By Sheila Humphreys
First graders chopping potatoes for the soup.
For the first time since the fall of 2019, Oak Grove School held its annual Harvest Dinner celebration with families. A longstanding tradition at the school, this event features food grown in the school garden and harvested and prepared by students. This year, the dinner was attended by over 50 families and was held during the school’s fall open house.
Kindergarteners hunt for tomatoes in the garden.
The menu featured a stone soup made collaboratively by kindergarten, 1st, 5th, and 6th-grade students, a tomatillo salsa made by Pre-K students, a golden pear tomato salsa made by 4th-grade students, a tomato herb bruschetta made by 2nd-grade students, and an herbed butter made by 3rd-grade students. Oak Grove’s Garden Coordinator, Tara Gordon, worked with students to make the salsas, bruschetta, and herbed butter, and Food Connects’ Farm to School Coach Sheila Humphreys made the stone soup with classes.
Kindergarten tomato harvest.
On the day of stone soup preparations, the school’s cooking cart was set up outside all day in a space adjacent to the garden and playground. The first step was sauteeing onions in some cooking oil. Within minutes, people started showing interest in the mouthwatering aroma. Throughout the day, students harvested several colorful varieties of tomatoes, potatoes, kale, swiss chard, and three different types of beans to add to the soup pot. Many students were curious to try the delicious-smelling soup and were encouraged to bring their families to the harvest dinner.
Fifth graders preparing rainbow chard for the soup pot.
At the dinner, staff overheard families saying that they wanted to make sure to try the things that their children helped make. After touring the school and classrooms, the whole community gathered outside in the crisp autumn air and enjoyed this harvest meal.
Many thanks to Ali West and her staff at Fresh Picks Cafe for preparing an additional soup and salad for the event to supplement the student-prepared offerings, to Gilles Bread and Orchard Hill Breadworks for donating bread to the event, and to the Brattleboro Food Coop for donating onions for the soup and butter for the bread.
Soup simmering on the playground.