The students gathered in Room 206 later that afternoon to cut up other produce they had planted in the spring, tended all summer and harvested on 2 acres they cultivate at the 80-acre site.
The Battle Ground students were preparing for a Taste Washington Day lunch highlighting the state’s top crops. The students will feed about 60 school district administrators the fruits of their labor Thursday.
On Taste Washington Day, the Washington State Department of Agriculture and the Washington School Nutrition Association collaborate with farmers and schools statewide to feature Washington-grown foods. Some districts serve Washington foods in their cafeteria that day. This is the fifth year CASEE students have prepared food for the annual event.
Avram Herrin and Marisa Griffis, both 16, sliced and diced green chilies from CASEE’s garden. They were making chili pea puffs.
“Did you try one? To see how it is?” asked Richard Hogg, their teacher.
“It’s not really hot,” he said.
“We lightly smash the peas,” Herrin said. “Not too much.”
At the next work table, Jeramiah Young and MacKenzie Graham, both 16, sliced bosc pears from CASEE’s orchard for pear crisp.
Chris Collmer, a CASEE teacher whose lessons combine chemistry and food, reminded them to pour orange juice over the peeled pears.
“Orange juice prevents pears from oxidizing and turning brown,” Young explained as he carefully poured juice over the bowl of pear slices.
The students researched to find the recipes using the ingredients they grow in the land behind their classroom, Collmer said.
Most of the ingredients hailed from CASEE’s garden and orchard. Kelsie Heiden, 16, stirred a pot of bubbling cranberry mixture to make jam. The cranberries were grown in Pacific County, near Ilwaco, said Collmer. Other students were cooking with barley and lentils grown in the Palouse in Southeastern Washington.
Recently the students had a taste test of the several varieties of heirloom apples they grow to determine which varieties were sweet and which were tart. One student brought a cider press to school.
“We made gallons of cider,” Collmer said. “Next, it’s apple pie.”
