Students, staff members, and parents harvested vegetables from the Pocantico Hills School garden and prepared them for the school’s annual Harvest Soup Day on October 17.
Children in kindergarten through fourth grade picked carrots, squash, beans, Swiss chard, and other vegetables under the direction of custodian and master gardener Jose Zamora, then worked with Chef Kassie Arcate to prepare the ingredients while parents chopped vegetables for the soup.
Children also helped to harvest the seeds of beans, squash, and sunflowers to plant for next year’s garden and created carrot-top pesto and garlands made out of marigolds, zinnias, and corn leaves. Sixth- and seventh-graders in Family and Consumer Sciences classes collected cilantro, lemon balm, rosemary, and other herbs to make herb butter.
Parents helped serve the soup – with an option of noodles – plus focaccia bread with pesto and herb butter during lunch periods.
Second-grader Ella Pietrosanti, who saved bean seeds, sampled the soup with classmate Maeve Geary.
“I got a refill. That’s how good it is,” she said.
