By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Salivate on this menu – vegetable gyoza, Japanese pancakes and soba noodle salad.
No, it’s not from a classy food truck or a MasterChef’s restaurant, but grown by primary students in their school garden and kitchen.
Junior students at Narre Warren South P-12 shrug when told how accomplished their cooking is. It’s easy, the budding cooks say.
Their garden outside is a parade of herbs and greens in hand-made scarecrows in large planter boxes.
There’s a strong recycling ethos – such as the clapped-out lawn mower that is now a kind of installation garden, or the student-built pizza oven with vibrant mosaics.
Two-hundred kids a week discover the joys of gardening and cooking in the school’s Stephanie Alexander program.
They were visited on 14 November by developers Blueways Group and Wolfdene, who donated $5000 to the program.
It’s a seed that will help the school buy in a garden shade-cloth, benches and seats, as well as shift back its raised garden beds after the building of two synthetic soccer pitches.
The companies have 2000 lots in planning or construction in Casey, Jon Atchison of Wolfdene said.
“As a responsible corporate citizen we like to give back to these areas that we develop.”
