Tiny school kitchen garden on an island

Last Thursday Sam (brother, VFGS photographer & website guru) and I visited a very special school that’s on an Island off an Island and the only way to get there is by ferry. 

Bruny Island District School is made up of 62 children and a total population of the Island of 1008.

Bruny Island is a place very close to mine and Sam’s heart. We have a family shack there and spent our childhood holidays there on the beach and bush, and now take our own kids there.

On arrival we meet with one of my oldest friends Karen whose family has lived on the island for many generations.

She took us over to the school kitchen to meet Nicole who runs the school Kitchen Garden Program. The kids were in full action, chopping up herbs and kneading dough.

Nicole then took us on a garden tour where she explained that it’s is in recovery mode from major damage from escaping chooks and pesky possums.

In the garden there was a herb area, veggies, snack trail (berries), compost area, chooks, worm farm and in the paddock next door a very friendly donkey, miniature pony and sheep.

The produce from the garden is used in the kitchen and also sold on a roadside stall where the money raised goes back into the school.

The Kitchen Garden Program is mostly funded by the 'Bruny Island Women Who Jump' (a group of women who cold water nudie swim to raise money), in association with the 24 Carrot Garden program.

We then headed back to the kitchen where the kids put the finishing touches on the lunch.

On the menu:
Salad greens from the garden
Pesto pizza made from coriander, chives.
Parsnip chips

Some of the kids then went and set the table for lunch, while others foraged for flowers for the table centre piece.

Then the older children that had helped harvest the produce in the morning and the little ones that had made the lunch all sat down together and ate. What a lovely bunch of kids! As Nicole said, 'Being such a small school, it really is like a family'.

How wonderful that the children can grow their own food from a tiny seed and then be involved in tending to the garden until it is ready to be eaten, prepare the food to share and then compost any leftovers.

Thank you Bruny Island District School for having us.