TK Edible Social Studies: Month 5

Our celebrated vegetable for January was Brussels Sprouts! In the classroom, we learned that Brussels Sprouts are named for Brussels, Belgium, where they were first developed, and that they are relatives of other vegetables like broccoli, mustard, radish, and cabbage. The TK chefs also looked at a photo of students in London who powered a Christmas tree with 1,000 Brussels sprouts back in 2013.

We sang a silly ukulele song to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat:

Brussels sprouts, Brussels sprouts, round and green: Winter immunity!

Roast them, shred them, eat them in a slaw to power our community.

In the kitchen we made a pasta salad with orecchiette, blanched Brussels sprout leaves, golden beets, Honeycrisp apples, loads of herbs, and a lemon balsamic dressing.

2/3 Edible Social Studies: Week 5

In the classroom this week we read the book Mamie Takes a Stand: A Chinese American Girl’s Fight for School Rights. We learned that the Tape family lived in Cow Hollow and wanted Mamie and her younger siblings to attend their local public school, but Mamie was turned away because of her Chinese ancestry. Her case against the principal of Spring Valley School went all the way to the California Supreme Court and her family eventually won, but in response SFUSD opened up a separate school called the Chinese Primary School so that Mamie and other Chinese and Chinese American children would not mix with the students at Spring Valley.

In the kitchen classroom we made lo mein with bok choy (a traditional Chinese vegetable named in the book we read) and lots of other delicious local vegetables. We learned that “lo” means to stir or toss and “mein” means noodles in Cantonese. Lo mein is a dish where the cooked noodles are tossed in a sauce as opposed to chow mein, where the noodles are fried. The second and third grade chefs enjoyed enjoyed practicing their chopstick skills once the table was set!

2/3 Edible Social Studies: Week 4

In the classroom this week we watched a short Britannica video about the Irish Potato Famine and learned that Irish immigration to the United States, including to San Francisco, soared around the time of the California Gold Rush. By 1880, a third of San Francisco’s population was of Irish descent. By 1906, Mission Dolores was predominantly an Irish Catholic church. We discussed how many local landmarks are named after prominent Irish Americans, such as McCoppin Elementary School in SFUSD (named after Frank McCoppin, the city’s first Irish-born mayor), O’Farrell Street (named after Jasper O’Farrell, who designed the Market Street promenade), and Geary Boulevard (named after John Geary, who is still the youngest person ever to serve as mayor of San Francisco).

In the kitchen we made a traditional Irish potato dish, colcannon, and enjoyed it with a side of Irish soda bread, which the second and third grade chefs were disappointed to learn is not made with Coca-Cola! We are grateful for a healthy potato harvest and for enough food to go around when we share a meal together at school.

4/5 Edible Social Studies Field Trip

Both 4/5 classrooms had the chance this month to visit the Recology transfer station, where San Francisco’s green, blue, and grey/black bins arrive daily to be processed for compost, recycling, and landfill. Students first participated in two classroom activities involving sorting materials into the different bins and following a milk carton’s journey from the forest to either the grey/black bin or the blue bin. We learned that if we toss a milk carton into the bin destined for landfill, we create a linear system that needs to be restarted from a natural resource each time we need a new milk carton. In contrast, if we toss a milk carton into the bin destined for recycling, we create a circular system where the used cardboard can be remade into a new milk carton ad infinitum, which helps protect and sustain our natural resources.

Students then went on a walking tour of several Recology Artist in Residence studios where artists use materials scavenged from the dump and breathe new life into them as public art. We walked through the public disposal building, where we saw old refrigerators, TVs, styrofoam blocks, sofas, and much more! Recology educators will come to Harvey Milk for follow-up visits with the students and have invited the fourth and fifth graders to participate in the Department of the Environment’s upcoming Climate Action Youth Summit in April.

2/3 Edible Social Studies: Week 3

This week in the classroom we learned that in the early 19th century, Yerba Buena became part of the United Mexican States after the Mexican War of Independence. We watched two Eater videos about how corn was a sacred crop for the Mesoamericans and how some historians link the rise of vampires in the Western cultural imagination to the European conquerors’ lack of understanding of corn and how to cook and eat it.

