Butternut Blogging: How Taste Tests Work

Once we finished the apple taste tests this past fall, it came time for butternut squash! This was the Fayetteville Public School District’s first time putting this vegetable on the menu and it was locally sourced.  The students have already been eating sweet potato fries from a local processing plant, but many had never heard of this oblong-shaped squash. 

Ally (last year’s FoodCorps service member), now contracted Farm-to-School dietitian, along with Morgan Stout, our amazing new Food Service Director, decided that taste tests would be a good way to familiarize the students with this new menu item and help them decide if they’d want it on their lunch tray. 

A huge part of my service year thus far has involved taste tests and I swear by them! These butternut taste tests made a large impact as well. One of the kitchen supervisors reported that the students chose to take 40 lbs. more squash on the day we had the taste test than they did the previous week. Here is our recipe:

We learn a lot from each tasting we coordinate. There a few pitfalls you should be aware of when planning a butternut tasting:

Dino Hands (seriously) 

Always wear gloves if you can! Whatever natural chemical is inside of the butternut squash turns your skin into dinosaur scales all day long.

Frustrated Peeler-Person 

Steaming the squash for 5 minutes prior to peeling it (with a vegetable peeler) makes the skin glide off with ease.

Does It Herself FoodCorps Girl

Whenever you want to introduce a new item/recipe INVOLVE the kitchen staff! They can be a wealth of knowledge with tips on how to do things more efficiently and even if they aren’t they are the ones that will be preparing the food in the future so they need to learn the best ways to do it. Plus some of the best memories were from getting to know the kitchen staff, cooking really brings people together. Change is hard and you want to make the transition to a new menu item enjoyable and encouraging for everyone 

involved.

We learned some great lessons about presentation as well: 

Entice DON’T Pressure

I kept telling kids “You don’t have to try it if you don’t want to,” while also saying “It tastes similar to pumpkin pie or sweet potato fries!”

Mouthful of Syllables

Ally and I joked about how we wish we were serving “beets” or “peas” because that would involve a lot less syllables to offer each lunch-line kiddo. At one of the schools I handed out the samples to a table and shortened it to “Do you want to try some squash?” and then after they ate it I explained to them it was called “roasted butternut squash” and one little boy looked very bewildered with this longer name, he right away asked if there was a rash on his face. I said “No,” and quickly asked him “But why?” and he explained that he had a nut allergy. It took me a minute to register the reason for his worries but then I assured him our butterNUTS didn’t have any nuts in them and he was able to relax. Poor kid!

Positive Peer Influence

Some students would have the most disgusted looks on their faces and walk straight past my sample into the lunch room, they basically acted like I was the sun and was getting in their eyes so they shielded their face from my butternut squash. BUT later after their friends had tried it and raved about it they came back acting like they hadn’t just totally ignored me and I happily gave them a sample.

In the end, most students were big fans of butternut squash:

We kept the voting quick and simple for the students,
and highlighted our local squash farmer, David Dickey! 

These results, as well as observing how kids interact with each other around food, reminds me of how easily kids can be influenced and how parents can play a huge role in what children desire to eat. If parents enjoy certain foods kids catch on and in turn, can be more open to those foods. The same goes for friends. Don’t you wish every kid could have a veggie loving kid around at all times? We're working on it. 

- by Kelsie Shearrer

A good year, with more to come

As we dive in to this new year, we wanted to share a few of our thoughts so far:

What makes us beam with pride…

My kindergartners all know the five components of my plate. They are excited to discuss food. We have chickens! We are going to have our first educational lunches in Springdale. The community is genuinely interested in the work we are doing! We have a farmer’s market (to be opened in the Spring). 

I love our community garden and I am proud to have been apart of building it literally from the ground up. I also really enjoyed our Food Day event. 

Also, the difference that the apple tastings and butternut squash tastings have made in the consumption of these products at lunch is very impressive.

