4/5 Edible Social Studies: Week 2

In the classroom this week we watched a short film, Restoring Wetlands and Wocus, about the Klamath Tribes, their land, and one of the tribes’ first foods, the wetland plant called “wocus” in the Klamath-Modoc language. The video showed how an Indigenous family harvests wocus via canoe, told the history of Tule Lake and its conversion to industrial farmland, and highlighted a farmer who has experimented with returning some of the land to wetlands in order to remain both sustainable and profitable.

While we did not have access to wocus for our recipe this week, we did explore another first food of the Klamath Tribes, the Klamath plum, which is a relative of the many non-native plum trees that line the sidewalks of San Francisco.

In the kitchen, we made a panzanella featuring emerald beaut plums, John W plums, and red pluots (a hybrid variety of plum crossed with apricot). The produce was grown on local farms, not gathered, and our salad incorporated many ingredients and influences that came originally from elsewhere but have now become an integral part of our modern California culinary identity.

4/5 Edible Social Studies: Week 1

In the classroom this week, the fourth and fifth grade chefs watched the first part of a short PBS film called Tending the Wild: Decolonizing the Diet. In the film, Lois Conner Bohna, a North Fork Mono and Chukchansi educator talks about the importance of the acorn to Indigenous peoples in present-day California, the tools used to prepare acorn for sustenance, and the challenges facing oak trees today.

In the kitchen, we made strawberry acorn pancakes with acorn flour made from Valley Oak acorns. The recipe gives students an opportunity to taste acorn in an accessible way alongside other ingredients native to North America such as strawberries (now bred into an unrecognizably large size!) and maple syrup. Students noted that the acorn lent a nutty, chocolatey flavor to a familiar breakfast treat.

TK Edible Social Studies: September

In the classroom this month, the TK chefs read a My Incredible World book about watermelons, looked at six different types of locally grown melons (goddess, galia, honeydew, Korean (or chamoe), black jumbo watermelon, and yellow orchid watermelon), made guesses about what color they each were on the inside, and sang a silly song about melons to the tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat:”

Melon, melon, you’re so sweet, full of vitamin C!

Green and yellow, orange and red, makes our bellies happy!

In the kitchen, we used crinkle cutters to cut melon slices into bite-sized pieces and made a colorful melon salad with the addition of lime and mint in celebration of the last weeks of summer. The next time we see each other, it will not only be a new month, but also a new season!

TK Edible Social Studies: Field Trip

For our Salad Season culminating field trip the TK chefs took MUNI to visit Chef Josh, the chef at SFUSD, and the McAteer Campus Community Farm. Students got to check out the greenhouse and the compost system and picked strawberries, chard, and kale. Chef Josh gave us a tour of the kitchen his team uses to cook from-scratch meals, some of which include produce from the farm, for several of the schools within our district.

We had snacks and got served from the hot lunch line just like the high school students at The Academy and Ruth Asawa School of the Arts! On the menu were a salad bar, tamales, beans and rice, and eggplant tofu stir-fry. Thank you, Chef Josh, our farm guides from Urban Sprouts, and all the amazing Student Nutrition Services staff who welcomed and nourished us!

1st Grade Edible Social Studies: Field Trip

For our final celebration of all things rice, the first grade chefs took the F Market to Hayes Valley and visited Esther Kim’s cafe, The Buoy, where they got to sample three of the bakery’s Korean rice flour-based treats: salt bread, black sesame mochi brownie, and raspberry roll cake. The cafe opened an hour early just for Room 113 and really proved that you can make anything out of rice and it is delicious! The rice adds an unusual springiness to the texture of the breads and pastries.

Thank you for a great year, first graders, and thank you to the team at The Buoy for welcoming us again this spring.

Kindergarten Edible Social Studies: Field Trip

To celebrate all that we have explored this year, the kindergarten chefs walked from school to the Dearborn Community Garden in the Mission. They took a tour of the nearly 50 community plots, tasted organic lavender, rhubarb, society garlic, calendula, New Zealand spinach, and nasturtiums. They walked around and were tasked with finding the colors of a double rainbow represented by colorful plants in the garden.

We enjoyed strawberry lemonade popsicles, then picked lemons for every student to take home with them. When the Dearborn Community Garden gate is open, all Harvey Milk students and their families are welcome to enter and spend time there. Thank you to all our neighbors who generously allowed students to harvest from their plots and for beautifying our community for over 50 years!

Kindergarten Edible Social Studies: Week 10

In the classroom this week we read Pies from Nowhere, a book about the life of Georgia Gilmore, a woman from Alabama whose food fueled the Montgomery bus boycott, a major moment in American social justice history.

