Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program
Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation
Alawa Kitchen Garden Program
Alawa is the demonstration school of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program for the Northern Territory. The program started in Victoria and was so successful it has now been launched nation wide.
In 2008 we applied to be the NT demonstration school and we were granted the initial funding to set up our program. Our kitchen was installed in July 2009. In Term 3 of 2009 we commenced Kitchen and Garden Lessons…..
The philosophy of the program
“The aim of the Kitchen Garden Program is pleasurable food education for young children. The underlying belief is that by introducing this holistic approach we have a chance to positively influence children’s food choices in ways that have not been tried before.”
”A kitchen garden is created to provide edible, aromatic and beautiful resources for a kitchen. The creation and care of a kitchen garden teaches children about the natural world, about its beauty and how to care for it, how best to use the resources we have, and an appreciation for how easy it is to bring joy and wellbeing into one’s life through growing, harvesting, preparing and sharing fresh, seasonal produce.”
The philosophy of the program is vital here in Darwin, as much of our food is transported in from elsewhere and what is actually local and able to be grown here and cooked in a delicious manner is unknown by many. To teach this philosophy to our children and future generations is vital to a more sustainable and healthy food culture.
How the program operates
Children in years 3-6 are involved in this program and have one 45 minute garden lesson and one 1 ½ hour kitchen lesson every week. We have excellent staff involved:- Ms Lia is the garden specialist and a born and bred Territory gardener. She has the students intrigued and busy with in our fantastic tropical garden. She studied horticulture at CDU and her love of growing plants is passed on to the students. Ms Emma is the program coordinator and Kitchen Specialist. She has set up the kitchen with stores and equipment and created the delicious seasonal recipes to go into interesting and creative menus for the students to cook every lesson. Before coming to settle in Darwin she worked as a cook on sailing and motor boats within the tropics.
Lessons in the garden
Classes begin with a short discussion on specific topics.
Subjects have included-
- Seeds, what they are and how to sow them
- Cuttings, how to prepare them and different types
- Legumes, different species and their growth habits and their benefit to soil
These talks give students theoretical knowledge of plants and their needs, benefits and uses etc.
The class then goes into the garden where they perform physical activities such as mulching, weeding, planting out, planting seeds, fertilizing, harvesting etc.
The children enjoy being outside and many are happy to do physical work.
They especially like to watch plants that they have put in mature and fruit.
All enjoy harvesting and like to sample the produce whilst they work, eg. rosella leaves and sweet leaf.
It is my hope that they will have a better understanding of where their food comes from and feel confident to produce their own at home in the future.
Happily many are already keen to take home cuttings and seeds to grow.
Planting and harvesting plan for 2010
Lessons in the kitchen
A short introduction occurs and students are then put into groups (usually 4). Each group then puts on an apron, washes their hands and reads the recipe with the adult helping them. This adult is either a volunteer, classroom support assistant or a teacher. Ingredients and equipment is collected and together the groups prepare their different recipes.
At the end of this, the first group finished starts to lay the tables while others clear up. Each group then serves their dish on an appropriate platter in a presentable way, maybe with a garnish or in a pattern and each table is then given one plate of each dish to share. The children sit at tables, in groups different to their work groups, and share the food, telling the others how they made the dish and hopefully discussing the flavours and textures of each dish and why they do or don’t like it. Usually all is really enjoyed and very often the meals cooked are new to many students.
Menus and Recipes
These are very much based on what is in season and growing in our garden. If ingredients have to come from elsewhere it is always chosen because it could potentially be grown in our garden, or locally (with the exception of onions and garlic). Some recipes are repeated with varying ingredients and some ingredients are used again and again in a variety of recipes. By using the same ingredients in a variety of interesting and delicious ways, it is hoped those involved will be able to come up with many imaginative ways of cooking our local produce, based on ideas given to them at school.
By repeating recipes (sporadically throughout the term) it is hoped the techniques will be learned, so they can be replicated at home with a variety of available ingredients!!
...We would like to share our recipes with you
Volunteer involvement
Our volunteers are essential to the program and without them it really could not run. We would like to thank all those involved in the program and those who have helped in the past. We encourage any one who would like to take part to contact either-
Emma Lupin(co ordinator and kitchen specialist)- emma.lupin@ntschools.net (894528812) or phone and leave a message with the school office 89279122
Feed back from the children
Here are some quotes from the kids- “Wow, that was the best thing I ever made” Jacob (about Pizza dough) “That was fantastic, I can’t wait till next week” Imogen, parent volunteer.
The future
We want to be an example to others in the tropics of how to run a sustainable school and community garden and engage our future generations.
We hope to help tune students' tastes to the tropical produce and get them thinking about the origin of their food. This is the sustainable way forward.
Some examples of our weekly menus |
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