Subscribe

Donate

Contact

Pesto isn’t just for basil and pine nuts! This recipe uses bolting brassicas and sunflower seeds as a twist on the classic. You could use most brassica leaves here. Older, tougher leaves may need to be blanched first.

250g sunflower seeds- these can be toasted for a nutty flavour

2 large handfuls tender bolting brassica shoots and flowers

Parmesan to taste (optional, great without it too)

- Blend Sunflower Seeds: Pulse sunflower seeds in a food processor until they reach your desired texture.

- Add Remaining Ingredients: Combine brassica shoots, parsley, mint, garlic, lemon zest, and lemon juice with the sunflower seeds. Blend together.

- Balance Flavours: Add olive oil while blending until the pesto reaches your desired consistency. Taste, then adjust with more salt or lemon juice if needed. Parmesan can be added to taste, or left out for a dairy-free version.

Enjoy this pesto as a topping for pasta, an addition to soups, or as a dip.

Spring has finally sprung our chef Vlad can’t stop pesto-ing everything! We thought we would try and corner him for a recipe of his spring pesto... it's ever evolving but last week at Bond Place in Gagebrook this is what he used! Who knew you could pesto brassica flowers?

The recipe was a hit with the community at Bond Place and some like Kaiden were gobbling it up. How good! Vlad is a master at weaving in all the healthy greens and making them delicious #greensbystealth

Spring has finally sprung our chef Vlad can’t stop pesto-ing everything!

Romaine Park Primary School’s garden was established well over ten years ago, and 24 Carrot Gardens has given it a well-deserved transformation and upgrade. We added another of our famous woodfire pizza ovens, and built a spectacular macrocarpa arbor nearby, featuring a circular timber table and seating — perfect for pizza afternoons with families! There’s a sandstone yarning circle surrounded by native Tasmanian plantings, a steel arbor at the entrance to grow a tunnel of flowering vines, refreshed annual beds and MORE growing space (with even more to come).

We dropped in for a lesson and it was clear that the students just LOVE being in the garden, were genuinely interested and loved helping doing the digging. They are excited to see the changes to their garden and proud of their work and contributions towards its transformation.  

The students were planting out the Tasmanian native section, and popping in winter seedlings to get the garden going, digging big holes in the beautiful red soil. They were very chatty about their favourite things to eat from the garden, strawberries being a highlight!

A huge congratulations to garden specialists Bonnie McGee (East Devonport Primary) and Emmy Crook (Romaine Park Primary) and all the staff at the schools, our excellent contractors Benson’s Landscaping and our Northern Program Manager Kris McCarthy who all have supported the garden development.

At this stage we have one more primary school garden to develop in the north west at Montello Primary School in Burnie, and Ravenswood Heights Primary School in Launceston is starting soon!

You can always support our work by making a small ongoing donation via our donation form. All funds keep us cooking and gardening in the schools that need it most!

Earlier this winter we checked in with two of our north west Tasmanian primary schools to see how their newly finished gardens have bloomed!

East Devonport Primary School was buzzing with activity, with the kinders buddying up with year sixes to plant the herb — and pollinator — garden. East Devonport’s brand new perennial garden features a beautiful outdoor classroom with sandstone seating and timber arbor which will be trained with grapevines for summer shade; stepping stones winding their way through a food forest with native edibles, herbs, fruits and flowers; a sandstone yarning circle; polytunnel for year-round food production; an excellent self stirring (worm-powered) compost setup; and loads of enthusiastic students who have already been enjoying pizza with veggies and ‘green sprinkles’ from the garden!

We chat to Lead Teacher, Michael James, who as well as championing the 24 Carrot Gardens program, is supporting much broader integration of the garden into Kingston High’s subjects and programs. From the school cafe, where students take up both cooking and front of house roles, through to MDT lessons where students design and build items for the garden using timber and metal donated by local businesses. Excitingly, after several years of trying to get a Horticulture subject going, there’s been an influx of interest this year with two classes successfully up and running. Michael estimates that across these different avenues of learning, around 200 students interact with the garden every week.

"The garden works!" he says, "For students, contributing to something, having an output and then being proud of it — it feels good. And they’re tired, or they’re hot, but they get so much out of it."

Interdisciplinary learning in the garden… keep it up Kingston High!

It’s a crisp August morning at Kingston High and the garden is humming! 

A year on from the garden’s establishment, it’s exciting to see thriving winter crops — beets, brassicas and an abundance of leafy greens — and to behold student-led improvements to our original garden design — timber work benches, a vegetable wash station and a terracotta-paved communal dining area, to name just a few. 
The polytunnel is a jungle of climbing snow peas, and the bushfood corner is soon to become home to a new Flow beehive.

As students arrive for their weekly garden session, there is a sense of rhythm and routine. Students check in with Garden Specialists Nadia Danti and Jimmy Corrigan, before dispersing into smaller teams to carry out their garden roles. Ava, Ruby and Lacey have shared a weekly produce list with the school kitchen and taken note of their order. Together, they harvest carrots, silverbeet, beetroot and hakurei turnips, washing and crating them up for delivery back to the kitchen where they’ll make their way into cooking class recipes and canteen offerings. In exchange, the kitchen sorts its food scraps into buckets for composting. Angus collects these buckets once full, delivering them back to the garden’s composting hub. Here, a variety of compost systems — bays, bins, and worm farms — teach students how waste can be transformed back into rich, fertile soil. It's a satisfying cycle.

It’s a crisp August morning at Kingston High and the garden is humming! A year on from the garden’s establishment, it’s exciting to see thriving winter crops — beets, brassicas and an abundance of leafy greens.

A Postcard From The North West