In the kitchen students made fresh corn tortillas with a dough made from nixtamalized masa harina. They enjoyed working with our wooden tortilla presses and watching the tortillas cook on a hot skillet. Even in December, we were able to find local heirloom tomatoes and made a simple pico de gallo to enjoy with the warm tortillas. They were a delicious and nutritious hit and zero vampires were formed as a result!

TK Edible Social Studies: Month 4

In the month of December, the TK chefs celebrated all things pomegranate. In the classroom, we passed around a whole pomegranate and marveled at what the fruit looks like when it’s cut in half. We learned that pomegranate means “apple with many seeds” in medieval Latin and that pomegranate seeds are called “arils.”

We sang a silly song about pomegranates to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat:

Pomegranate, pomegranate, juicy and red; Apple with many seeds.

Good for your heart, good for your health; Arils like rubies!

In the kitchen classroom we made a pomegranate tabbouleh with loads of parsley, mint, lemon juice, and a special ingredient—pomegranate molasses. We enjoyed our tabbouleh with pita chips from local producer The Hummus Guy.

2/3 Edible Social Studies: Week 2

In the classroom this week, we discussed the significance of the year 1776 for the land that is now known as San Francisco. We read excerpts from Matt Weber’s book California’s Missions from A to Z about the arrival of Spanish missionaries and the major impacts this had on both the Indigenous people and the land. The second and third graders recognized local landmarks such as Mission Dolores; crops such as olives, oranges, and grapes; California sports team names such as the Padres and the Angels; and the Spanish name for the territory, Yerba Buena, after the native mint they found growing everywhere.

In the kitchen, we made a salad highlighting many of the plants and products the Spanish brought: wheat, oranges, grapes, olives, lemon, sherry, mustard, and olive oil. We usually consume wheat after it’s already been ground into flour, so getting the opportunity to try the chewy wheatberries in their unprocessed form was a special treat.

2/3 Edible Social Studies: Week 1

We started our exploration of the history of San Francisco with the Indigenous people of what is now called the San Francisco Peninsula, the Ohlone. In the classroom we watched a short film about the chefs and activists behind Cafe Ohlone (a restaurant just across the Bay Bridge we have taken multiple groups of Harvey Milk fourth and fifth graders to on field trips!). We learned that Ohlone foodways have been on this land since the beginning, are here in the present and thriving, and will continue to survive into the future.

In the kitchen we made a salad highlighting present-day descendants of native Bay Area plants and animals: blackberries, huckleberries, amaranth, sunflowers, amaranth, quail, elderberry, and walnut. The second and third grade chefs used a mortar and pestle to make a simple dressing, connecting to ancient food traditions and technology human beings have employed for thousands of years.

4/5 Edible Social Studies: Week 10

For the final lesson of our climate change unit, we watched a short film from the Center for Food Safety called Soil Solutions to Climate Problems narrated by local journalist Michael Pollan. The film reminds us that healthy soil, which we create when we plant more trees and compost, acts as a carbon sink that absorbs carbon from the atmosphere.

In the kitchen classroom we celebrated healthy soil with edible “soil cups” featuring chocolate chia pudding, persimmons, pomegranates, a layer of “compost” made from crushed chocolate cream cookies, edible flowers, and candied citrus peel “worms.” It’s been an incredible six years of Edible Social Studies with some of the fifth grade chefs, who started our program during the Covid pandemic eating together out of takeout boxes on the grass at Eureka Valley Rec Center in 2021. Thank you for trying so many new things and strengthening our community along the way. See you back in the kitchen next year, fourth graders!

TK Edible Social Studies: Month 3

For the month of November, the TK chefs celebrated persimmons, which are famously ripe in the autumn. In the classroom we passed around Fuyu and Hachiya persimmons and observed their shape, color, texture, and aroma. And of course we sang a silly song about persimmons, too (to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat):

Persimmons, persimmons, crunchy or soft; Autumn in a bite.

Chocolate, Fuyu, Hachiya, fill us with delight!

In the kitchen classroom, which was indoors this month due to rainy weather, we practiced slicing Fuyu persimmons and Shinko Asian pears with our wavy knives. Tossed into a colorful salad with kohlrabi, orange juice, crispy chickpeas, and extra-virgin olive oil, the fruit added to a salad that delivered many interesting textures and flavors.

