Our first classroom taste test of 2009!

On Friday, January 30th, Mrs. Pols's second graders sampled delicious roasted butternut squash and parsnips. We purchased the vegetables from Goranson's Farm with money from our Flannel Shirt Fund grant. First, they chopped up the veggies in the morning.



























Then, they fed the scraps to their classroom worms.




























We stored the vegetables in the kitchen refrigerator, until it was time for our guests to arrive and the taste tests to begin. Karen Kleinkopf of FARMS carries the vegetables back to the classroom to be mixed with their roasting toppings.




We divided the vegetables into 3 pans, then topped them each with a different flavor. One pan's vegetables were coated in olive oil and a dash of salt, another had a drizzle of Goranson's maple syrup, and a third had a splash of honey sprinkled on the top.




While the veggies roasted in the oven, the second graders interviewed Jan Goranson about her life as a farmer.

They asked many questions, from what she feeds her animals, to how she takes care of the entire farm, to the size of her farm. The young authors will be compiling the interview results into a book about what it's like to be a farmer.

After about 20 minutes, our vegetables were finished roasting. We tasted butternut squash and parsnips, and were overall delighted at the results. Haiden Dunning even proclaimed himself a "parsnips guy!" The classroom voted for olive oil and salt as the favorite topping. Stay tuned for next week to find out the results of the next taste test in Mrs. Keefe's classroom.