In the kitchen we made chocolate cherry cream pies in celebration of the beginning of stone fruit season, our community, and the power of food! The kindergarten chefs made a simple graham cracker crust, removed the cherry pits, and whipped chocolate and vanilla cream. It was a sweet ending to a wonderful unit together. See you next year, chefs!

1st Grade Edible Social Studies: Week 10

For our final lesson of the year, we read The Mochi Makers by Japanese American author and illustrator Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson. The book tells the story of a child and her grandparent who carry on their family tradition of making savory and sweet mochi from pounded glutinous rice for friends and family to enjoy.

In the kitchen, the first grade chefs made shiratama dango, a Japanese rice dumpling similar to mochi made from a special glutinous rice flour called shiratamako. They flavored the dango dough with matcha powder, then formed the dango into small balls we then boiled. While the dango cooked, students did a word search featuring all the recipes we made together this year in first grade Edible Social Studies.

Dango make a delightfully chewy topping for a Japanese ice cream sundae. Ours featured vanilla ice cream from Straus Family Creamery, strawberries, sesame seeds, kinako, red beans, and condensed milk. It was a sweet ending to 10 weeks of exploring all things rice!

TK Edible Social Studies: Month 9

For the month of May, the TK chefs read a book about strawberries, learned about and passed around another edible spring plant, rhubarb, and sang a silly song about strawberries to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat:

Strawberries, strawberries, tiny red hearts, First fruit of the spring!

Seeds on the outside, soft on the inside, Berries are everything!

Before our final cooking class of the year, Ms. Webb’s class presented all the adults with Boyz II Men’s “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday.” Then, students got to work cutting strawberries and whipping cream to make a fruit dessert with English origins called a fool. We had the opportunity to taste raw rhubarb, which is shockingly tart. Some loved it, others found it too sour, but everyone enjoyed the rhubarb compote as part of the fool. It is so hard to say goodbye, but we look forward to welcoming back the TK chefs to the kitchen classroom next spring when they will be all grown up in kindergarten.

Kindergarten Edible Social Studies: Week 9

In celebration of Earth Day, we read To Change a Planet and discussed how seemingly small actions we take together in community have a big impact on the health and sustainability of our environment. In the food sphere, conserving water, wasting less, and eating more plants instead of animals are all important aspects of the fight against climate change. We learned that beans in particular are a great source of protein and are a unique food crop that simultaneously nourish human beings and the soil.

In the kitchen classroom, the kindergarten chefs worked with fava beans grown by our friends at Eatwell Farm in Dixon. First, we shelled the favas, then we blanched them, then we shelled them a second time, then we pureed them into a delicious spread with tahini, lemon, garlic, dill, and olive oil. We enjoyed the fava bean spread with local carrots and Japanese cucumbers, edible calendula petals, Tartine country bread, and crackers from Northern California-based Rustic Bakery. Happy Earth Day!

1st Grade Edible Social Studies: Week 9

In the classroom this week we read a silly book called Bowl of A’s: An Italian-American Tale about a teacher who mishears the names of the Italian dishes her students are bringing to a school potluck.

In the kitchen the first grade chefs made a classic rice dish from Venice, Italy called risi e bisi, a perfect dish for springtime. They shelled English peas and cut up sugar snap peas and cooked short-grain rice slowly with vegetable stock in a technique similar to making risotto. The peas were added at the very end of the cooking process, then garnished with pea shoots and Parmigiano Reggiano. Buon appetito!

Kindergarten Edible Social Studies: Week 8

For part two of our exploration of global foodways, we read the book How We Say I Love You about a Taiwanese American family and learned a few words and phrases in Mandarin.

In the kitchen we made green onion pancakes, a popular savory Taiwanese flatbread. The kindergarten chefs seasoned their dough, rolled and twisted it, then pan-fried the pancakes until golden brown. We enjoyed them with a sprinkling of finishing salt and a cucumber side salad. Gan bei!

1st Grade Edible Social Studies

In the classroom this week we read Sankofa: A Culinary Story of Resilience and Belonging about a Ghanaian American child named Kofi who learns more about his family’s culture when he participates in a school potluck. At the back of the book, there is a recipe for jollof rice, a West African rice dish that is vivid in both color and flavor.

In the kitchen the first grade chefs made a vegan version of jollof rice with a side of coleslaw. They blended tomatoes and bell peppers, grated ginger and measured curry, shredded cabbage and grated carrots. Our meal was hot and spiced as well as cool and crunchy!

1st Grade Edible Social Studies: Week 7

In the classroom this week we read excerpts from A Very Asian Guide to Vietnamese Food and watched a short video of how rice paper is traditionally made by hand in Vietnam.

