Discoveries from paddock to plate…

I was thrilled to be involved in the recent Paddock to Plate initiative for the Nambour State Primary School. It was such a great morning with the kids really getting involved.

Nathan Hoeksema, of Chocolate Provisions treated the kids to a morning of food and fun. Local producers also got involved; David, from Maleny Dairies, Alexina from Obi Obi Essentials, Casey from Nambour Continental Bakery and Trevor from Cedar Street Cheese.

The morning started with Casey from Nambour Continental Bakery explaining the process of making bread, giving the kids the opportunity to touch and smell the starter cultures for making some of their sour dough breads. There were ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ and screwed up noses when they sniffed the cultures and even an ‘eew’ upon hearing that one of the starter cultures was in fact fifty years old.

Then Trevor from Cedar Street Cheese explained the process of making cheese from buffalo milk that comes from a farm in Witta. Again, ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ and big whiffs of fresh buffalo milk.

Nathan then began demonstrating what can be made with some of our wonderful locally produced goodies. First sample for the children was sourdough bread with locally grown tomatoes, fresh buffalo mozzarella, basil and freshly pressed Obi Obi olive oil which Alexina from Obi Obi Essentials went on to tell all of the children about.

Nathan also demonstrated how to make hommus and baba ganoush.

Finally David from Maleny Dairies spoke to the children about milk and the dairy, which also supplies the school’s tuckshop with fresh milk as part of the ‘locavore’ tuckshop project.

The hit for the afternoon was a special treat of fair trade choc coated locally grown frozen bananas which the kids were promised if they at least tried all of the other goodies, which they all seemed to do quite gladly. Of course the choc coated bananas were an absolute hit and what better a way to get children interested in local produce.

It was such a great morning, the kids asking some really interesting and unexpected questions, genuinely taking an interest in the producers and the cooking – going to show that if the children are given something new and possibly challenging to their taste buds, that they sometimes even surprise themselves by liking it.

We have another ‘Paddock to Plate’ demo at the school on April 14th, which will see an end to the program, but hopefully we will see other schools take this initiative on board and see school curriculums incorporate similar paddock to plate initiatives. It is so fabulous to connect children with the origins of locally grown and produced foods and to see them get involved in the demonstrations so enthusiastically.

Thanks to all of our wonderful producers for getting involved too!

This post was written by Petra Frieser – Local Harvest

Author: Local Harvest