Today children from New Community For Children came to Marion Street Garden in the megaheat and explored the flavor potential of cucumbers with us. Cucumbers are a fantastic food to grow in the garden because they can be prepared in a wide variety of simple, no-cook recipes right there in the garden that are light and refreshing. We are lucky that no cucumber beetles have been spotted in our beds yet, but our eyes are open!
The kids tasted some of the fresh cucumbers from the garden and compared the flavor, texture, color, and smell with pickles from a jar. Some kids learned for the first time that pickles are made from cucumbers! Next, we all worked together to prepare some fresh garden pickles using cucumbers, chive and dill (picked from the garden), a lemon (not picked from the garden), a bit of water, and salt. These were a big hit! Many kids asked for seconds, thirds, and fourths. We hope that the cucumber vines keep producing so we can experiment with other flavor combinations next week. Some of the recipes we are excited to try out are:
Cucumber-Radish Salsa
Cucumber Tomato Quinoa Salad
and
Cucumber-Mint Raita
Chances are, if the kids are making the recipes, there will be no leftovers!
Do you have any good cuke recipes? Send them our way!
2 comments:
all week i have been eating quinoa with chopped cucumbers, spinach & plain yogurt. divine!
Yes, it is a great meal on such hot D.C. days. I recommend adding sauteed swiss chard too, dill and goat cheese. So tasty!
Post a Comment