As you walk past the lockers, classrooms and basketball courts of John O'Connell High School, the school grounds, albeit unassuming, are bursting with life: green onions, cilantro, carrots and wildflowers.
Since 2019, students at John O'Connell School, Mission High School and McAteer Academy have been paid to work in the garden, kitchen and farmers market during two hours of class each week. Over the past two months, they have learned to make chocolate chip cookies and lemon bars using some of the ingredients they grew in the school garden.
On Tuesday, about 10 students harvested vegetables and herbs for the recipe they were about to make: Korean vegetable pancakes, a new endeavor for all.
A boy who was picking green onions learned that if you pick the green onions from the bottom, they will continue to grow. “Indefinitely!” he exclaimed, his eyes wide. Another person was pruning prickly blackberry brambles out of the soil to keep them from spreading all over the flower bed.
The students showed reporters the sunflowers they planted four weeks ago, but they have already sprouted and created a green area in the nursery.
Warm, sunny days in the Mission are perfect for gardens. “You plant something there and it sprouts right away,” said Naomi, youth coordinator and program instructor at Foodwise, host of the Mission Community Market and the Ferry Building Farmers Market. Webb said.
At one point, the students were distracted by the orange flowers, nasturtiums, in the garden that the students had planted in front of them. Learning that the flowers were edible and had a peppery flavor, he sampled three to see if they were actually spicy. they are.
“I don't know what it is, but there's something about nature that's untouched by humans… That alone touches me,” said Aaron Ismael, one of the students who picked the flowers.
The students returned to the kitchen with green onions, carrots, and giant leaves of rainbow chard, washed their hands, and began preparing the food. They divided him into two groups. Some people cut vegetables into match-sized sticks. I was a little clumsy with the knife, but got the job done. Others prepared pancake batter and sauce.
Ruby, a student in the program, mixed the sauce. The kitchen is a familiar place for her.
“Cooking as a family is very important. We are from Honduras and we all love to cook,” Ruby said.
Since she was five years old, Ruby has been helping her mother in the kitchen, cutting, mixing, and cleaning up ingredients.they make Baleadas — large tortillas stuffed with beans, cheese, and “basically everything else” — for Christmas and other family occasions.
“At home, I learn traditional things from my mother,” Ruby said. “I have a teacher here who takes me out of my comfort zone of traditional foods.”
Next to Ruby, Reince and Hilda fiddled with cups and tablespoons, mixing together pancake batter. They are spending less time in their home kitchens, other than “mixing up whatever is edible.”
Reins, who has been part of the program for two years, invited Hilda to participate this spring. For them, cooking isn't as important as who you cook with.
“We spend an extra two hours together and cook together,” Reins said, sharing two ice cubes with Hilda and red pepper flakes. “It brings us closer.”
Reince and Hilda, unlike Aaron Ismael, have not yet discovered the charm of gardening. They don't like getting dirty. But Aaron Ismael agrees with the bond element.
“Social played a huge role in that,” he said. “Otherwise, I'll have to cook it myself. The company will help me.”
There was a random conversation – “Have you ever tried fried Oreos?” It's like chocolate fudge at the end of the day. ” They were making pancakes that were notoriously difficult to flip, so there were a lot of flipping mistakes. These failures also contain a life lesson: “Keep cheating until you succeed.”
The pancakes were nice, but this may be beside the point. Instructor Mr. Webb placed the pancakes in a circle around the sauce, much like his $16.99 dish at a Korean restaurant. The students placed coriander and garden flowers on plates and were particular about the placement of the herbs.
“This is 'fairy food'. That's the name of the dish,” Aaron Ismael said.
Around 6:20 p.m., everyone trickled out of the kitchen and three students shared a container of whipped cream before heading out. “the Extra It’s creamy,” one of them emphasized. They laughed and walked out of the school kitchen together.