In the kitchen the first grade chefs made salad rolls featuring edible rice paper and rice vermicelli. Everyone got to make their own rolls filled with loads of colorful ingredients and enjoyed them with a nut-free dipping sauce. The edible flowers (calendula, society garlic, and pincushion flowers) were grown at the Dearborn Community Garden, which most of the first graders visited on a field trip last spring!

Kindergarten Edible Social Studies: Week 7

We started a two-week exploration of global foodways with the book Let’s Eat! Mealtime Around the World. The kindergarten chefs then shared which foods from countries like Sweden, Peru, Pakistan, and Nigeria they would like to try. We discussed how expanding our ideas about what to eat and trying new foods is a great way to stay healthy and grow our community.

In the kitchen we worked with a West African staple grain called fonio and made a pilaf featuring native African ingredients black-eyed peas and harissa. Our recipe incorporated sweet potato as a substitute for yams, which are native to the African continent, and the Red Russian kale Ms. Meri has helped students grow on the schoolyard (leafy greens native to Harvey Milk)! Every chef had a chance to try a new food this week.

Kindergarten Edible Social Studies: Week 6

In the classroom this week we read the book No Ordinary Apple: A Story About Eating Mindfully. We learned that mindfulness is a practice that asks us to slow down and engage all of our senses. When we practice mindfulness with our food, we can learn to appreciate a whole new world of color, texture, scent, sound, and taste!

In the the kitchen the kindergarten chefs ripped up New Zealand spinach to add to a batter for carrot and spinach latkes. While the latkes were frying, they participated in a mindful tasting of four varieties of apple: Cosmic Crisp, Fuji, Granny Smith, and Pink Lady. We smelled the apples, listened to them, noticed many had speckles and contained multiple colors, chewed them thoughtfully, and observed all the juicy, tart, sweet flavors. Then we enjoyed the latkes with a homemade applesauce made from the same four varieties of apples we tasted. When we practiced mindfully eating our meal together, some chefs noticed that the latkes had the same aroma as sausage or that the applesauce contained lemon. Mindfulness is a practice we can continue to employ throughout our lives to keep our bodies and our communities strong and healthy.

TK Edible Social Studies: Month 8

For the month of April, the TK chefs celebrated spring and peas! In the classroom we read a My Incredible World book about peas and sang a silly song about peas to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat:

Spring, spring, the season of peas: English, snow, and snap.

They feed the soil and give us energy; Eat peas and that’s a wrap!

In the kitchen, we made a salad of sliced blanched sugar snap peas, radish, cucumber, green onion, and basil with a sesame ginger miso dressing. Our closing circle question asked each chef to share whether they prefer the “sugar” flavor of the peas or their signature “snap” texture.

1st Grade Edible Social Studies: Week 6

In the classroom this week we read The Shape of Home by Rashin Kheiriyeh about a child who moves from her home in Iran to New York City and finds community with classmates with roots from all over the world.

In the kitchen we made a Persian carrot rice dish, havij polo, featuring many flavors we may not have regular exposure to such as saffron, turmeric, candied orange peel, rose petals, and the use of cinnamon in a savory dish. The first grade chefs truly demonstrated their comfort and skill in the kitchen classroom and used a variety of tools to create a fragrant, colorful, and deeply tasty rice preparation from the Middle East.

Kindergarten Edible Social Studies: Week 5

In the classroom this week we read Marcia Brown’s retelling of the old European folktale Stone Soup. We talked about what the story is trying to tell us and why its message has survived for decades. The villagers who were at first hesitant to share their resources with newcomers learn that when they come together as a community, they create a meal and an experience far more delicious and meaningful than if they had worked alone.

In the kitchen we made our own version of stone soup with many of the same ingredients highlighted in Brown’s book. The kindergarten chefs prepped so many fruits and vegetables, including bell peppers, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, and fresh herbs. Of course, we had to include a stone in each pot, and enjoyed each other’s company as we prepared and ate the meal together.

1st Grade Edible Social Studies: Week 5

In the classroom this week we read Maurice Sendak’s book Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months from the 1960s. The story features silly rhymes and celebrates the enduring power of chicken soup with rice through the seasons.

In the kitchen the first grade chefs made a vegetarian version of a classic chicken soup with rice that comes from the Sephardic Jewish tradition, avgolemono. They diced celery and carrots, juiced lemons, whisked eggs, minced herbs, and learned a technique called tempering where they slowly thickened the hot soup with the room temperature eggs without scrambling them in the process. The soup was garnished with loads of fresh herbs including parsley and oregano from our own school kitchen garden!