All smiles from our awesome Principle, Mr Willeford!! I love when he walks in and asks, "So what so we have going on today Mrs Shifley!?"
Big volunteering love out to my Mom, Mrs Prezell (a retired Kindergarten teacher of over 30 years who won't be staying out of the classroom anytime soon); It was her second time out to help inspire fun food education with me! Thank you so much!!
Speaking of love, I channeled my friends from Slow Food Canada by wearing this lovely handmade apron from the Eating Heritage Festival in Moncton I attended last May. Aprons hold the most wonderful food + friend memories, don't you think?!
Seconds please Mrs Kruckman!
The naval Cara Cara variety is darker in flesh, almost a dark pink. A delicious and surprising difference to the other varieties. Slightly sweeter, less acidic with almost a hint of a blackberry or raspberry to it. SO good and NO SEEDS!!
The blood orange is simply gorgeous inside. In all four of the lunches, several kids commented, "There's not really blood in this, right!?" Hahahaha, no my sweet darlings, no:)
I explained how the dark red flesh speckles was due to special antioxidant pigments found in other flowers and fruit but very uncommon in citrus. This dark red color develops at night during low temperatures and sometimes it can even show up on the outside rind!
The Minneola is a cross between the tangerine and the pomelo and some people call it the "honeybell" because of it's characteristic knob at one end of the rind. Who knew!? It is the juiciest of the four varieties, the sweetest and the truest "orange" in color. Some kids thought it was the most tart out of all of the oranges. This was the variety that many tasted first as it was the most common looking; I believe it was probably less "risky" for them to try before the new ones.
The Pomelo, a member of the grapefruit family, was a first taste for almost everyone, including myself. Some pomelos can grow to be the size of a watermelon and how cool for the rind to be greenish! The thick pith was very spongy and its surprising texture was a frequent comment and question thrown out by the students. Also, many kids who admitted to not normally enjoying grapefruit were pleasantly surprised that the Pumelo was sweeter. Many students shared that they liked it "the best" which was so cool and some even commented, "I don't even need sugar sprinkled on top!"
Fist pump.
WOW what a ridiculous Chef's Tasting Table success!!!! We have decided to make this theme a yearly tasting every January; What a wonderful way to bring the sweet tropics to the lunchroom in the middle of a cold new year!
The students LOVED comparing and contrasting the differences in the citrus varieties. The color and taste was so vibrantly different between the four varieties. I have to give huge props to Dan the produce manager at Jewel Osco on Maple Ave who helped me choose these beautiful varieties. Thank you so much for your help!
And last but not least, thank you Sarah for helping me lift all of these heavy boxes in my swagger van!!! Don't forget to say hello to Dan and Sarah if you stop by to grab some citrus from them!
I have never seen so many kids "run around the bases and jump on home plate" - I LOVE when real school food scores lunchroom home runs!!!
See you in February my little love bugs:)
To the Mullies we go...
xoxoL
