Making spinach smoothies on the last day at OPK

Well the Oregon PreKindergarten program is over at the centers, which means I had to say goodbye to the little ones I've worked with all year. I sure will miss them, they are so excitable and loving; it has been a blast getting to play & explore in the garden with them. There wasn't a ton of food ready from the garden. We ate some radishes, which most of the kids loved. The teachers and I heard all kinds of funny exclamations after the kids tried the radishes, my favorite being: "It has tapatio in it!, I like it!" We munched on some cilantro, lettuce and arugula, and the kids chowed down on the baby chard as I thinned it. The last day at each center I used the gift card donated from the Alberta Street Coop to make spinach smoothies with the kids. The classes loved helping making the smoothies, they all took turns measuring out the ingredients and laughed and laughed when we turned on the blender. Most importantly, the kids loved the drinking the smoothie and were excited about spinach (which they had also grown earlier in the year). We made this recipe at Cornelius, JP, Linden, Silverton & Settlemeier and the kids, with the exception of maybe one or two, just loved it and wanted more.

Here is the recipe I used:
1 c Orange Juice
3/4 c Pineapple Juice
3/4 c Vanilla soymilk (can use regular milk or yogurt)
2 bananas
2 cups fresh spinach leaves

more spinach smoothies!

Making smoothies at Cornelius





Making smoothies at Jose Pedro

Exploring the Jose Pedro garden

About to try a radish


Exploring


These pictures were taken by Salvador from one of the OPK classes at JP



We've got an unintentional mushroom farm at Jose Pedro- Inky Caps maybe?

Thank you Master Gardeners

I just wanted to say thank you to our master gardeners who volunteered their time to do garden trainings for the teachers at our centers. Elaine Smith of Marion County, Beret Halverson of Clackamas, and Tim Lanfri of Washington County came out between March & May to lead basic gardening classes and answer teachers' questions on caring for plants. They were all very interesting and informative, and came just in time for us to get to work in our gardens- Thank you!!!