Lettuce Explore! A Lettuce Taste Test

In this activity, kids (and adults) can explore the flavours, textures, and appearance of lettuce and greens. Taking some time to appreciate the qualities of the simple foods we grow and eat can be a great sensory and learning experience. You might even be surprised to find out how much beauty and flavour can be packed into a humble lettuce leaf! 

You Will Need:

• Three or four varieties of lettuce or salad greens (from your garden, farmers market or grocery store)

• White paper, pencil, and felts/crayons/coloured pencils

Instructions:

1. Select 3 or 4 varieties of lettuce.

2. Wash and arrange a few leaves of each lettuce on a plate.

3. Ask all tasters to wash their hands.

4. Pick one variety of lettuce to start. 

5. Use your sense of sight to observe what the lettuce looks like. Look at the back, front, and side of the leaf. Draw or trace the lettuce leaf on a piece of paper, add details and colour if you like.

6. Taste the lettuce. As you chew the lettuce think about the texture of the lettuce in your mouth. Add some words that describe the texture to your drawing. Next, think about how the lettuce tastes. Add some descriptive words to your drawing. Do all the parts of the lettuce have the same taste and texture? If you need help thinking of descriptive words we have included a few in a list below.  

7. Draw and taste the other varieties of lettuce.

8. Vote on the lettuce you like the best.

Taste & Texture Descriptive Words

Lettuce Fun Facts:

• Historians believe lettuce was first cultivated in ancient Egypt.

• Lettuce is often eaten raw but it is also delicious to eat steamed, in a stir fry or grilled on the barbecue. Have you ever tried barbecued lettuce?

• In 2015, the astronauts on the International Space Station grew and ate red romaine lettuce called “Outredgeous” lettuce.

• Lettuce is part of the Asteraceae family. This family also includes the daisy and sunflower. 

• There are four main types of Lettuce: butterhead, crisphead, loose leaf, and romaine.

Understanding Compost: Creating your own Soil-arium

This week is all about soil and the importance of composting.

Do you compost at home? Have you ever thought about what is actually happening in your compost? Christine teaches us how to make our own soil-arium at home so we can observe and track the decomposition process that occurs when we compost organic matter turning it into nutrient-rich soil for our plants! Join us!

Why is Composting so Important?

Composting is an important process that recycles the nutrients in food - to be reused to grow more food. When we throw our food scraps into the garbage we lose those nutrients forever. Not only are we throwing away very important nutrients, but food scraps in the landfill release something called methane gas which contributes to global warming. By composting, we are saving valuable nutrients that we can use to grow more nutritious food - and we are also helping to protect our environment.

A great example of composting takes place on the forest floor! We don’t see people going to clean up all the fallen leaves, trees, branches, etc. This is because decomposers (living organisms) such as worms, fungi, beetles, and bacteria help break down these materials. By creating a soil-arium or compost, we are building a home for decomposers to do their important work! Even if you can’t see these organisms, they are there and busy helping to create soil for us. It is important we give these living organisms the things they need to survive!

Learning Objectives

• Be able to explain what composting is and why it is important

• Understand how to start a basic composting system

• Learn about the life cycle of food

Activity Preparation

Items needed:

Glass jar

Food scraps

Dirt

Organic yard debris

Old newspaper or cardboard

Water

Tape and marker

Set-up

Little to no set-up is required. Find a sunny windowsill spot where the soil-arium can be observed throughout the composting process (approximately 12 weeks).

Activity Instructions

1. Add a small handful of dirt to the bottom of your glass jar.

2. Add a layer of shredded newspaper or cardboard.

3. Add a layer of kitchen scraps.

4. Add a layer of organic yard debris.

5. Repeat this order of layering until your jar is almost full to the top.

6. Add your water and then cap the top with holes poked in the lid.

7. Draw a line to mark the top of your original composting pile.

8. Add a little bit of water as needed, and stir daily to provide oxygen and move around the bacteria so they can find new food.

9. Every two weeks, draw a line to mark the new top as the composting process continues.

Observing Changes in Your Soil-Arium

The composting process will be different with each person’s soil-arium. The composting process can take several months, so we can make some observations during this time.

Measuring/Tracking Compost:

1. On Day 1 of your soil-arium, mark and measure the height from the bottom of the container to the top of the pile of compost.

2. Every week or two, you can re-measure, and note changes in the height of the compost as things decompose.

3. How much water are you adding?

4. How big are the pieces of food scraps that you have added to your compost? We can help speed up the composting process by breaking down what we add into smaller pieces.

5. How heavy is your soil-arium?

6. You may want to try making some predictions of what may happen in your soil-arium over time.

Making Observations of the Composting Process:

1. You may want to try creating a journal to record and keep track of what you have added to your soil-arium.

2. What changes are you noticing with your soil-arium? After a few weeks, can you still see and identify all the food scraps that you have added? 

3. Have some of the food scraps decomposed more quickly than others?

4. Can you see any flies, worms, or other insects in your soil-arium?

5. How does your soil-arium smell? Adding more dry browns to the top layer in the Soil-arium will help it from getting stinky! Adding more browns will slow down the composting process, but it also helps from ‘drowning’ the compost with too much moisture - which can kill the living organisms responsible for composting.

6. How does the texture of it feel in your hand? Remember, healthy compost should have a similar moisture to a wrung out sponge.

Compost Recipe

Remember that your compost is a living thing, and it requires our love and attention to make it thrive - just like a pet! It needs a balanced diet of browns and greens, air, and water (as needed). 

Now, it is your turn to go find some browns and greens to add to your soil-arium!

Growing Chefs! At Home: Lesson 5

Welcome to our fifth lesson of Growing Chefs! at Home. This lesson is all about food and our emotions. Chef Afton, her kiddo, and a superstar team of volunteers are here to talk about food and its connection to our emotions. Don’t miss the extra video in our lesson this week: Chef Ben making zoodles from his own kitchen!

This is the fifth lesson in our Growing Chefs! at Home series, following Lesson Four last week, where we learned about mindful eating. Keep an eye on our social media platforms and website every Tuesday morning for new lessons!

During this lesson, we will discuss the basic emotions and discover how food can be connected to these emotions. In Lesson Three, we learned about how food is connected to how our body feels physically, but food is also connected to how we feel emotionally. Foods can also remind us of times, places and people. Eating pineapple might remind you of a tropical vacation and make you feel relaxed, or the smell of tomatoes might remind you of your grandma’s garden and make you feel happy! The smell of some foods (like mint) can also make us naturally feel relaxed or energized. Everyone has a different emotional connection to food, so we have asked our volunteers and supporters to let you all know how food makes them feel! Special thanks to everyone that sent in a video clip. We will finish off this lesson with an easy activity that you can do at home next time you are snacking on some vegetables. 

We would love to hear about how food makes you feel! Tag us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter to share with us.

Below, you will find Chef Ben Mattman, from the Vancouver Marriott Hotel, sharing his feelings about zucchini with us, and creating a super fun zoodle dish!

You can find all of our new online content here on our website. We will also be announcing and releasing more fun interactive activities on our social media channels. Thank you for joining us again in our virtual classrooms this week!