4/5 Edible Social Studies: Week 9

In the classroom this week we watched a Business Insider video about how local company Recology transforms the food waste in San Francisco’s green bins into a soil amendment it then sells to farmers. The fourth and fifth grade chefs learned that San Francisco was the first city in the United States to mandate composting and that Recology’s process now takes about 60 days from collected food scraps to finished compost. The video was a good preview of our upcoming field trip to the Recology transfer station, where we will get up close and personal with our city’s trash, recycling, and food waste!

In the kitchen we made another recipe meant to be flexible enough to turn a wide range of leftover fruits and vegetables into a tasty meal. Students peeled carrots, snipped red cabbage, shredded curly kale, grated potatoes, minced herbs (from our school garden!), and whisked eggs to make a simple savory pancake batter that they then pan fried. We served the vegetable pancakes with a sprinkling of flaky salt and a squeeze of lemon for a surprisingly popular vegetable-forward treat.

4/5 Edible Social Studies: Week 8

In the classroom this week, we learned some surprising statistics about food waste and watched a video about where in the food system food gets wasted and what we can do about it. We discussed cultural and psychological barriers to wasting less food such as consumers not wanting to purchase blemished or oddly-shaped produce or responding only to the illusion of abundance at the grocery store, which forces stores to overbuy products they won’t be able to sell. The fourth and fifth graders learned that both our refrigerators and our plates have grown in size over the last few decades, which often tricks us into buying or ordering more food than we can eat. Food that gets thrown into the landfill produces methane, which contributes to climate change, and all the energy that went into producing food that doesn’t get eaten goes to waste as well.

In the kitchen, we revisited a popular recipe from our first grade Everybody Cooks Rice curriculum because it’s a wonderful way to use up leftover fruit, vegetables, protein, and/or noodles. Wrapped in edible rice paper and paired with a dipping sauce, leftovers transform into a fun meal as salad rolls, especially when they’re made together in community!

4/5 Edible Social Studies: Week 7

In the classroom this week, we shifted our focus from what humans eat to what livestock eat. Beef and dairy cows are largely raised in a system that produces dangerous levels of greenhouse gas emissions. We watched a video from Vox about research out of UC Davis that showed how shifting what we feed to cows—in particular, adding red seaweed from the Asparagopsis genus to their diet—can significantly reduce the methane cows produce when they burp.

In the kitchen, we cooked with a red seaweed called dulse (from the genus Palmaria) to see what how we would find the flavor and texture when it’s added to our food! The fourth and fifth grade chefs added three different kinds of seaweed to soba noodles; made a simple Japanese-style dressing of rice wine vinegar, soy, ginger, toasted sesame oil, sugar, and lime juice; and thinly sliced carrots, purple daikon, and green onion. We didn’t measure any post-meal burps, but many of the chefs had seconds and thirds and were generally happy to consume the seaweed, just like the research subjects in the UC Davis study.

4/5 Edible Social Studies: Week 6

In the classroom this week we watched an animated video from Vox about the carbon cycle and the role human beings have played in disrupting it. We saw how animal and plant life dies and can eventually turn into fossil fuels, how humans have dug up carbon that used to be stored in the ground, and how humans are trying to reduce the enormous amount of carbon now in the atmosphere.

In the spirit of putting less carbon into the environment to begin with, we made a vegan low-carbon dish with roots in Morocco. Couscous with seven vegetables is traditionally enjoyed at Rosh Hashanah. Many students were surprised to learn that couscous is basically a pasta and that it cooks in just five minutes. This recipe showcased the fourth and fifth graders’ skill in the kitchen - they chopped, peeled, and minced like pros.

For our closing circle, we went around and shared which ingredient in the dish each chef felt was the luckiest.

TK Edible Social Studies: Month 2

For the month of October, the TK chefs explored all things squash. We learned about five varieties of winter squash, all with hard peels that sound like wood when you knock on them: acorn, butternut, red kabocha, koginut (a hybrid of kabocha and butternut), and sugar pie pumpkin.

In the classroom we sang a silly song about our harvest of the month (to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat):

Squash, squash, the colors of fall, Every shape and size. Acorn, butternut, kabocha, pumpkin: A party for our eyes!

In the kitchen we made a salad with the roasted squash, black lentils, and native-to-North-America ingredients such as cranberries, pumpkin seeds, and maple syrup. We are proud of all the students and hope everyone had the opportunity to try something new in class!

