My Tasty Ten Minute Stir Fry

What do you do when you have 12 to 15 hungry children who want a change from the usual raw cabbage and chard leaves, and you're a little short on time? That's easy! Sit them down (if there's room in your kitchen), have a chat about nutrition, while you (and another grown-up in this situation) whip up this ten minute stir fry.

Works just as well if you have less than 12 children, and a little more time.

You'll need a skillet with a lid.

Ingredients:

1 T olive oil or butter
fresh spring onions (if you have them, or a bulb onion)
fresh greens--chard, cabbage, collards, broccoli leaves, russian kale, dinosaur kale, kohl rabi
tamari or soy sauce
sesame oil

(Note: if you're using collards or cabbage in this recipe, the butter is recommended, as it will break down the leaf and release the nutrients.)

Wash and chop onions (whites and most of the greens if using spring onions) into small slices, and greens into ribbons.

Cook onions in olive oil or butter in a frying pan on high heat, until soft.

Add greens and stir often. Pour in a little tamari (maybe a teaspoon) and some sesame oil (about the same amount). Cover the pan and lower the heat. Let it cook, covered, for a few minutes until the greens turn color--bright green or dull olive, depending on the type.

Uncover the pan, and stir a few more times. Serve hot.

The kids will eat this right out of the pan. They have also enjoyed it when served with buckwheat soba noodles. If you had any sesame seeds, toast them in a dry skillet for a nice addition.

Enjoy.

Corn Ceremony

Last Spring, the second and third grade students planted blue dent corn, a type of corn which is made into cornmeal. (Think blue corn chips). I got the seeds from Schools for Chiapas, an organization working to help indigenous farmers in Chiapas, Mexico, to preserve their heritage crops. The package said the corn would grow to 15 feet, but I didn't believe it. In fact, the tallest corn plants eventually grew to about 18 feet! After the stalks had dried, we harvested the corn in February, following a beautiful ceremony. Patricia Juarez invoked the four directions in Nahuatl, the language of her grandparents, and English. I learned that blue corn is associated with the direction of the South, and with children! Isela Santana led us in a song about a seed, and Sandra Ferrer burned copal for purification.

After the ceremony, the children eagerly cut the stalks with loppers, and although the plants appeared dry and dead, they oozed water when cut. The stalks appear similar to bamboo, but without the same tensile strength. Julie Eakins built a fence from some of the cornstalks which you may have seen in the garden.

We will grind the corn at the multicultural fair in May. Here are some photos from the ceremony and harvest. Thanks to Bill Boyd for taking photos.

Invoking the four directions

Participants facing the West

After the ceremony, the children eagerly chopped down the tall stalks

Messages from the children to the corn flutter in the breeze