The Little Loaf

This article is based on the perspective of a soon to be loaf of bread destined to be baked in a little wood burning oven.

At this point this little, itty-bitty piece of dough is just beginning to rise.

Is that my oven? What is that? Well, any way, this is a once in a loaf time opportunity. As you well know, I am about to be baked. I wonder what it is like, to be in an oven. Hmm, I have heard that the climate is quite high. I wonder if that is true. I personally like high temperatures. What is the ambiance like?

Oh, I feel very strange. I am destined to be baked. I am sort of excited. Although it is every doughs dream. I am not sure that I really am very enthusiastic about it. Ok, I have to choose! How do I feel? Lets see, when I get warm I rise, and bake, I think. If I get cold I would probably flop, that would be sad. Ha, I’ve got it, EXCITED yup, EXCITED. That’s the one. I am not letting anything or anybody get me down.

By: Livia.G

Middle School’s Fickle Focaccia

Not quite so recently, our Middle School Class had sort of a falling out while making focaccia (a type of Italian flatbread made with yeast and olive oil and then topped with herbs and other toppings). Things started out great, but with every new development, the deliciousness spiraled downward. Read on to find out more!

Monday, November 2–The First Idea Seed is Planted 

The beginning of November started the beginning of our unsteady journey to focaccia nirvana. Paolo, the Spanish teacher our primary classes, volunteered to help make focaccia since he’d grown up in Italy and so had fantastic experience. Our middle school Spanish teacher agreed, and a date was set for the first cooking.

Wednesday, November 4–An Introduction to Focaccia-Making

On the afternoon of November 4, our class went down to the kitchen to learn how to make focaccia. It was amazing. We watched Paolo complete every task with pristine experience, and tried to take all the info in as he made two plates of focaccia, which both turned out scrumptious. We ended the day with a recipe in our hands and the taste of the wonderful bread in our minds. The combination was enough to give anyone ideas, even if they’re not wise ones. 

I’m not sure who first had the focaccia selling idea. It could have been our main teacher Miss Lynne, or our Spanish teacher, or Paolo, or even one of the members of our class. Whatever the case, everyone agreed that having a focaccia business was a great idea. It would help fund our Middle School spring trip, and it would likely be fun, too. 

Tuesday, November 10–Practice, Practice, Practice

We figured that if we even wanted a semi-successful focaccia business, we’d have to see if we could make a halfway decent recipe ourselves. So on the appointed day, our class went down to the kitchen and gave it a try. It wasn’t great. The bread had been cooked too long, and halfway through we figured out we’d left out half the ingredients. It was no wonder the focaccia tasted like salty cardboard. 

Our next attempt was no better, so on Friday, we decided to ask Paolo if he could give us another demonstration. His cooking was amazing, of course, and made us feel much more on track. Sure enough, the next time our class tried making focaccia ourselves, it wasn’t half bad. We decided since we were getting there, it was time for the next step. 

Monday, November 16–The Commencement of The Plan

We had an idea for our business. We had a recipe. We had a relative grasp on how to put it together. Now all we needed were some steps:

1. Get the word out that we were taking orders. 
2. Purchase the ingredients. 
3. Accept each order and determine cost, profit, and workload that would be needed.

We followed these steps like footprints in the snow. We printed fliers, we made stickers, we went to the grocery store, and we elected a ‘tech-person’, who worked hard making a spreadsheet to so we could stay organized. By the time we neared the day before Thanksgiving Break (which was the day orders were due) we were sick of hearing about focaccia and anything related to it. However, we had 12 orders as well as about 15 for pies (learn more later), and we were ready to start cooking.

Monday, November 23–Manufacturing Day

It’s no joke. We spent all seven hours of the school day (and well into the next day) raising yeast, mixing dough, and taking things in and out of the oven. By the end of Tuesday, which was the day we got off for Thanksgiving, we’d managed to make every single focaccia we needed, although we were exhausted, covered in flour, and had no real idea how the focaccia was going to turn out. As the customers exited with each of their focaccias, we were hoping things would turn out well, but honestly, we were mainly just glad to see that bread walk out the door.

We have a COW….share!

We were blessed to have been given some cow and goat’s milk from a Cow share. Fresh milk and cream to make wonderful fresh yogurt, cheese, and butter from. This morning El gave us a science lesson on Thermophilic cultures and how to make yogurt and butter. We are very excited, stay tuned for our progress.

The butter was marvelous with the french bread and the pumpkin bread. YUM!

A Venture into the Pie Business

The middle school decided to take advantage of the wonderful donation of apples from Chris at Nye’s Apple Barn. They took 2 bushels of Empire and Golden Delicious apples and transformed them into apple pies. Many discoveries were made; it is harder than it looks to make pie from scratch!

They spend two days planning for Pi day…..it was a wonderful experience creating pie crusts, peeling apples, assembling and baking pies. They also made pumpkin pie and focaccia. In all, over $ 175.00 was raised toward their spring trip. They have a great appreciation for the work involved in creating pies. Golden Brown  Bakery can relax…we are out of the pie business.

Focaccia!!

 

The Brookview Middle Schoolers recently learned to make Focaccia from one of Brookview’s Spanish teachers, Paulo. They had a great time in the kitchen cooking and learning the Italian recipe! And used onions from Brookview’s garden!

Thank you to Paulo from all of the Middle Schoolers!

Thank You!! :D

We want to thank the slow snack group for letting us use this blog to get to know what it’s like! thank you so much! this is amazing and easy to use and fun too!

Thanks!

~♥The Middle School Girls♥~

How to Blog

This is a sample of “How to Blog!”

Apple Time-October 2009

We have a plethora of apples….ruby red, golden yellow, glowing with the crisp, fall sweetness of fall! Here are a few pics as Brookview students glean a harvest from Nye’s Orchards.