What challenges us… 

Coming up with a solid sustainable plan for our community garden has been a little frustrating. There is always lot of trial and error that comes with starting a new initiative like a community garden, but I know with time and patience we will find a model that fits our community best.  

There aren’t enough hours in the day. It’s hard to prioritize what needs to come first, because you want your school to have it all now! Budget is always a challenge too. We have to spend carefully when we do spend. 

The things that make us smile...

I will never forget our first garden and cooking club meeting. I was nervous but super excited to meet my kids. The look on my students faces when we harvested sunflower seeds for the first time was priceless! Now looking back, I feel like time has flown by and we are a little family now. They make me smile everyday, I love them so much! 

I love when the students have “AHA” moments. In science club we work to connect what they’re learning in their classes. It’s always fun to see the moment the lightbulb turns on and the students reach a new conclusion. I also love walking down the hall and having students ask me if we are going to make smoothies or if we can go to the chickens/garden. OR if they can help build worm bins. They’re so ready to help.

- by the FoodCorps Arkansas team

A Day in the Life: Fayetteville Fall Edition

Ally is a fellow dietitian and basically my Farm-to-School hero.

At 6:30am, before even the sun shows its face to Fayetteville, I park out behind Owl Creek School.  Ally, a previous FoodCorps member, now a consultant for Fayetteville’s Farm-to-School program pulls up right after me and we enter into the school’s kitchen.  A pleasant cafeteria staff welcomes us as they work diligently to get a warm breakfast prepared for the students.  As we set up our graciously appointed corner of the kitchen we find sharp knives and clean cutting boards for our work processing fresh local peppers that we plan to vacuum seal and freeze for “Educational Lunch” events we will put on in November for middle schools in Fayetteville.  We slice green pepper strips for an hour before I notice it is time to head to my next event for the day.

Luke and Dana sorting the research.

Although I feel bad leaving Ally to cut peppers alone, I welcome the break and the chance to tour the University of Arkansas (U of A) Research Farm. Once there, I meet up with my co-service member Sean and my supervisor Dana, the sustainability coordinator for Fayetteville Public Schools. Luke, a Program Technician for the berry research going on with the U of A Farm, joins us as well.  Luke shows us the raspberries and blackberries that we are to help pick as part of the high tunnel research.

Students love the raspberries; some tried them for the first time! 

While picking we record the time as well as yield for each variety. Once the field trials are finished, U of A will compare these numbers between berries grown under a high tunnel and those grown in open farmland right next to the tunnel.  Luke says I can eat the berries growing in between the research rows so I taste test as I go.  They had a few different varieties of berries growing which was a treat, because I’m used to “fresh or frozen” not “Nantahala or Autumn Bliss.”  Two hours later we finish up our farm tour/volunteer session and Luke informs me that I can use the raspberries for my 4^th and 5^th grade garden club at Asbell Elementary. We planned to plant berry bushes this week, making this berry snack a perfect addition!

Planting 4 blueberry bushes at Asbell.

As I drive back toward Owl Creek, one of the other farm researchers stops me and offers me a huge brown bag full of apples for free!  With apples in my tote, I park and chop pepper with Ally for two more hours.  We lay the slices on sheet pans to avoid clumping and place them in the walk-in freezer to fully freeze before we vacuum seal them tomorrow.  The rest of the service day includes planning for garden club tomorrow and making sure the guest “fruit-growing expert” Guy Ames from our state host site, the National Center for Appropriate Technology knows all of the details before tomorrow’s meeting.

Kelsie bring berries, smiles, and nutritional
super powers to the kids of Asbell.

I end my day with sore wrists and berry stained hands, going around to my apartment “neighbors” handing out grocery bags of apples (a great way to make friends in my new Fayetteville home!).  A month and a half in, and I am so thankful for my FoodCorps position. I love the balance between planning and hands-on service, and I relish the days like this one where I can use my quick knife skills and feed my passion for agriculture. 

High tunnel raspberries and blackberries at the U of A.

by Kelsie Shearrer