Garden State on Your Plate tastings

Our farm-to-school palate development program, Garden State on Your Plate, began in 2010 with a grant from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. That pilot, designed to bring chefs and farmers into school cafeterias during lunchtime where they served up sample sizes of simple recipes using seasonal and local produce, now is produced in all four elementary schools. It has engaged Food Science students at the middle school, and, during the pandemic, also has reached the high school as a pilot showcasing local oats, local honey, local maple syrup and local fruit. Click through to use our colorful and informational posters to create farm-to-school tastings at your school: https://www.psgcoop.org/garden-state-on-your-plate-a-taste-of-place/

Filmmaker captures pupils’ interview of chef

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Chloe Koehler and Ruth Schultz, both 5th graders at Community Park Elementary School, were filmed by documentary filmmaker Jerry Tully as they interviewed chef Alex Levine about the beet soup he plans to serve at their school for the next Garden State on Your Plate tasting.

Chef Alex invited the students to watch him make the soup in the kitchens of Whole Earth Center, which specializes in organic and locally available produce in season. The beets were grown by Matt Conver, of Cherry Grove Organic Farm in Lawrenceville. Here's his recipe:

Chilled Beet and Orange Soup
Makes 2 quarts, or 8 cups

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (soy, corn, sunflower, canola or other neutral-flavored oil)
1 cup diced yellow onions
Pinch of salt
1/2-inch piece ginger, peeled and minced
5 cups diced raw beets
1 cup diced carrots
1 quart water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 Tbsp. miso (fermented soybean paste, optional; add 1/2 teaspoon of salt, as substitute)
2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice

1. In a heavy bottomed saucepan, heat the oil and sauté onions and ginger with a pinch of salt until the onions are soft and translucent.
2. Add carrots, beets, water, salt, and pepper. Bring to boil and allow to simmer, covered, until the vegetables are very, very tender.
3. Allow to cool for about 30 minutes, stir in miso (or additional salt to taste), and purée the soup, using immersion blender, standard blender or food processor. If using a regular blender, strain and reserve the liquid, then purée the vegetables in the blender with only as much liquid as is necessary to get the job done.  Then return any extra liquid to the soup.
4. When soup is cooled to room temperature, stir in orange juice. Chill before serving.

Chef gives local tomatoes top billing at Littlebrook tasting

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Chef Gary Giberson entertained and fed students, their parents and their teachers at the first Garden State on Your Plate tastings at Littlebrook  Elementary School and Community Park School. Here’s his recipe:

Chef Gary’s Salsa Picante
Makes about 2 cups

INGREDIENTS
12 ounces tomatoes (2 medium ripe) cored and diced
3 serrano chiles, minced, stem and seeds removed (optional)
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 small white onion, diced
12 sprigs of cilantro, minced
2 tablespoon olive oil
1-1/2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
salt to taste, about 1/4 teaspoon

1. In a mixing bowl combine all ingredients and mix well.
2. Let salsa stand a few minutes for the flavors to meld.
3. Taste for seasoning, adjust if needed and then serve.

Gary D. Giberson is executive chef at the Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, NJ, and executive chef and owner of Sustainable Fare.


Garden State on Your Plate: Linking farm to school

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Members of the Princeton School Gardens Cooperative are pleased to share with you news of a Farm to School pilot program at Community Park Elementary School and at Littlebrook Elementary School.

The Farm to School pilot program, funded by a $30,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, will bring fresh produce and products from local farms into schools’ cafeterias, where local chefs will prepare recipes for tastings for the students, their parents, plus school employees.

The program is designed to feed students’ needs for fresh food and to begin to link for them the food they eat to the Garden State and to the larger world. Further, it will forge new bonds between schools, the community and local farmers.

Each of the four chefs – Chris Albrecht, Eno Terra Restaurant, Kingston; Alex Levine, Whole Earth Center, Princeton; Stu Orefice, director of dining services, Princeton University; and Gary Giberson of Sustainable Fare and executive chef at The Lawrenceville School – will appear at your school twice during the 2010-11 school year.

Other aspects of the program throughout the year include:

  • Farmers’ visits to schools;
  • Regular communication with parents via backpack notes and recipes to encourage their participation;
  • Plate-waste tracking to see what foods children favor;
  • Chefs’ recipes using Garden State produce;
  • Facilitating related field trips – one on the bus, and others, walking (at your convenience);
  • Scheduled tastings in the classrooms;
  • Make available supporting resources – films, books, etc. – about food and health,agriculture and the local economy;
  • Taking steps to institutionalize the Princeton Board of Education’s commitment to the state-mandated District Wellness policy now revised by the PRS Wellness Committee (draft version here);
  • Ongoing tweets and a blog (www.psgcoop.org); and,
  • Creation of a documentary designed to help other schools in their Farm to School efforts.

In addition to generous support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for this program, our school gardens, curriculum and education efforts also are supported by a local foundation and by the Garden Club of Princeton, the Garden Club of America-NJ, Whole Earth Center, small world, bent spoon ice cream, Terra Momo Restaurant Group, Windsor Compost, Belle Mead Co-op, and countless parents, teachers and administrators.