Weed and Feed Thursdays!

Please come join us in the Gardens on Thursday nights.  We *always* have things to do, especially now that weeds grow as fast as our seeds!

Unless it’s raining, we would love to see you and your children between 5:30-7:30 every (every!) Thursday night from now through the first frost next fall.  Our barbecue will be hot and waiting for your grillables; bring food and utensils and drinks for your family, but we usually have extra food to share.

The garden has BEGUN!

Our intrepid Ms Tanya and her lovely daughter shovel sheep poop and bedding to the garden beds

The wheelbarrow holds more than topsoil, of course

Some wonderful parents, teachers and students got dirty on our first Weed and Feed event on April 2nd.  It was kind of chilly that day, but there was enough heavy lifting to be done so we were all quite warm.  Three yards of sheep bedding and five cubic yards of great topsoil magically was shoveled into all 16 garden beds!   We also barbecued some lovely Slow Meat from Providence Farms.

Lettuces and perennial onion-family plants (Egyptian Walking onions, chives, and Everbearing Scallions) were planted, as were about 80 set onions.

Lower and Upper Elementary students will be starting some seeds both in the garden and in their classrooms.  Primary students will be chitting potatoes and planting them in the garden soon too.

We would love to see you this Thursday, April 16th, in the gardens!  Bring a picnic dinner and wear some work clothes; the barbecue will be hot and the gardens will be waiting to be planted.

Little hands love dirt

First Garden Meeting: Thursday April 2nd starting at 5:30

Hello!  Come one, come all to our first WEED AND FEED:  Thursday Nights in the Garden!

Ready to get dirty?  Next Thursday, April 2nd, will be our first get-together.  This is a fairly casual thing:  we’ll have a grill, so bring your own stuff and come and picnic with us.  We will be assembling the garden beds, digging some dirt, pulling some weeds and in general just getting the garden started.  So, get some grub, get the kids in the car, bring a shovel, bring some gloves, bring a cordless drill if you’re so inclined.  If you can’t dig you can be Grill Master or the Herder of the Children or the Person with All the Great Garden Ideas.  Come and share.

We’ll start around 5:30 but just come when you can.  We will also try to meet twice over Spring Break.  It is our objective to have the garden beds assembled and growing by the end of Spring Break.  If we don’t see you on April 2nd please come help us either over break or any Thursday night!

Otherwise, keep your Thursday nights open for Weed and Feed: get it on your calendars!

Spring has sprung in the Brookview Garden

Chinese broccoli seedling showing seed leaves and first true leaves

Please, come join us in the garden!!

We are building 16 permanent raised beds, all 8′ long by 3′ wide, in the garden this year. It is our objective to use the garden for study, for supplies to Slow Snack and classroom meals, and for fun!  Each semester, all classes at Brookview study a particular continent (this Spring Semester, it’s Asia) and each semester, the Garden will study that continent too. The summer garden will be mostly devoted to Snack (tomatoes, peppers, onions, etc. for salsa and pizza sauce) and it will also carry over long-season items for the Fall Semester study like Queensland Blue squash and leeks and potatoes for Fall’s study of Australia and Europe.

Doesn’t look like much yet:  wood for the garden

It’s a new season, and it’s a “building year” for the garden.  Seeds will be planted and seedlings will be transplanted…all Asian varieties of greens, cucumbers, snow peas, mustards, peppers, and onions.  Come join us, won’t you?  Please contact El at fastweedpuller@gmail.com Thanks!

Interested in a Buying Club?

Would anyone like to get together and start a buying club? There are tips on how to start one: basically a group of people get together and order stuff at the wholesale price, get cases, do the math, divide them up and carry them off.

We can get organic produce. There is local, and not local. I am for buying locally whatever possible plus cases of stuff we can’t get here like avocadoes, citrus, etc. especially during the winter. We’ve done it in the past at Brookview and now that prices of everything are going up, it makes even more sense.

Here is info on starting a buying club:
http://www.geocities.com/bcwildrice/generalbcinfo.html

Here is a list of organic, non-local produce we can get delivered to
Brookview: http://www.bborganics.com/

Here is a local CSA: http://www.eatersguild.com/

Here are staples: http://www.ferrisorganicfarm.com/index.php

Here is local chicken, beef and lamb: http://providencefarms.org/links.html

If you are interested, please Michele at mgazzolo@comcast.net

Welcome.

In January of 2008, we issued an invitation to Brookview parents, teachers
and children to join the Slow Snack Revolution.

Since our first meeting in the Brookview kitchen ten months ago, over two
dozen parent volunteers have joined us. Along with our children, they have baked whole grain bread and healthy muffins, made salsa, brought fresh fruit, and, most recently, picked 100 lbs of tomatoes and 800 lbs of apples.

They have planted pumpkin seeds and blueberry bushes in the Brookview
garden.

These parents have augmented a budget of .10 a day for each child from their own pockets, and with their own precious time. Begun as a gentle revolution in thinking and practice, Slow Snack continues to thrive thanks to the good-hearted people of Brookview and our excellent Michigan soil.

We have dreams for this project. We envision more fruit picking and
expeditions to local farms, a full-fledged garden and perhaps a bread oven
to bake delicious bread and pizzas. We picture cooking and baking as a
regular part of your child’s practical education.

This fall, we have Slow Snack tote bags and child-sized aprons to sell.

Support the Slow Snack movement with your purchase, and spread the word!

slow_snack_november08

Slow Snack tote bags and child-sized aprons

Support Slow Snack efforts with these high-quality tote bags and aprons. Available for purchase at the Brookview front desk.

Produce bags (cabbage and beef): $20 each
Bistro aprons: $20 each

Child-sized apron