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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.