Summer School Grows Their Own Snacks!

The outdoor beds and hoop house are overflowing with yummy basil at State Road Elementary School! So what do we do? The summer school children had a blast going out and picking some of the basil to participate and do some hands on learning all about pesto.

The children then helped separate the leaves from the stems and wash the basil using a salad spinner. Everyone then proceeded to gather around a table of ingredients and food processor. The links below will show you the two types of pesto that we prepared, and compared.

Did I mention this was a nut free pesto? The summer school needed to be an allergy friendly zone, so it’s a good thing that any recipe you see about pesto, you can exclude the nuts if you have an allergy.

The children’s reaction to the pesto was a successful one! 100% of the children tried at least one of the pesto recipes, and most of them came back for seconds. We spread our pesto on pita bread, but pesto is also commonly found in pasta, sandwiches and even salads.

There is still plenty of pesto to go around. Come to State Road School to volunteer and visit our garden and get some basil for yourself to grow your own snacks!

Here are two recipes that we used for our pesto:

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/fresh_basil_pesto/

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/garlic-scape-pesto/