Princeton Middle School

JW Cooks+Gardens, our 6-week seed to table after school program, is under way! Thanks to our wonderful Chef Michelle Fuerst and to Priscilla Hayes, our edible gardens educator with the greenest thumb ever. The students learned to make crackers from simple ingredients — flour, butter or oil, seeds and herbs and spices. Next week, they are in the garden. Among the comments: As they were grinding seeds: “That smells strong! But really good!” As they were kneading the dough: “This is like Play-Doh!” As they were cleaning up: “I’m going to drop tech and take Food Science.” As they were walking out the door: “This was the best class ever.”

Chef Michelle Fuerst and Master Gardener Priscilla Hayes created a stellar send-off menu for JW Cooks + Gardens students for the last class: salad from the school’s edible gardens, followed by frozen yogurt with gingersnaps! Students put their own spin on the yogurt – some used New Jersey’s Sweet Sourland Farms maple syrup, others used molasses and one made a vegan version with coconut milk. Students practiced knife skills by dicing candied ginger for their cookie dough. Thanks to everyone who makes this after-school program possible: our funders, McCaffrey’s Food Markets and Church & Dwight Employee Giving Fund; Jason Burr, principal at JW and other administrators at Princeton Public Schools; Janet Gaudino, 8th grade science teacher and our advisor for the program; all our volunteers who ensured safety and empowerment for participants. Where would we be without each other?

Thrilled to report that JW Cooks+Gardens students made paratha with garden greens and radish raita to go along with cilantro chutney and red lentil dal in today’s after-school program. Chef Michelle Fuerst welcomed Gita Bakshi as guest demonstrator for the afternoon. JW Edible Gardens greens included Swiss chard, mint and spinach. Thanks to all our parent volunteers who assist and to McCaffrey’s Food Markets and Church & Dwight Employee Giving Fund for making this sense-sational (and delicious) learning possible.

JW Cooks+Gardens students watered the Edible Gardens, laid in red-painted rocks as decoys in the strawberry beds (will they trick the hungry birds?), then harvested salad – and ate it together! Note the interior courtyard, an almost blank canvas with a mix of sun and shade, needing only a water spigot to bring forth abundance. What could you imagine there? A pergola with grapes growing? Watch this space for the progress! With gratitude and thanks to McCaffrey’s Food Markets and Church & Dwight Employee Giving Fund for making it happen.

Fantastic news to report from JW Middle School: Nyrie Janho’s food science course is so popular that Priscilla Hayes’ accompanying garden lessons have necessitated an expansion of the edible gardens! Newly installed rain barrels will help with watering needs for the plantings until we can get an outdoor spigot installed there. Under the direction of Priscilla and Janet Gaudino, 8th-grade science teacher and advisor, students in JW Cooks + Gardens planted blueberries in the lovely (and little-used) courtyard yesterday, after they took a tasting tour of herbs and greens growing in the established gardens next to the playing fields. We are grateful to McCaffrey’s Food Markets and to Church & Dwight Employee Giving Fund for their generous support of this vital program!