Orchard Students Cook Up New Ways to Integrate Spanish Class with Outdoor Education

What do you get when you give limes, tomatillos and poblanos a squeeze? A tasty fresh treat that makes celebrating a breeze!  
 
Spanish profesora Karen Powell kicked off a unit on Día de los Muertos by learning how to make salsa verde, a traditional salsa served across Mexico and in other Spanish speaking countries. Using poblano peppers, tomatillos, tomatoes, and cilantro—all grown in and harvested from the Orchard hoop house, third graders gathered around a fire pit to work on their cooking skills during Spanish class. 
 
After the students seared the poblano peppers on a griddle over a fire, students used a molcajete (a Mexican stone mortar and pestle) to grind the ingredients together. They also roasted tomatillos and tomatoes in pie irons in the fire's coals. The final step called for gathering all of the parts and pieces, along with some cilantro, fresh squeezed lime juice, and salt to place them in a blender. Students blended them together for a few seconds on high and -!yá está!- the salsa verde was complete!
 
The lesson was topped off with a chips and salsa tasting party where most students were surprisingly pleased with the zesty, but not spicy, taste of their end product.
 
Only at Orchard will you find students harvesting and cutting veggies from the school’s hoop house, cooking food over an open fire while singing Spanish songs, and working as a team to make enough salsa for every third grader to enjoy the best snack ever. And this was all during Spanish class!
 
Enjoy the mouth-watering photos below!
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