4/5 Edible Social Studies: Week 5

This week we explored plant-based meat created by scientists and backed by venture funding. In the kitchen classroom, we watched an ad for the latest product from California-based company Beyond Meat, Beyond IV. Students noticed the high-quality visuals, the arresting orchestral and choral music, and the naming of the product like a new iPhone release, but felt the video didn’t give much information about how the meat is made or how its adoption would actually impact the environment. We read the ingredients of Beyond IV and agreed that most of the ingredients were things we had heard of as food (e.g. water, pea, avocado, brown rice, red lentil, fava bean, apple, pomegranate, vinegar, beet).

In the kitchen we made Beyond sliders with pretzel buns and a seasonal side salad. The burger meat had a paler color than beef and smelled like tuna, even though it does not contain fish. After the meat was seared in a skillet and encased in a toasted bun with condiments, lettuce, tomato, and red onion, many fourth and fifth grade chefs enjoyed the taste and said they would choose a Beyond burger-type product at least some of the time over a beef burger!

4/5 Edible Social Studies: Week 4

In the classroom this week we watched a TED-Ed video about plant-based meats and their impact on our health and the environment. Some plant-based meats, such as products from Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, are made in labs; others, like our recipe for coconut bacon this week, can be prepared by any home chef. The research is clear that food from plants uses less land and water and emits less pollution than food from animals, but large structural barriers remain to change our diets en masse.

In the kitchen we made a Cobb salad but replaced the traditional bacon with coconut bacon, a recipe that includes ingredients to deliver a similar smoky, savory, fatty, and sweet experience. The fourth and fifth grade chefs demonstrated their comfort and skill with a variety of kitchen tools. The end result was both stunning visually and tasty. In our closing circle, students shared what they would add if they made this salad again. Cheese, nuts, cucumbers, and croutons were popular responses.

4/5 Edible Social Studies: Week 3

In the classroom this week we watched a short video from the BBC about the magic of beans. Last week we turned garbanzo beans into a parsley hummus. This week we worked with pinto beans, making a refried recipe with loads of flavor from cumin, chipotle, and epazote, a Mexican herb that contains compounds that help humans digest fiber-rich foods like beans and make us less gassy when we eat them.

The fourth and fifth grade chefs worked on their knife skills preparing many garnishes including red onion, radish, avocado, and lime. When the beans reached a good mashed consistency, we enjoyed them with Sabor Mexicano tortilla chips, queso fresco, cilantro, and many customizable options for complementing both the beans’ flavor and heat. Our closing circle question was: “Would you ever substitute beans for beef?”

4/5 Edible Social Studies: Week 2

In the classroom this week, we watched a TED-Ed video about what would happen to our planet if the entire animals-as-food system disappeared with a wave of a magic wand. We discussed the potential impact on cultural traditions, the economy, food costs, and the environment. A lot of resources go into producing food from animals and that includes non-meat products like milk and cheese.

In the kitchen, we learned how to make a simple, satisfying vegan meal that doesn’t have many ingredients and features products that are affordable and easy to find. The fourth and fifth grade chefs made cucumber and carrot coins, cut up locally made Arabic bread, ground za’atar in a mortar and pestle, and transformed chick peas, parsley, garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil into something much more beautiful than the sum of its parts, hummus!

4/5 Edible Social Studies: Week 1

We started our exploration of the food system and climate change this year with a discussion about the power of culture. Scientists have determined that social comparison is the most effective way to get people to change their behavior—more powerful than education or monetary levers such as fines, coupons, or tax credits.

In the classroom we watched a video about local edible insect company Don Bugito, which is bringing back a food tradition that dates back thousands of years as we grapple with changing the way we produce protein in the United States. Don Bugito produces protein using far less land and water and generates far less waste than the production of cows, chickens, and pigs.

In the kitchen we took a pancake recipe from the fourth grade Edible Social Studies curriculum that highlights native plants such as strawberry and acorn and swapped in cricket flour for the acorn. At first, there was a lot of hesitation amongst the chefs to eat insects, but once the pancakes were beautifully browned and drizzled with maple syrup, they were very popular! Students also had the opportunity to try other treats from Don Bugito: toasted mealworms, chocolate covered crickets with amaranth, and coconut brittle “bugitos.” Seeing our friends around the table trying something different made it easier for all of us to experiment with a new way of cooking and eating.