karlacook

Making personal pizzas with Chef Michelle Fuerst

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Fresh-picked sorrel from the JW-PPS gardens was among the toppings available for home-made pizzas during a recent food literacy session.
Fresh-picked sorrel from the JW-PPS gardens was among the toppings available for home-made pizzas during a recent food literacy session.
Pizza dough, mid-process, is yeasty and slightly sticky.
Pizza dough, mid-process, is yeasty and slightly sticky.
Chef demonstrates kneading the dough at the mirrored work station.
Chef demonstrates kneading the dough at the mirrored work station.
Start with crust, and then, anything goes with personal pizzas.
Start with crust, and then, anything goes with personal pizzas.
After the dough had risen slowly overnight to develop flavor and texture, the students began shaping portions of it into pizza shells.
After the dough had risen slowly overnight to develop flavor and texture, the students began shaping portions of it into pizza shells.
Potato, gorgonzola, sorrel and red onion pizza, fresh from the oven.
Potato, gorgonzola, sorrel and red onion pizza, fresh from the oven.

Our palate education program makes news!

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grab of packet website
The Princeton Packet wrote a piece about NJDA Secretary Doug Fisher’s visit to Community Park School in celebration of Garden State on Your Plate. On the day of the visit, our program featured broccoli leaves grown by Farmer Jess Niederer of Chickadee Creek Farm and Princeton University chefs. For more information on how Garden State on Your Plate began, click here.

Garden State on Your Plate hosts NJDA Secretary Doug Fisher, Mayor Liz Lempert

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From left, NJDA Secretary Doug Fisher; Rose Tricario, director of NJDA Division of Food and Nutrition; Princeton Mayor and PPS parent Liz Lempert; and a student with a sample portion of broccoli leaf slaw.
From left, NJDA Secretary Doug Fisher; Rose Tricario, director of NJDA Division of Food and Nutrition; Princeton Mayor and PPS parent Liz Lempert; and a student with a sample portion of broccoli leaf slaw.

Chickadee Creek Farm Broccoli Leaf Slaw.
Chickadee Creek Farm Broccoli Leaf Slaw.
Group of officials talking
From left, Smitha Haneef, PPS parent and executive director of PU Campus Dining; Erin Metro, PU Community and Regional Affairs, funder of Garden State on Your Plate program for SY 2014 and SY 2015; Steve Cochrane, PPS superintendent and PU alum; NJDA Secretary Doug Fisher.
Broccoli leaves from Chickadee Creek Farm and Farmer Jess Niederer were stars alongside NJDA Secretary Doug Fisher at our Garden State on Your Plate event at Community Park Elementary School in early October.
Broccoli leaves from Chickadee Creek Farm and Farmer Jess Niederer were stars alongside NJDA Secretary Doug Fisher at our Garden State on Your Plate event at Community Park Elementary School in early October.
Chef Dan Slobodien of Princeton University's Campus Dining Services.
Chef Dan Slobodien of Princeton University’s Campus Dining Services.

New kitchen sinks and faucets from a new partner

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BEFORE: Janet Gaudino, 8th grade science teacher and advisor to JW Cooks, at the small double-basin sinks that date the Teaching Kitchens to a time when very little food was made from whole ingredients. Check back soon for the AFTER picture!
BEFORE: Janet Gaudino, 8th grade science teacher and advisor to JW Cooks, at the small double-basin sinks that date the Teaching Kitchens to a time when very little food was made from whole ingredients. Check back soon for the AFTER picture!

We are delighted to announce a new partnership with Debbie Schaefer and Mrs G’s Appliances for the benefit of food literacy efforts at Princeton Public Schools.

Debbie, granddaughter of the original Mrs G (Beatrice Greenberg) is donating 5 new single-basin stainless steel sinks and high-rise faucets from Mrs G’s for updating the JW Teaching Kitchens. Gary Weisman, Director of Plant Operations at PPS, will supervise the renovations under the director of Jason Burr, principal at the John Witherspoon Middle School.

The kitchens, once used for Home Economics classes, and more recently for Modern Living classes, are now home to JW Cooks, a seed-to-table after-school program our nonprofit created for middle schoolers four years ago and, in a long-time goal realized, will be added to the school day as a class in January 2016!

Thank you, Debbie. We look forward to sharing stories, food, produce and more as your gardens grow at your shiny new store (2720 U.S. Route 1 North). And we look forward to visits from you and your chef, Nirit Yadin! And we look forward to seeing the students maneuvering their stockpots and big saute pans into the new sinks for sudsing – with ease!

Read more about Debbie’s story and Mrs G’s here. And read her blog, where you can find posts on good deals at the store and snippets about her life and thoughts. Here’s a recent favorite on how the new logo (see it on our home page) for the store came into being.

Take the Oasis School Garden Tour

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The courtyard gardens at Littlebrook Elementary School
The courtyard gardens at Littlebrook Elementary School
Reserve your spot now for the Saturday 9/26 OASIS School Garden Tour

We will visit the school gardens at Hightstown High School and Littlebrook
School,touring the gardens and hearing from the garden coordinators about
curriculum integration.

Meet at Chapin School on Princeton Pike by 12:55 in time for a 1pm
departure by bus (donated by Chapin School).

You must reserve a spot on the bus. The tour is free. We will return to
Chapin School at 4:10pm.

To reserve your space or for more info, contact, Priscilla Hayes,priscilla.ellen.hayes@gmail.com.

Happy Farm to School week!

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How are you celebrating NJ Farm to School week (Sept 21-25) at your school or at your own table? (We're partial to Swiss chard in a vinaigrette!) Click on the photo to see a collection of ideas that celebrate the best of the Garden State, from the New Jersey Department of Agriculture
How are you celebrating NJ Farm to School week at your school or at your own table? (We’re partial to Swiss chard in a vinaigrette!) Click on the photo to see a collection of ideas that celebrate the best of the Garden State, from the New Jersey Department of Agriculture

#GSOYP: Download our posters!

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We’re ramping up for another season of Garden State on Your Plate, thanks a second consecutive year of generous funding from the Office of Community and Regional Affairs at Princeton University.

For those new to our site and and our work, Garden State on Your Plate brings chefs and farmers into school cafeterias at lunchtime, where they serve up small portions of simple recipes featuring local and seasonal fruits and vegetables. The students are encouraged to cast aside their likes and dislikes and become scientists, tasting and testing to note differences in color, texture and temperature, and in various preparations: raw, boiled, steamed, roasted, or with other ingredients, or with lemon or salt.

For a virtual taste of foods devoured by Princeton Public School District elementary students last year, click to download the posters below. We produce these posters (perfect for celebrating NJ Farm to School Week) to encourage students to explore the sensory aspects of produce and for use in the science, art, and language classes. (We give each school 30 posters prior to each lunchtime sampling.)

Our program begins in October, with chefs from Princeton University Campus Dining serving up organic broccoli leaves from Chickadee Creek Farm. In November Chef Joseph Voller of Eno Terra and Chef Terry Strong of Mediterra will serve up beets from Canal Farm.

Radish_Poster

Mushroom_Poster

Chard_Poster

Asparagus_Poster

Welcoming a new partner on food literacy

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GloriaNilsonRE_logo_RGBToday, we welcome a new partner in our food literacy efforts: Gloria Nilson and Company Real Estate! Already, realtors have turned out to help with garden days, and now, the organization is funding the Garden State on Your Plate program for the YMCA-Princeton Young Achievers. With the $750 the firm is donating, we are able to bring in two farmers to visit the elementary-school children participating in the program. Thank you!