Our elementary school learners receive about 4 lessons in the garden during the growing season. Each time these students join us they participate in both a garden and nutrition lesson. In the past, these lessons have included: planting, bug exploration, garden scavenger hunts, making pumpkin oat power bites and promoting Colorado local foods through taste tests! Thanks to our awesome Program Manager and our commitment to presenting new and engaging material, students will never receive the same lesson twice - with the exception of planting their school gardens, with us, in the spring!
We will see students twice in the spring and twice in the fall, once they come back from summer vacation. For the early spring garden lesson, in 2024, we planted radish seeds with students. We choose radishes as they have a quick growing cycle and can tolerate cooler temperatures, unlike other common garden plants. We intentionally choose radishes so that when we saw students again, for late spring, they would be able to see the mature plant.
The adjoining nutrition lesson had students making a well-love seasoning, Tajin, and adding it to radishes. For many of our students Tajin is a staple in their homes. The ingredients in Tajin are simple: chili powder, lime juice and salt, which many of our students didn't know but were excited about because most of them had the plain ingredients at home.
Those who were a bit standoffish about trying radishes came around to it when they learned they would have a chance to add their school-made Tajin. I invited everyone to try a plain radish before we started the activity. I asked students what it tasted like, how they liked it and if they had a radish before today. Several students noted they'd had pickled radishes before on tacos or as a side to Korean bbq but never plain and never with spices. Below is a memory from one of our staff about this activity:
"Students were hesitant to try the radishes and also the "homemade" Tajin. After some negotiating the students tried both and were shocked that they liked what they tasted. This sent them into a frenzy - they were listing so many things that they wanted to try with their new found love of Tajin & radishes. A few kids had me write down the "recipe" so that they could ask their parents to buy the ingredients. I have never seen anyone so excited about a radish!"
If you are looking for a fun way to introduce a new fruit or veggie into you or your child's diet SustainEd is a firm believer in making it exploratory and adding known flavors to make the new things a little less scary. What are some of your favorite seasonings or sauces?
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