Garden to Table cooks sustainable kai with chef Peter Gordon.

For the amazing adults who guide our kids in school kitchens and gardens across Aotearoa, Garden to Table runs workshops around the country each term so the specialists can learn new skills and compare notes with others.

Sometimes we have the chance to do something a little different on these hui, and on 12 August a lucky group of Garden to Table kitchen specialists from Auckland schools visited the sustainable cooking school Homeland for a special community day led by Peter Gordon and his team.

Homeland was created by Peter along with Alistair Carruthers to celebrate Aotearoa and its abundance of sustainable kai. Their mahi was a great fit with Garden to Table’s kaupapa of helping kids learn to grow, harvest, prepare, share — and love! — fresh produce, which our kitchen specialists carefully nurture in tamariki each week.

Working in groups of five, teams made a vegetable Pacific chowder under Peter’s direction and guidance, with the option of adding sustainably caught fish if they liked. Groups also made delicious twice-cooked sesame kawakawa kūmara with peas and zucchini. These recipes will soon be added to Garden to Table’s resource kete so schools all around Aotearoa can cook and enjoy them.

The morning was a wonderful chance for the group to connect, and to share a meal together in the same way tamariki do on Garden to Table days at school.

“It was a great opportunity for us as Garden to Table kitchen specialists to work in a beautiful space and have someone else do our dishes!” Nicola from Meadowbank Primary said. “The team were extremely welcoming and very gracious with the knowledge they imparted to us and it was just an absolute treat to be a part of.”

The Garden to Table specialists impressed the Homeland team with their koha of fresh produce, some of which was put to good use in the chowder.

Ann and Turi from Flat Bush school were “still beaming,” they said afterwards. “We can’t stop talking about Peter and Alistair and just the whole concept of going there cooking, and sharing with everybody else.”

A huge thank you to the Homeland team for being so welcoming and sharing your space and knowledge with our Garden to Table group.