June is Busting Out All Over... with Strawberries!!

From South Avenue Elementary in Beacon to Haldane in Cold Spring and finally the Garrison Union Free School in Garrison, our chefs brought strawberries and fun into the classrooms!

We started the Strawberry Fest at South Avenue Elementary School. HVFS will be starting up a new program there this fall. To give South Avenue a "taste" of what's to come, we invited pastry chef Courtney Durfee into Mrs. DeMeo's 2nd grade class to make mini strawberry shortcakes.

Students measured,  

stirred, 

and mixed.

They helped whip fresh Hudson Valley Fresh cream the traditional way with a giant whisk. 

Then they learned how to fan strawberries that were just picked from a local farm to decorate their very own mini strawberry shortcakes. 

And of course, they got to taste their delicious creations. 

Yum!

Next we moved onto to Haldane Elementary School.

Our chef, Sunny Gandara did something a little different with the 5th graders at Haldane. She made something special from her home country of Norway: Norwegian crepes. She brought with her a special round crepe griddle from Norway. Then she put the kids to work: 

They cracked eggs and mixed in flour and sugar.  Everyone got to do something. Some were pouring the batter,

others cut up strawberries.

They squeezed lemons, grated lemon zest and added a little sugar to the strawberries to make a fresh strawberry filling to put in the crepes.

Then, as an extra bonus, they made lemon-flavored yogurt to go on top of the strawberries.

It was a little taste of Norway for Haldane's 5th graders.

Finally, we ended the school year with the Garrison Union Free School. Local pastry chef, Mina Zanzarella from the new Garrison Cafe brought her version of strawberry shortcakes to the Garrison 3rd graders.

She started out with the dough she had prepared in advance. Each student got to come up and cut out their very own scone.

While the scones were baking in the oven, the students were given plastic knives and a pile of strawberries on their plates and started slicing up their strawberries.

Then they all gathered around the industrial-size mixer and watched the cream get whipped. 

Construction time: Mina gave each student a warm scone and showed them how to split it in half and fill it with strawberries... then cream... then strawberries... then more cream... Until they made their very own leaning towers of yum!

What a way to end the school year!

Thanks to all the chefs this year who made such a difference in our children's lives. We can't wait to see what you'll cook up next year!

Until then...