredients will feel together in a salad (e.g., it is nice to have something crunchy alongside the soft green leaves).
Prepare the leaves and herbs by washing and drying them gently. Tear or snip big leaves into bite sized pieces and remove any tough stems.
Wash and dry gently any vegetables that you will use in your salad, and then grate or dice into small pieces.
To make the dressing use 1 part 'acid' to 4 parts 'oil'. Whisk together in a large mixing bowl then mix in your favourite flavour additions such as honey, mustard or spices. Add a pinch of salt and pepper, and always taste and adjust to your taste.
Tip the leaves into the mixing bowl with the dressing and then gently toss them in the dressing with tongs or using your hands. Mix through any chopped or grated vegetables you are using.
Tip salad into serving bowls and garnish with edible flowers, croutons and seeds (if any).
Painting with vegetable scraps
This project was created by our curriculum development manager, Victoria, who made the artwork above with her daughter during the first level 4 lockdown across Aotearoa 2020. It’s still one of our favourites! Here are Victoria’s instructions for how to soak common compost items in water to create paints:
How to make it
Onion skin: Boil onion skins in a saucepan for 10 minutes. Just cover with water.
Turmeric: Soak 1 tablespoon of turmeric in 3 tablespoons of water for 10 minutes. Strain through a sieve lined with a paper towel.
Coffee: Soak old coffee grounds in hot water for 10 minutes. You could use 1 teaspoon of instant coffee instead.
Beetroot peel: Put peelings in the blender. Just cover with water, blend, and strain through a sieve.
Red cabbage (outer leaves): Chop roughly, put in blender, just cover with water, and blend. Strain through a sieve.
Red cabbage (heated): Use some of the red cabbage paint, put in the microwave for 30 seconds. Hot — ask a grown up to help.
Grass: Chop up with scissors. Put in the blender, just cover with water, blend, strain through a sieve.
Notes
Now is definitely not the time to be wasting food, but even the vegetable peelings can be used to make paint before they go to the compost.
Don’t use too much water, or your colours will be very pale.
When the paint is made, squeeze out the pulp and add it to the compost.
Recipe: Herbal infusions (teas)
Herbal infusions or teas are perfect hot or cold year round, and you can experiment with whatever herbs you've got growing in your garden, including lemongrass, peppermint, rosemary, and lavender!
We especially love kawakawa tea. The plants, with their heart-shaped leaves and distinctive peppery taste, are thought to have therapeutic properties according to traditional Māori medicine.
Once your tea has been brewed and enjoyed, you can return the spent leaves and sprigs to nourish papatūānuku via the pū wairākau, compost heap.
Season: Year round
From the garden: Herbs
Type: Drink
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 1 cup per person
Source: Palmers Garden Centre website
Equipment
1 kettle
Teapot(s) or Plungers
Tea strainer
Ingredients
A small handful of herbs
Boiling water
Honey (optional)
Lemon juice (optional)
Ginger Root (optional)
How to make it
Boil the water in the kettle and let it cool for two minutes.
Add the herbs to the teapot and pour boiled water in and allow to infuse for 5 minutes. Hot — You might need an adult to help with this.
Pour in to cups and serve. You may need to use a tea strainer.
Notes
Here are some suggestions for herbs to use in your tea and their medicinal benefits. If you would like to sweeten your herbal tea, stir in a little honey. It is also nice to grate a little ginger root and a squeeze of lemon juice for a warming winter drink. The children will enjoy experimenting with the flavours to discover their favourite brews.
Lemongrass: When used as a tea, help rebalance intestinal flora.
Peppermint: Calming herb and great for relieving colds.
Calendula: The petals are used in antifungal creams.
Borage: Use the petals in summer in cooking or as an adrenal tonic.
Rosemary: Use leaves for a calming tea that helps circulation.
Pineapple Sage: Good for indigestion and heartburn.
Olive tree leaves: Make a good anti viral tea and help soothe a cold and sore throat.
Kawakawa: The leaves make a tea that is calming, anti-inflammatory and good for pain relief.
Lavender: Use the petals in Summer to make a relaxing tea.
Lemon Balm: calming tea, useful for all problems arising from tension and stress.
Lemon Verbena Tea: Useful for boosting the immune system, reducing inflammation and protects muscles.
You might like to try these drinks chilled in the summer. You could also experiment with chilled water drinks adding cucumber, berries or other summer fruits to water and chill. Deliciously refreshing!
We hope you enjoyed these activities! For more, check out our winter recipe book, or the other ideas on our “taster resources” page — which are a small sample of the activities tamariki might try during a Garden to Table session.