Do you ever feel regret about putting unused veggies or vegetable trimmings in the city compost? At Project CHEF we believe food is much too important to waste. If you have a little patio garden, it might be time to try a worm bin to make your own compost. Put those veggie scraps to work and make what we gardeners call, black gold.
It’s all the rage – growing your food waste to eat it again. There is a remarkable joy in making something from nothing. For this activity, you will have everything you need at home to watch these plants grow.
There is nothing better than harvesting something and eating it right away. Herbs are our flavour makers, they bring joy to our food and fill our hearts with the flavour of home. In this activity we share some tips for a mini herb garden, especially geared toward young people and what we know they love. If you have never really grown anything before, pick one plant you like to use in the kitchen, and try growing it.
We’ve been hearing a lot about yeast these days. Everyone wants it and it’s hard to find in the stores. What’s so special about yeast? Lots!
Sometimes you just want to do a quiet, relaxing activity all by yourself. The ingredients you find in your fridge or garden, and kitchen tools you find in the drawers or cupboards can provide you with inspiration and objects for drawing.
Some of the classes of students we teach come to the Project CHEF kitchen to gather a few ingredients we’ll be cooking with that day and some of the kitchen tools we will be using. They take them back to their classroom and set them out in different areas in the classroom. Students silently choose what they want to draw, open their food journal and sketch what they are looking at.
A magical spell comes over the classroom as students really focus on what they are looking at and drawing what they see. You dare not make a sound as creative minds are at work and a calm tone prevails in the room.
Scientists keep records, so do farmers, and so do we! Since planting your potatoes, what have you noticed? What can you observe? After planting your seed potatoes, in Part 1 of this activity, your Project CHEF task over the next two months is to look closely, pay attention to the details, and write down your observations. The more specific, the better.
It’s almost Mother’s Day. What are you doing for your mum this year? It’s a tricky year, how can we get creative with what we have at home to show our loved ones gratitude? Well, we are still grocery shopping. If you have some paint and paper around the house, try making some veggie prints for a card. This is a 5-star kid-approved activity. The flower pictured above is made from dipping a bok choy stem in paint and then pressing it into paper with a little twist (just like a stamp).
Sharing meals around a table is one of our favourite things to do. In Project CHEF, when it’s time to dine together, we share conversation as well as food. We assign Table Talk Topics everyday to get the conversation going. It’s interesting how we can start talking about a favourite meal then before you know it we’re talking about something else. That’s how conversation works!
Another book we love is The Sandwich Swap, by Her Majesty Queen Rania Abdullah of Jordan (with Kelly DiPucchio and illustrated by Tricia Tusa, Disney Hyperion Books, 2010). It’s not often you read a book written by a Queen! Queen Rania wrote this book about her experiences as a child. The Sandwich Swap shows us that though we’re all different, friendship can see beyond differences to focus on what we have in common.
Recipes let us know about how much they will make in the Yield. The yield is usually included near the beginning of the recipe. The yield will sometimes tell you how many it will make, for example 24 cookies, and sometimes it will tell you how much it will make, for example 1 litre of soup. But what happens if you need more or less of a recipe? Chefs convert recipes all the time so that they can make the amount that is needed.