Tunbridge Students Try Taste Tests
Tunbridge Central School students spent time in May and June exploring foods through snack-time taste tests, thanks to a mini-grant from Vital Communities. Three different classrooms prepared recipes to share with the rest of the school, with hopes that popular recipes will be included in next fall’s hot lunch menu. Two of the recipes included featured Harvest of the Month ingredients – carrots and herbs.
Mrs. Hook’s first and second grade students prepared an apple-carrot salad with raisins, Greek yogurt dressing and cinnamon. In three stations, students peeled and diced apples, chopped carrots and celery, and measured and mixed the dressing. Finally, they shared their creation with TCS students during morning snack. More than 60% of students “liked” the salad, less than 20% “disliked” it, and nearly 20% didn’t participate in the taste test (including students who were absent or who didn’t try the salad).
The next taste test was by far the most popular! Outside on a hot spring day, most students LOVED the strawberry-rhubarb popsicles made for them by the “Physical Geeks” – a TCS middle school teacher advisory (TA). Using fresh local rhubarb, stewed with sugar, and mixed with diced strawberries, strawberry yogurt, orange juice and applesauce, the “PG’s” created a culinary delight that many students were still talking about on the last day of school. More than 80% of TCS students enjoyed the popsicles!
Finally, just a few days before the end of school, the TCS fourth grade prepared a cucumber-mint salad for trying at both TCS and at Trek to Taste in Woodstock. While not as popular as the first two recipes with TCS students (approximately half of students who tried it liked it), it was enjoyed by most who tried it at Trek to Taste, with comments such as, “the spices all blend together well – delish!”
- Jennifer Thygesen, Farm to School Coordinator