6th Grade Cooking

The Willard Grows cooking program started in 1999 when Susanne Jensen was hired as head cooking teacher. 

In the kitchen, students are split into three to four groups, with each group preparing food for their table.  Students practice essential knife and safety skills, prepare and cook their meal, and set their table to eat family style at the end of class.

The recipes follow the Harvest of the Month, highlighting seasonal and fresh ingredients. For example, in September we cook bruschetta with fresh tomatoes from the garden.

In October we highlight fall fruit, making a fall fruit parfait with homemade granola, and pancakes with applesauce. 
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Pizza, Afterschool, and More

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​Ask any student their favorite thing about the garden, and they will probably say pizza! We fire up our earthen pizza oven anytime we can. We cook pizza with classes, sell it by the slice after school, at our big fundraising events, and for school functions. We have found that pizza is a great vehicle for putting greens and vegetables into children. 

Another program we have in the garden is our after school program. Meeting once a week, students have the opportunity to help out and hang out in the garden and kitchen. Some fun activities from past after school classes include customized refrigerator pickles, made with freshly harvested cucumbers, radishes and jalapeños; quirky baskets and hats woven from dried reeds and fronds; and Halloween squash soup with sour cream spiderwebs!

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6th Grade Gardening

The Willard garden has changed a lot since 1995: from two terraced planter beds to enough garden beds to produce a plethora of vegetables and fruit capable of feeding 500 students! In addition to our main garden space, while the Willard pool is out of commission, it has been filled with soil and compost and producing food. Each school year we harvest 400 pounds of romas, 130 pounds of tomatillos, and countless cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries, figs, apples, squash and more! 

When sixth graders are not in the kitchen, they are in the garden. The garden teachers go to the classroom and teach a twenty minute lesson on a gardening topic, such as the importance of compost (ask any student about the time Mr. Matt threw money in the trash!), nutrition, and food systems. After the    in-class lesson, the class splits into three groups and heads out to the garden. The students are responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the garden, and with their classes do everything and anything that needs to be done; from harvesting and planting, to sifting compost and turning garden beds. At the end of every class the students share a snack from the garden.